630 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
His difficulty is not that he cannot do the movement, for his nerves and 
muscles are all right, but he has only a vague concept of this conventional 
position in relation to the sense of position of his arm. The sense of 
sosition is in itself good, for he must have known just where his arm 
started from to hit the fly. We are forced to consider the concept as at 
fault. In order to do it exactly, he must be able to perceive the identity 
of his arm sideward-horizontal position concept, and the arm position 
sense, and furthermore must know when he is approaching it. The fact 
shat it s difficult for him shows that there has been little call for it in his 
natural activity, or in the activity of the race. The demand is net a 
aatural one, the conditions are unnatural. The question arises, Does it 
require education because it is undeveloped ? Is it not shown to be of 
slight value by the fact that it has not been developed ? But aside from 
“his consideration, what is its value ? Necessarily such concepts are of a 
few arbitrarily chosen positions, the positions having no greater value than 
a equal number selected at random from an infinite number of oblique 
positions. It is difficult to conceive of any real value from the training 
of such concepts, except to a soldier; while the soldier illustrates the 
Jecided disadvantages attached, for his angularity and stiffness show the 
tendency gained for the nervous discharges to go in the well-grooved paths 
cesulting from the drill, and so thus prejudice the movements to the direc- 
;ions exercised. Fortunately, training of this sort, while it does little good 
aducationally, can result in but slight harm, for the actual use of the 
muscles and nerve cells in these exercises amounts to so small a part of 
she total day’s hap-hazard activity that its influence may be ignored. Only 
when systematic training goes beyond the daily ordinary experience in 
amount or range, does it come in as marked factor in development. In all 
series exercises made up of sets of simple movements there can be only 
slight gain, for the series per se have no intrinsic value, except as in 
piano practice, typewriting, etc., where one recognizes a distinct utilitarian 
and. 
Dr. Wey, of the Elmira Reformatory, has made a significant observa- 
sion in regard to arousing enthusiasm in exercises. The free exercises 
were tried, but the class could not be kept interested ; they wanted to feel 
they were doing something. When given apparatus work they became 
:nterested, and showed good results from the training. Is this not due to 
she fundamental psychological difference existing between the two—one 
being a natural, concrete set of conditions, while the other is abstract and 
unnatural ? 
When we consider physical training in its educational aspect, we must 
claim manual training as a part of our work, for here we have preémi- 
nently all the conditions of apparatus work—the clear perception of exter- 
nal conditions of material and tools, and the motor responses guided by 
such perceptions.