PHYSICAL TRAINING.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 145, 9 January 1903, Page 4

PHYSICAL TRAINING.

In the course of an interview with a Dunedin Press representative, Mr Sandow made some interesting remarks regarding the physical training at present in vogue in the schools. “The system,” said Mr Sandow. “is simply a farce. Weak boys and strong boys are all bunched together, and no discretion whatever is used as to whether certain exercises are suited to the requirements' of each individual boy. The strong boys must get good, but in many cases the weak,“boys get harm, from the present system. In the matter of games at school, they are in many cases too violent for weak boys. The strong boys get all the benefit, and the weak ones come off worst. I spoke to a headmaster s in Christchurch on the subject of physical culture amongst the young. X told him they should have one hour’s exercise three days in a week, and he said, ‘To do that they must neglect their lessons.’ X maintained it is only the strong body that bringe the healthy mind, and with thres hours’ suitable exercise boys will become firmer in will power and more intelligent. I said to the headmaster, ‘Where did you get that exercise from, and what is it for?’ He said' he got it from a book, but he neither knew the name of the author nor the value of the exeicise. He thought it was for the shoulders. I picked a boy out from the ranks and asked, ‘Does tins boy require exercises for the shoulders ?’ ‘Well, no, I- don’t think he does,’ said the schoolmaster. Then 1 said, ‘Look at the boy’s legs, how they want de - velopment, and you are giving him shoulder exercises, of which he has no absolute need, if you go on like that you will always have that boy lopsided What you want to do is to give the shoulder exercises to a bov with gcod legs and poor shouldei's, and vice versThe schoolmaster said, ‘I admit ycur system will make a perfectly shaped body and a fine man, but what are we to do ? We must have exercises that will make a good display before the public.’ In that way schoolmasters are simply playing to the gallery* and are not considering the real physical culture of the children under their care.”