Dover-Foxcroft 1928 - University of Maine

70 ANNUAL REPORT
tion of Academy work occurred, during which a fiercely
contested final game was played between a Sophomore
and a Senior team of Academy girls. The Senior team
proved winner of the Class Basketball Tournament.
This spring, as a variation from the composite exhibit,
we plan to have each of the village schools present
a spring assembly on its school ground to demonstrate
to parents and others interested many features of the
rhythmic, athletic, and gymnastic work.
The Physical Education at the Academy is made up
of three phases, namely: Health Service, Health Education,
and Physical Training. Throughout runs a main
purpose, body-building. Sports partly fulfill this purpose
in that they build muscles, improve the circulatory
and respiratory systems, and develop co-ordination.
Field Hockey in the spring, Basketball in the winter,
and Baseball or Tennis in the fall meet the needs of
this part of the program.
However, sports alone would not accomplish this
aim. Body-building, in effect, should follow correction
of bodily defects. Hence corrective gymnastics play a
major role. Corrective gymnastics deal with deformities
of the body, particularly those of the feet and
spine. An illustration of the three phases of the
Physical Education program may here be brought out.
Health Service is rendered in the fall of each year when
the physical examination is given to each student.
Physical defects are discovered and a recommendation
for their correction is pointed out to the student. The
school nurse, throughout the year, visits the homes
and discusses with the parents the wisdom of treating
these defects. Health Education then comes through
lectures, assigned readings, and tests on the subjects
of Hygiene, Physiology, and Sanitation. At the same
time comes Physical Training in the gymnasium classes
to teach particular exercises to correct particular defects,
which brings the attention back to corrective
gymnastics. We feel that this phase of the work is
immensely important. At present lack of a simple bar
apparatus is retarding progress in the correction of
many spine defects.
A study of the records of physical examination given
to the girls in the fall of 1927, and also of those given