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.What really occurs is that there is brought about a very marked change in the position of the bony structures of the thorax—particularly noticeable if a posterior view is taken—also a permanent enlargement of the thoracic cavity, with a striking increase in thoracic mobility and the minimum muscle tension of the whole of the mechanisms involved.110 Illustration6.Support the Body with the ArmsThis instruction is given to the pupil when he is holding the back of a chair, whilst sitting or standing, in order to give the teacher the opportunity to secure more quickly and easily for the pupil certain experiences essential at a particular stage of his work in co-ordination.The varying details of the means whereby the use indicated of the arms and body is to be gained could not be set down in writing to meet the requirements of each pupil, for they vary with each slight stage of progress.It is for this reason that " correct positions " or " postures "find no place in the practical teaching technique employed in the work of re-education advocated in this book.A correct position or posture indicates a fixed position, and a person held to a fixed position cannot grow, as we understand growth.The correct position to-day cannot be the correct position a week later for any person who is advancing in the work of re-education and co-ordination.7.Widen the Arms Whilst Supporting and Raising the Body This is the most deceptive of the list of instructions set down in these pages.In the first place, if carried out without manipulative assistance, it is a contradictory instruction, seeing that if you widen the arms, as the act is generally understood, the body would be lowered, not raised.The tendency of the pupil in this movement is to contract unduly the inner muscles of the upper part of the arms, a procedure which interferes with the work the teacher has in view.This must be prevented, and a skilful teacher can employ the above instructions successfully to this end.We will now pass on to our illustration.THE PUPIL IS ASKED TO SIT IN A CHAIR IN ACCORDANCE WITHTHE PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUE SPECIALLY SET DOWN FOR THEACT OF SITTING AND STANDING IN Man's Supreme Inheritance.When he is seated, his body being supported by the back of the chair on which he is sitting, another chair is placed before him with its back towards him.THE PUPIL IS THEN ASKED TO GIVE THE FOLLOWING PREVENTIVE ORDERS.Illustration111In the way of correct direction and guidance, HE IS ASKED TOORDER THE NECK TO RELAX, TO ORDER THE HEAD FORWARD ANDUP TO LENGTHEN THE SPINE.It must here be clearly understood that in the previous manipulative and other work done in connexion with the technique, the pupil will have been made familiar in theory and practice with Order I.He is able to give certain orders correctly and also to put them into effect.In the present instance, it is explained to him that the order given is to be merely preventive—a projected wish without any attempt on the pupil's part to carry it out successfully.T H E TEACHER REPEATS THE ORDERS AND WITH HIS HANDSHE PROCEEDS TO BRING THE P U P I L ' S BODY GENTLY FORWARDFROM THE HIPS.It is important to note here that the imperfectly co-ordinated person tends to shorten the stature and pull the head lack in making this movement forward.Unless, therefore, the pupil remembers this subconscious tendency to shorten, and attends to the new directive orders which will counteract this subconscious tendency, his old habit will prove too strong for him, and at the first touch from the teacher to bring his body forward, though this touch may be so light that it would not move an inch-thick pineboard of the same length and width as the torso of the pupil, the latter will start to move forward at a ratio of, say, seventy-five per cent, subconscious response to his old habit, and only twenty-five per cent conscious response to the new directive and guiding orders.This latter estimate is, in most cases, too liberal a one, for, as a rule, the slightest touch releases the old sensory activities associated subconsciously in the pupil's conception with the act of "moving forward," this being an " end " which the pupil, in spite of all warnings to the contrary, has already decided upon, and he becomes so dominated by the idea of "moving forward" (his " e n d " ) , that the new conscious directive orders are no longer projected.Instead, the old subconscious directive orders associated with his bad habits and with his unreliable sensory appreciation hold sway, and so, in the place of ordering his neck to relax, his head forward and up, in order to secure the necessary lengthening, he will actually throw his head back, stiffen his neck, and tend to shorten his spine by unduly curving it, in accordance with his old fixed habit in moving forward.These particular faults are accompanied, more or less, by an undue and incorrect tension of the legs and other parts of the organism, and also by a stiffening at the hip joints, the defective use of the 112 Illustrationparts culminating in an expenditure of energy out of all proportion to the requirements of the evolution [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]