Our own State Association has for a number of years recommended that no gifts "be presented to the boys. Nearly every school principal in this state is opposed to the idea and yet in many schools sweaters or gold footballs or both are presented. I have tried to point out that football, baseball, basketball, etc., are nothing more or less than regular subjects in our scheme of physical education taught by teachers hired by the School Board and paid out of the school funds; that these teachers are or should be held in the same light as any other teacher and the sports themselves considered of the same importance as the other subjects. No principal would consider presenting a sweater or any other wearing apparel, a gold football or any other piece of jewelry to a pupil who does unusually well in mathematics, in debatin, musical organiza-tions, or any other activity of the school. Why should we give the subject of athletics any more prominence in our school than we do mathematics, history, English or any other subject? Why should we try to advertise the school to "put the town on the map" any more ardently through success in the subject of Athletics than through success of the pupils in other subjects? I have never yet been able to understand just why sweat¬ers in preference to any other sort of wearing apparel are given by these schools who make awards to athletes. Certainly the boys should not wear them in the school building nor in their homes on account of their undue warmth at any time of the year. Why should not shoes be donated or hats or some other article just as frequently as are sweaters. Furthermore, I have never been able to understand just why jewelry, most commonly in the form of a football is awarded. Personally, I know that there is no stimulus coming from these awards that is necessary to successful athletic competition. During the last twenty years I have had my share of winning teams but no school of which I have been principal has ever awarded any sweater or any other kind of clothing to successful athletes. Neither has my school awarded any jewel¬ry of any sort whatever. The only gift that it has ever been my pleasure to present is the letter, of the particular school with a certificate showing that the boy is entitled to wear that letter which he has won in some particular sport. Any boy who will play football any harder or baseball or basket¬ball any better because he is receiving or expects to receive a reward of utilitarian value should never have the privilege of playing on any team. I know of some schools where in the same year, some boys receive two or three sweaters each and in rare instances four sweaters within the short period of forty weeks. I believe that the whole scheme is wrong in every sense of the word. Boys should be given to understand and parents made to realize that boys are not to take part in any athletic contest unless they expect to receive a personal educational benefit therefrom, just as they except to receive, when they elect any other subject. I believe that we have over-emphasized in many cases the idea that the athlete is rendering service only to the school. In other words, we have carried to excess the "school, spirit" idea. Of course, a boy whould do his best in athletics as in any other school subject because by so doing he best serves his school and himself. Boys in general when properly taught by their teachers of physical training have the right attitude towards school athletics. They acquire the right school attitude through natural school methods without any fake stimulus from artificial incentives.