CHILDREN’S PHYSIQUE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 357, 18 May 1928, Page 16

CHILDREN’S PHYSIQUE

TRAINING IN SCHOOLS ADVOCATED DEPARTMENT’S NEGLECT Press Association, , DUNEDIN, Thursday. “Scohol teachers are not only concerned with the intellectual procharacter of children under their craracter of children under their charge,” said Mr. F. E. L. Forrester, in his presidential address at the annual meeting of the Otago branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute to-day. “They are also immediately concerned with the development of their bodies. The three phases of education are certainly closely connected with each other. “If we neglect physical training in any system of education, then we fail to make use of the most potent 3id to intellectual and moral training and to the formation of character. The physical health and bodily condition of the child must serve as the foundation of mental training. “It is while the child is growing that provision must be made for systematic physical training, hence it must And, and has found, a place in the curriculum of our schools.” Physically unfit children were, generally speaking, below the average in mental ability. Therefore it was necessary to improve their intellectual progress by first improving their bodily health. The most advantageous way of doing this was by scientific ohysical training. “What is the Education Department doing to assist in this laudable work?” asked Mr. Forrester. “With the exception of assisting in the purchase of basketballs, the department does nothing. Would it be too musch to expect the authorities to place at the disposal of each education board a sum of money with which to subsidise schools requiring assistance in the purchase of sports material? I think not. 1 am quite sure that an equitable scheme of distribution could be devised, and the School Sports Association would assist willingly if requested to do so.”