Youth and Sex | Page 7

unfortunately a fact that even in the boarding schools of the
well-to-do the provision of sleep is too limited, and for the children of the poor, whose
homes are far from comfortable and who are accustomed to doing pretty nearly as their
elders do, the night seldom begins before eleven or even twelve o'clock. It is one of the
saddest sights of London to see small children dancing on the pavement in front of the
public-houses up to a very late hour, while groups of loafing boys and hoydenish girls
stand about at the street corners half the night. There is little wonder that the morning
finds them heavy and unrefreshed, and that schoolwork suffers severely from want of the
alert and vigorous attention that might be secured by a proper night's sleep.
Great harm is done by allowing children to take work home with them from school; if
possible, the day's work should finish with school hours, and the scanty leisure should be
spent in healthy exercise or in sleep.
Overcrowding.--In considering the question of adequate sleep it would be well to think of
the conditions of healthy sleep.
For sleep to be refreshing and health-giving, the sleeper ought to have a comfortable bed
and an abundant supply of fresh air. Unfortunately the great majority of our people both
in town and country do not enjoy these advantages. In both town and country there is a
great deficiency of suitable dwellings at rents that can be paid with the usual rate of
wages. In consequence families are crowded into one, two, or three rooms, and even in
the case of people far above the status of day labourers and artisans it is the exception and
not the rule for each individual to have a separate bed. The question of ventilation is
certainly better understood than it was a few years ago, but still leaves much to be desired,
and there is still an urgent necessity for preaching the gospel of the open window.
Exercise.--In considering the question of the exercise of adolescents, one's thoughts
immediately turn to athletics, games, and dancing. As a nation the English have always
been fond of athletics, and have attributed to the influence of such team games as cricket
and football not only their success in various competitions but also their success in the
sterner warfare of life. This success has been obtained on the tented field and in the work
of exploring, mountaineering, and other pursuits that make great demand not only on
nerve and muscle but also on strength of character and powers of endurance.
Team games appear to be the especial property of adolescents, for young children are
more or less individualistic and solitary in many of their games, but boys and girls alike
prefer team games from the pre-adolescent age up to adult life. It is certain that no form
of exercise is superior to these games: they call into play every muscle of the body, they
make great demands on accuracy of eye and coordination, they also stimulate and
develop habits of command, obedience, loyalty, and esprit de corps. In the great public
schools of England, and in the private schools which look up to them as their models,
team games are played, as one might say, in a religious spirit. The boy or girl who
attempts to take an unfair advantage, or who habitually plays for his or her own hand, is
quickly made to feel a pariah and an outcast. Among the greatest blessings that are
conveyed to the children of the poorer classes is the instruction not only in the technique
of team games but also in the inoculation of the spirit in which they ought to be played. It

is absolutely necessary that the highest ideals connected with games should be handed
down, for thus the children who perhaps do not always have the highest ideals before
them in real life may learn through this mimic warfare how the battle of life must be
fought and what are the characters of mind and body that deserve and ensure success. It
has been well said that those who make the songs of a nation help largely to make its
character, and equally surely those who teach and control the games of the adolescents
are making or marring a national destiny.
Among the means of physical and moral advancement may be claimed gymnastics. And
here, alas, this nation can by no means claim to be facile princeps. Not only have we been
relatively slow in adopting properly systematised exercises, but even to the present day
the majority of elementary schools are without properly fitted gymnasia and duly
qualified teachers. The small and relatively poor Scandinavian nations have admirably
fitted gymnasia in connection with their _Folkschule_, which correspond to