The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1877.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 59, 9 February 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1877.

The aphorism, " a healthy mind in a healthy body " — mens sana in corpoi-e sarco—-contains a principle which it is absolutely essential to bear in mind in conducting a public school. Both mind \nd body require to be subjected to such a course of disciplinary training, as will fit each, when required, to bear a considerable amount of continuous exertion. It is quite true that there are, and have been, cases where girls and boys with very feeble bodily powers have been gifted with very superior intellectual powers, and that these children have attained to womanhood and manhood, having still very feeble bodies but -with highly cultivated minds, whose powers seemed to grow brighter as the bodily powers decayed. Such cases are, however, the exception, not the rule ; when each have been equally well trained, the stronger the bodily, the stronger will be the mental powers, and in the case to which we have alluded, a high degree of intellectual culture has been attained at the expense of much physical suffering, and the attenuated frame and wan and jaded countenance, tell too truly that so far as the body is concerned, existence has been but misery. This cannot in all cases be prevented, but with many, the discomforts arising from feeble physical powers, may by judicious physical training, be greatly alleviated, if not wholly overcome.

In Canterbury, the necessity for physical training has not escaped the attention of those whose duty it is to supervise and control the system of public education ; we mean the Board of Education. An efficient drill instructor has been engaged, who is also a good gymnast, and who, in addition to holding almost weekly classes in Christchurch. for instruction in drill, periodically visits all the schools, in order to see how his instructions have been carried out, and what progress has been made by the children. So important has knowledge in this department been deemed, that if we mistake not, when a teacher is under examination for the purpose of ascertaining his fitness for advancement to a higher grade, a competent knowledge of drill secures him an additional number of marks under the head " Art of teaching." Drill and gymnastics ought to be taught in every boy's school, and for girls a well arranged system of calisthenics. Girls should also be taught to walk erect and gracefully, so that their carriage may be free from that absurd deformity usually known as the " Grecian bend," and their steps from that mincing gait erroneously supposed to indicate refinement. Most of our public schools have sets of gymnastic apparatus, more or less complete, and on these, when the weather permits, the boys should be exercised daily. The large schools in Christchurch have swimming baths, and it is nothing uncommon to see upwards of a hundred boys disporting in the water at the same time, indeed, many of the little fellows bid rair to become expert swimmers. We are aware that very few of the country schools possess such facilities for bathing, and where they do not, the teacher should lose no opportunity of enforcing on his pupils the absolute necessity of daily washing themselves from head to foot. Setting aside the question of cleanliness, nothing has a greater tendency to strengthen and invigorate the human frame than frequent ablutions of cold water.

There is an old saying that " all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." The truth of this we believe that there are few who will venture to dispute, and, believing this, we affirm that every encouragement should be given to sports which have tendency to strengthen as well as to amuse the children. For the boys cricket, football, and other similar games, and for the girls croquet, battledore and shuttleco«k, and the free use of the skipping rope should be encouraged. There is nothing derogatory to a teacher mingling freely with his pupils after school hours, and taking part in their amusements, and teachers may rely upon it, that if no improper freedom is invited, none will be taken. We know a gentleman who is head master of one of our lai'gest public schools who thus mingles with his assistants and pupils after the duties of the school are over, and the opinion they entertain of him was thus expressed by an attendant at the shool —« Mr. is a right good fellow ; in the school he is head master, there is no mistake about that, but outside he is a jolly chap." This is as it should be, and yet, the gentleman referred to completed his education at a University, and is a graduate with honours. The school over which he presides is attended by upwards of a thousand children, nevertheless no corporal punishment is used, he is head master there, but he seems equally at home in teaching a boy to throw a somersaults on the horizontal bar or in learning him to swim. We have thus completed our task. In dealing with the question of Education, we have pointed out the necessity of a good foundation being laid by parents, by means of careful home training for the superstructure which is afterwards to to be raised by the schoolmasters and the minister for religion; we have sketched the system of moral and mental culture which prevails, or ought to prevail in our public schools,

and we have given a brief outline of an equally important portion of a child's education —his physical training. In a future article, which will conclude tie series, we purpose treating on the responsibility which devolves upon members of school committees, and especially upon parents of children aiding the teacher in his arduous work. ,