artment, however, like that of all other college departments,
must be measured by its influence upon the life of the student after
he has left college. The formation of lasting health habits is,
therefore, the most important object of this department.

=Place of physical exercise in program for physical education=

Regular appropriate physical exercise is one of our most important
health habits. It is perhaps safe to say that for the average
individual it is the most important health habit. This is true because
of its intimate and impressive influence upon all the fundamental
organic functions of the body. Physical exercise in the American
college is provided either as organized class work in the gymnasium,
or by means of voluntary recreational opportunities, or through
athletics.

=Class work in physical exercise=

Class work may include: marching, mass drills with or without light
apparatus, work on heavy apparatus, games, dancing, swimming, and
track and field work. This class work may be indoors or outdoors,
depending on the season or climate.

=Additional facilities for physical exercise=

Voluntary recreational opportunities are offered through free mass
drills open to all students who may desire to take them regularly or
irregularly; through open periods for apparatus work; and through
facilities and space for games, swimming, mass athletics, and so on.

=Recreational activities and athletics=

Competitive athletics are typical of the American college.
Theoretically, athletics are open to all students. Practically, in
many of our colleges athletics are made available only to the student
with leisure time and exceptional physique. Consistent effort is being
made today by college authorities to provide opportunities for
intramural (interclass, intergroup, and mass) athletics for the whole
student body; at the same time preserving the desirable features of
the more specialized intercollegiate competitions.

=Inculcating habits of physical exercise=

Physical exercise in these various forms has its immediate and
valuable influence upon the health condition of the individual
student, if taken in sufficient quantity. It has its lasting and very
much more important influence in those cases in which physical
exercise becomes a habit. It has, therefore, become the increasing
concern of the college teacher of physical training to develop
activities in physical exercise that the student may use after
graduation