Manawatu Daily Times Physique and Education in England

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6543, 27 February 1928, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times Physique and Education in England

When all has been said by the critics of a country’s physique, it is the children who afford the truest index to the well-being of the national stock. Therefore it is distinctly pleasing to know that the children of present-day England are more than holding their own Evidence of this is supplied by Sir George Newman, chief medical officer to the Board of; Education of England and Wales, in his annual report, which covers the work of 1223 specially appointed school doctors. This report, the twentieth of its kind, is particularly instructive and encouraging in the comparisons which it offers, and supported as it is by the exact evidence of weight and measurement and the statistics of significant defects. Photographs of children of the same schools taken recently and thirty years ago indicate, it is claimed, that there has been a very remarkable and constructive advance in such matters as clothing and cleanliness, posture and carriage, intelligence and happiness, standard of physique, mouth-breathing, and the character and position of the hands. Comparisons instituted on a more exact basis have demonstrated that the English child is growing in stature and weight. It is in regard to London that Sir George Newman has drawn his most interesting conclusions on the improvement in physique. Some 30,000 London elementary school children of two age groups were carefully measured, and in contrast with the pre-war child the young “modern” is identified as undoubtedly the finer specimen. “From the data available,” observes Sir George Newman, it seems the child of to-day is stronger, taller and heavier than the child of 1907. He is a better nourished child. The medical care and supervision of the child before and during school life are producing their effect; better nurture, the remedy of infective conditions which gravely impair physique, school meals, physical training, moie fresh air and improved school sanitation can scarcely fail in the long run. The direct treatment of ailments and defects removes causes of weakness—-there is less dental decay, less mouth-breath-ing, fewer inflamed tonsils and glands, less tuberculosis and anaemia, and a decline in severe rickets. There has also been great reform in the social life of the people, better housing conditions, better feeding, more cleanliness, better clothing and more fresh air.” Heredity, it is pointed out, is a mighty factor in the building of physique, but the influence of nurture runs it close, and nurture has this advantage over heredity that it can be directly controlled. Health, we are reminded, is not an artificial accomplishment, quickly acquired and easily maintained. It is a development of body and mind; a growth slow in process; a habit broad based upon heredity and nurture; a balance of moderation in all things; a harmony of a sound mind in a sound body, good nutrition combined with steady nervous regulation. There is solid matter for consideration in the dictum that a sound educational system is not dependent in childhood on improved methods of education only, but on body nurture, on better feeding, on nervous control and regulation, and on a steady growth of bone, muscle, and brain. We have been told on high authority, remarks Sir George Newman, that feeding wins more horse races than training, and “feeding is equally important for the child.” The malnutrition and lack of cleanliness of the children of 1891 are not found in the same degree in the children of to-day because the way of living has changed. The Board of Education in England and Wales seems to set a valuable example in holding that, primarily, health is “ a life to be lived and not a subject to be taught ” and therefore that the acquisition of healthful habits is better than theoretical instruction. Hygiene is to be regarded not as an isolated but as “a pervasive subject in the curriculum, and it is intimately connected with physical training. Sir George Newman makes an earnest appeal for the encouragement of games for the qualities they develop and for their enormous health value.