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BUREAU OF EDUCATION

READY FOR A RACE. THE RIVERDALE COUNTRY SCHOOL, RIVERDALE-ON-HUDSON, N. Y.

BULL. NO. 9, 1912

note the long list that may be made from the statements in the country-school catalogues of various games and forms of exercise now in use. Twenty-five forms of exercise and amusement are actually carried on, namely, football, baseball, "soccer," outdoor and indoor basket ball, squash, bowling, outdoor and indoor handball, tennis, golf, cricket, track and field athletics, swimming, gymnastics, "setting-up exercises," cross-country running, tramping, horseback riding, skating, hockey, coasting and tobogganing, skeeing, snowshoeing, and for the little boys the games of prisoner's base, hide and seek, and snow forts. Certainly they should delight the heart of any normal American boy with good red blood in his veins.

Most of the schools have special physicians, who examine the boys, note any weakness or peculiarity of development, and prescribe the most beneficial form of exercise. All the athletics are under the close supervision of trained instructors, and many of the masters join with the boys in their play, seeing that all take part and that a good spirit of fairness and sportsmanship is cultivated.

These schools have made a healthy fight against a bad tendency common to most schools and colleges. They refuse to bend all their efforts toward producing a winning team for interscholastic matches and to permit the rest of the boys to look on from the side lines. Matches between the teams of different schools are allowed, and even encouraged, but an effort is made to keep them within moderate bounds. It is usual to require each boy to make a complete change of clothing for athletics and to follow the exercise by a shower bath or "rub down." In this way are prevented the colds that usually follow from becoming overheated and then sitting in clothing damp from perspiration.

A study period follows the afternoon sport. The boys come in to it wide awake and all aglow and make good progress toward mastering the lessons for the next day.

Five of the schools put an absolute prohibition on all smoking for boarders, and for day pupils from the time the boy leaves home in the morning until he returns home in the evening and is again entirely under the direction and control of his parents.

EXPENSES, TUITION, ETC.

As a general rule these schools are of necessity expensive, and this matter of expense may be considered to be the greatest handicap under which the movement rests. At present only the sons of people of means can enjoy its advantages. The next task for educators is to bring the benefits of these schools within the reach of a wider circle of people.

The charge for tuition ranges from $125 to $450 per year for day pupils, varying somewhat with the age of the boy and the location

of the school, the average being about $250. Several schools include in this amount the cost of the midday lunch or dinner, but the larger number charge in addition $1.50 or $2 per week, or, perhaps, $75 per year, for this meal.

The charge for boarding pupils is more moderate than that made by the large boarding schools of the standard type. It ranges from $400 to $950 per year, with an average of about $700. Several of the schools require various "extras" for both boarding and day scholars, the most usual being a yearly charge of $5 or $10 for the athletic association, or of $10 to $15 as a fee for laboratory, manual training, drawing, or music.

SPECIAL FEATURES.

While it appears that none of the regular country schools is under church direction or supervision, yet all stress a broad-minded, sincere, religious life as the ideal for every normal man. The day opens with a religious service and Bible readings or moral and ethical instruction. Among the school patrons are Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile, but all are able and willing to join in the practice of a broadly tolerant religion that is worthy of the American ideal.

It is understood when a boy enters any one of these schools that it is the right of the authorities to require his withdrawal if at any time they deem his presence undesirable.

Each school has its own characteristic features, many of them of great merit, as the following brief description will amply testify.

The Gilman School has for little boys of about 8 to 10 years an "open-air school" under the charge of a special teacher (a woman). It occupies a small, plain, wooden building, built up on three sides without windows, and the fourth side, with southern exposure, entirely open to the fresh air. Here are desks and necessary school furniture, and, wrapped up warmly, the children study and recite as in an ordinary schoolroom. So far no special difficulty has been experienced, even in the changeable climate of a Baltimore winter, and, as in the case of like experiments in public schools, the results for sick and delicate children have been most successful.

The Boston Country Day School makes a special feature of nature study, for which its situation affords great opportunity. Also great emphasis is laid upon vocal music for all students.

The Riverdale School has given successful performances, by the boys, of Shakespearean plays, notably "Julius Cæsar," "Midsummer Night's Dream," and "As You Like It." It also has frequent lectures and addresses, illustrated with stereopticon views.

The Nichols School has business courses and training in carpentry, while the Chamberlayne School has frequent excursions, under the direction of the head master, to near-by points of historic interest.

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BUREAU OF EDUCATION

THE COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL FOR BOYS OF BOSTON, NEWTON, MASS.

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