CHARACTER-FORMING.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 April 1919, Page 6

CHARACTER-FORMING.

THE VALUE OF PLAY AND SPORT. Speaking at Normanby on Friday, Sir James Allen said that when Minister for Education he was fully convinced thai the' facilities for education were not what they should be. Many of the schools, especially in the cities, were inadequately provided with space for flaying grounds. Adequate playgrounds were a necessity because the education of a boy or girl was not conducted solely in the school room A necessary part of real education was the formation of character in the school ground or the parade ground, just as much as education in the class rooms. The idea that the education of a child could he accomplished within the four walls of a class room was now abandoned.' The phvsieal health of a child must be provided for. During the war it was discovered that a large percentage of men were physically unfit for military ser vice. Why? If education had been efficiently conducted in past years this would not hpvp been no, and it was for them to prevent that occurring in tlia future by commencing with the school children.' It was hoped after Mr Royd Garlick's death that it would have been possible to appoint a medical officer who was expert in physical drill and wlio could have conducted the physical, medical and dental cases of school children. But such a man could mot be got.'and he did not believe that such a man cnnhV he found eiiher in Britain or America, and New Zealand would hafe to train its own.