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352
IV. EDUCATION AND MENTAL CULTURE IN SWEDEN.
Among the great number of movements employed in
gymnastics, there are also many exercises of application, and the result
of this, as well as of the exercises in general, must be that, in
proportion as the choice of movements made is a rational one, i. e. in
accordance with the needs of the organism, as far as personal aptitude
allows, health and strength will be gained as well as that readiness and
expertness necessary to people of culture to enable them to master
and accomplish the tasks which ordinary daily life brings with it.
Ling also prescribed, in complete agreement with all his views,
that national athletic games should be added, as supplementary to
the more regular and systematic gymnastics, holding that »an
element of pleasure should pervade all». But he cautions against all
excess, calling to mind the variety of human capabilities, saying, »Therefore
all this exaggerated competition in gymnastics becomes a hindrance in
the way of all true development and an encouragement to one-sided skill,
that is to say a want of harmony in the development.» — The whole of
this system of gymnastics is in the fullest and best sense ef the word
truly democratic. It is as suitable and almost as accessible for the poor
as for the rich, for the weak as for the strong, and for both sexes.
The object of pedagogical gymnastics is to perfect health and to
make the body an obedient, dauntless, and always available implement
of the moral will. Just as the mental training ought to have for its
special purpose the development of the good dispositions of the soul
and the subjugation of its evil propensities, so the physical training
by suitable exercises, ought to produce harmony amongst the powers
of the body and at the same time to correct its defects and weaknesses
and to prevent their development and growth. Thus, in pedagogical
gymnastics there is included a purely corrective element.
Military gymnastics, or fencing, proceeds from and is based upon
pedagogical gymnastics, and must in its forms of movements be grounded
on both mechanical and gymnastic laws so that the available strength
rightly used may achieve steadiness, quickness, and endurance.
The great expectations which Ling entertained in regard to the
Central Gymnastic Institute are being regularly and surely realized.
The Institute has during its ninety years’ existence developed to
a very considerable extent. All teachers of gymnastics, women as well
as men, are trained there for all the educational establishments
throughout the country, thus also for the military schools. For this purpose
there are a one year’s, a two years’, and a three years’ course for men
and a two years’ course for women. The three first-mentioned courses
follow one another immediately and are preparatory each for the next:
the third year’s course is devoted exclusively to instruction in subjects
for training in medical gymnastics. The number of pupils at the
Institute has so increased that at present it amounts to about 115, of
whom 55 are women.
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