Scandinavian nations have admirably fitted gymnasia in connection with
their _Folkschule_, which correspond to our elementary schools. The
exercises are based on those systematised by Ling; each series is
varied, and is therefore the more interesting, and each lesson
commences with simple, easily performed movements, leading on to those
that are more elaborate and fatiguing, and finally passing through a
descending series to the condition of repose.

The gymnasia where such exercises are taught in England are relatively
few and far between, and it is lamentable to find that many excellent
and well-appointed schools for children, whose parents pay large sums
of money for their education, have no properly equipped gymnasia nor
adequately trained teachers. When the question is put, "How often do
you have gymnastics at your school?" the answer is frequently, "We
have none," or, "Half an hour once a week." Exercises such as Ling's
not only exercise every muscle in the body in a scientific and
well-regulated fashion, but being performed by a number of pupils at
once in obedience to words of command, discipline, co-operation,
obedience to teachers, and loyalty to comrades, are taught at the same
time. The deepest interest attaches to many of the more complex
exercises, while some of them make large demands on the courage and
endurance of the young people.

In Scandinavia the State provides knickerbockers, tunics, and
gymnasium shoes for those children whose parents are too poor to
provide them; and again, in Scandinavia there is very frequently the
provision of bathrooms in which the pupils can have a shower bath and
rub-down after the exercises. These bathrooms in connection with the
gymnasia need not necessarily be costly; indeed many of them in
Stockholm and Denmark merely consist of troughs in the cement floor,