Formation of Children
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Physical Education for Girls - IV
Modest Ways to Stay Active for Girls & Women
How can a girl stay active and healthy without participating in sports or doing exercises that compromise her modesty? This is a reasonable question many women may be thinking after reading about the disastrous results of women’s physical education and sports, see here, here and here.
Housework: A laborious occupation
In the past, the answer was simple: One only needed to tell a woman to perform her daily duties well and this would be sufficient to keep her healthy and strong. Bad health often came from laziness and idleness, as is evident in the following quote from a 1898 German manual by Rev. F.X. Wetzel:
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“A good many children are ill from doing no work. Girls particularly are often pale and bloodless, because they sit all day in a room doing crochet or embroidery, or maybe in some cases drawing or painting. Their blood gets sluggish, their digestion suffers, they become pale and nervous. Therefore, children, set to work!
“Help your mother in her washing and ironing, her cooking and scrubbing. Fetch the wood and water for her, keep the living-rooms and bedrooms neat, make the beds, clean the shoes, scour the passages, always be busy, and your rosy cheeks will soon bear witness to your good health.
“Idleness injures not only the health of the body, but that of the soul, for it is a true saying that: Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” (The Dutiful Child, pp. 99-100)
It is evident that a woman had much more strenuous work to do before the invention of laundry machines, vacuum cleaners, electric stoves, and indoor plumbing. Even with servants to help, her day would be filled with much activity, and she certainly would have no time to devote to separate physical exercises performed merely for the sake of health.
Today, we would advise women and girls to put greater effort into their daily housekeeping, perhaps even foregoing the use of some modern inventions: e.g. to scrub the floor on your hands and knees, to use the broom for the porch or patio instead of the leaf blower, wash and dry dishes by hand instead of piling them into the dishwasher, etc. See to it that no corner of the house is dusty nor any pan dull, and the day may soon be filled with increased activity.
Walks & enjoying the outdoors
Even so, housework is not always enough to invigorate the health, and women may look for some active recreations outside of the home. The best way to do this is to spend time in nature, gathering wild plants or berries, picking flowers, and exploring the beautiful world God made for us.
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Rev. Wetzel gives more examples:
“Be in the open air as much as you can, for then you [children] can run and jump and play to your heart’s content. ...
“When the spring comes and the days get long, you should on half-holidays, whenever it is possible, go for country walks in the fields and lawns; and if you live in the north or the west, you can climb the hills. You can gather different kinds of flowers, and bring them home, or make collections of pebbles and shells, if your house is near the sea.” (Ibid., p. 101)
Hiking, walking around the neighborhood or in a local park are all excellent ways to stay active for women. In fact, a brisk walk for 30 minutes every day should be all the exercise needed. Folk dancing, provided it is done properly, is also a physically strenuous activity that, without any of the aggression and competition of sports, develops a similar strength while fostering grace and poise.
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In her book The Education of Catholic Girls, Mother Janet Erskine Stuart explains the effects of proper dancing:
“There is something in co-ordinated rhythmic movement, in the grace of steps, in the buoyancy of beautiful dancing which seems to make it a very perfect exercise for children and young people. But there are dances and dances, steps and steps, and about the really beautiful there is always a touch of the severe and a hint of the ideal. Without these, dancing drops at once to the level of the commonplace and below it.” (Longmans, Green and Company 1911, p. 111).
Indeed, the regiment and discipline of traditional folk dances could benefit many a young maiden in today’s spontaneous world.
Games & recreation for girls
Other exercises and games suitable for girls should be judged using the criteria of modesty. Any activity that forces a girl to take unseemly poses or stances should be avoided. Her legs should never be spread wide nor should her posture be bent for any long period of time.
In the past, the delicacy of the female sex was well understood, and girls played games that fostered femininity at the same time as keeping them active. For instance, the Game of Graces, a popular colonial pastime, required the girls to catch and throw their hoops back and forth to each other in the most graceful manner possible.
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It is a lovely game to watch being played, and was often enjoyed by both boys and girls. Hide-and-Seek, jump rope, hopscotch, and skipping are other pleasant pastimes, as well as excellent exercises that build coordination and endurance.
There are many old-fashioned rhyming games that are also suitable for girls. Some of them involve some running (trying to catch another player) which may be done in a ladylike manner, without any uncontrolled screaming as modern young girls too frequently engage in. The American Girl’s Book, published in 1831, describes a number of these games, some of which can be traced back to medieval times.
Singing games, such as “London Bridge,” “Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grows,” and “Round the Mulberry Bush” used to occupy the time of children in place of sports. Not only did they connect the children to their past, but they also fostered gracefulness and self-dignity, even in the most rough country lasses. In fact, these games are so innocent that the Sisters of the Magdalen Institutes allowed their penitents to play them during recreation hours.
Recording the memories of her childhood in an English hamlet, Flora Thompson gives a quaint description of the singing games of country children:
“Beneath the long summer sunsets, the girls would gather on one of the green open spaces between the houses and bow and curtsey and sweep to and fro in their ankle-length frocks as they went through the game movements and sang the game rhymes as their mothers and grandmothers had done before them.
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“How long the games had been played and how they originated no one knew, for they had been handed down for a time long before living memory and accepted by each succeeding generation as a natural part of its childhood. No one inquired the meaning of the words of the game rhymes; many of the girls, indeed, barely mastered them, but went through the movements to the accompaniment of an indistinct babbling.
“But the rhymes had been preserved; breaking down into doggerel in places; but still sufficiently intact to have spoken to the discerning, had any such been present, of an older, sweeter country civilization than had survived, excepting in a few such fragments.
“Of all the generations that had played the games, that of the ‘eighties [1880s’] was to be the last. Already those children had one foot in the national school and one on the village green. Their children and grandchildren would have left the village green behind them; new and as yet undreamed-of pleasures and excitements would be theirs. In ten years’ time the games would be neglected, and in twenty forgotten. But all through the ‘80s the games went on and seemed to the children themselves and to onlookers part of a life that always had been and always would be. …
“Most of the girls when playing revealed graces unsuspected in them at other times; their movements became dignified and their voices softer and sweeter than ordinarily, and when hauteur was demanded by the part, they became, as they would have said, ‘regular duchesses’. It is probable that carriage and voice inflexion had been handed down with the words...
“A pretty, graceful game to watch was ‘Thread the Tailor’s Needle’. For this two girls joined both hands and elevated them to form an arch or bridge, and the other players, in single file and holding on to each other’s skirts, passed under, singing:
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‘Thread the tailor’s needle,
Thread the tailor’s needle.
The tailor’s blind and he can’t see,
So thread the tailor's needle.’
“As the end of the file passed under the arch the last two girls detached themselves, took up their stand by the original two and joined their hands and elevated them, thus widening the arch, and this was repeated until the arch became a tunnel. As the file passing under grew shorter, the tune was quickened, until, towards the end, the game became a merry whirl.” (Lark Rise to Candleford, Chapter IX, Country Playtime )
With these examples and considerations, we hope that the modern traditionalist mother will see that sports and sports clothing are not necessary for her daughters. Only in recent times did sports find a place in a girl’s formation, and their introduction is contrary to the Catholic spirit of the past.
When a question arises whether a certain activity would be acceptable for girls, we need only look to Our Lady, the perfect model of femininity. Whatever is opposed to Our Lady’s manner of being should be rejected as unfit for the dignity of womanhood.
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To be continued
Housework: A laborious occupation
In the past, the answer was simple: One only needed to tell a woman to perform her daily duties well and this would be sufficient to keep her healthy and strong. Bad health often came from laziness and idleness, as is evident in the following quote from a 1898 German manual by Rev. F.X. Wetzel:
A woman who performs well her home duties
is normally healthy & strong
“Help your mother in her washing and ironing, her cooking and scrubbing. Fetch the wood and water for her, keep the living-rooms and bedrooms neat, make the beds, clean the shoes, scour the passages, always be busy, and your rosy cheeks will soon bear witness to your good health.
“Idleness injures not only the health of the body, but that of the soul, for it is a true saying that: Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.” (The Dutiful Child, pp. 99-100)
It is evident that a woman had much more strenuous work to do before the invention of laundry machines, vacuum cleaners, electric stoves, and indoor plumbing. Even with servants to help, her day would be filled with much activity, and she certainly would have no time to devote to separate physical exercises performed merely for the sake of health.
Today, we would advise women and girls to put greater effort into their daily housekeeping, perhaps even foregoing the use of some modern inventions: e.g. to scrub the floor on your hands and knees, to use the broom for the porch or patio instead of the leaf blower, wash and dry dishes by hand instead of piling them into the dishwasher, etc. See to it that no corner of the house is dusty nor any pan dull, and the day may soon be filled with increased activity.
Walks & enjoying the outdoors
Even so, housework is not always enough to invigorate the health, and women may look for some active recreations outside of the home. The best way to do this is to spend time in nature, gathering wild plants or berries, picking flowers, and exploring the beautiful world God made for us.
Ourdoor play & walks are healthful &
invigorating for children
“Be in the open air as much as you can, for then you [children] can run and jump and play to your heart’s content. ...
“When the spring comes and the days get long, you should on half-holidays, whenever it is possible, go for country walks in the fields and lawns; and if you live in the north or the west, you can climb the hills. You can gather different kinds of flowers, and bring them home, or make collections of pebbles and shells, if your house is near the sea.” (Ibid., p. 101)
Hiking, walking around the neighborhood or in a local park are all excellent ways to stay active for women. In fact, a brisk walk for 30 minutes every day should be all the exercise needed. Folk dancing, provided it is done properly, is also a physically strenuous activity that, without any of the aggression and competition of sports, develops a similar strength while fostering grace and poise.
Breton girls play enjoying a traditional folk dance
“There is something in co-ordinated rhythmic movement, in the grace of steps, in the buoyancy of beautiful dancing which seems to make it a very perfect exercise for children and young people. But there are dances and dances, steps and steps, and about the really beautiful there is always a touch of the severe and a hint of the ideal. Without these, dancing drops at once to the level of the commonplace and below it.” (Longmans, Green and Company 1911, p. 111).
Indeed, the regiment and discipline of traditional folk dances could benefit many a young maiden in today’s spontaneous world.
Games & recreation for girls
Other exercises and games suitable for girls should be judged using the criteria of modesty. Any activity that forces a girl to take unseemly poses or stances should be avoided. Her legs should never be spread wide nor should her posture be bent for any long period of time.
In the past, the delicacy of the female sex was well understood, and girls played games that fostered femininity at the same time as keeping them active. For instance, the Game of Graces, a popular colonial pastime, required the girls to catch and throw their hoops back and forth to each other in the most graceful manner possible.
Innocent play & exercise unite
in simple jump roping for girls
There are many old-fashioned rhyming games that are also suitable for girls. Some of them involve some running (trying to catch another player) which may be done in a ladylike manner, without any uncontrolled screaming as modern young girls too frequently engage in. The American Girl’s Book, published in 1831, describes a number of these games, some of which can be traced back to medieval times.
Singing games, such as “London Bridge,” “Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley Grows,” and “Round the Mulberry Bush” used to occupy the time of children in place of sports. Not only did they connect the children to their past, but they also fostered gracefulness and self-dignity, even in the most rough country lasses. In fact, these games are so innocent that the Sisters of the Magdalen Institutes allowed their penitents to play them during recreation hours.
Recording the memories of her childhood in an English hamlet, Flora Thompson gives a quaint description of the singing games of country children:
“Beneath the long summer sunsets, the girls would gather on one of the green open spaces between the houses and bow and curtsey and sweep to and fro in their ankle-length frocks as they went through the game movements and sang the game rhymes as their mothers and grandmothers had done before them.
The dancing & singing of old highlighted feminine gracefulness & charm
“But the rhymes had been preserved; breaking down into doggerel in places; but still sufficiently intact to have spoken to the discerning, had any such been present, of an older, sweeter country civilization than had survived, excepting in a few such fragments.
“Of all the generations that had played the games, that of the ‘eighties [1880s’] was to be the last. Already those children had one foot in the national school and one on the village green. Their children and grandchildren would have left the village green behind them; new and as yet undreamed-of pleasures and excitements would be theirs. In ten years’ time the games would be neglected, and in twenty forgotten. But all through the ‘80s the games went on and seemed to the children themselves and to onlookers part of a life that always had been and always would be. …
“Most of the girls when playing revealed graces unsuspected in them at other times; their movements became dignified and their voices softer and sweeter than ordinarily, and when hauteur was demanded by the part, they became, as they would have said, ‘regular duchesses’. It is probable that carriage and voice inflexion had been handed down with the words...
“A pretty, graceful game to watch was ‘Thread the Tailor’s Needle’. For this two girls joined both hands and elevated them to form an arch or bridge, and the other players, in single file and holding on to each other’s skirts, passed under, singing:
Traditionally dancing girls of the village youth on the Schwalm near Holzburg during a ‘bunny game’
Thread the tailor’s needle.
The tailor’s blind and he can’t see,
So thread the tailor's needle.’
“As the end of the file passed under the arch the last two girls detached themselves, took up their stand by the original two and joined their hands and elevated them, thus widening the arch, and this was repeated until the arch became a tunnel. As the file passing under grew shorter, the tune was quickened, until, towards the end, the game became a merry whirl.” (Lark Rise to Candleford, Chapter IX, Country Playtime )
With these examples and considerations, we hope that the modern traditionalist mother will see that sports and sports clothing are not necessary for her daughters. Only in recent times did sports find a place in a girl’s formation, and their introduction is contrary to the Catholic spirit of the past.
When a question arises whether a certain activity would be acceptable for girls, we need only look to Our Lady, the perfect model of femininity. Whatever is opposed to Our Lady’s manner of being should be rejected as unfit for the dignity of womanhood.
“Les jeux de l'enfance” (games for children) included the four-corner game, jumping rope, running for goal, hoop & steering wheel.
Posted June 30, 2025
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