JAPANESE AND MILITARY TRAINING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9051, 28 March 1908, Page 4

JAPANESE AND MILITARY TRAINING.

The Japanese are fuJly alive to the importance of military drill in their schools, as the regulations published regarding it show. In the primary schools four hours a week are devoted to gymnastics by children between the ages of six and ten, and three hours a week military drill is given to children between the ages of ten' and twelve. The main objects are set out as follow :~-(l) To establish conformity of development of all parts of the body. (2) To practice the limbs to move smartly.' (3) To protect or to improve the health. (4) To make the mind cheerful and bold. (5) To maintain discipline. (6) To teach the value ot co-oper-ation. The details of training of the military drill (three hours a week) in the middle schools are as follow : First year, drill without arms, (a) Individual drill, (b) Section drill. Second year, as above, and company drill. Third year, as above, and gymnastic exercises, together with practising words of command. Fourth and fifth years, drill with arms, as above. The military training (six hours a week) in the normal schools ia as, follows-.—First year, gymnastic exercises, individual drill with arm«, section drill with arms. Second year, as above, together with company drill with arms, bayonet fighting, drill in the field, and the main pointa of military science. Third and fourth years, those subjects mentioned above, and also the method of teaching gymnastics arid military drill. The Japanese Minister for Education, in giving his instructions with regard to improving the physique of students, states that "as a first step towards improving the physique of the nation, the childnn in primuy schools should be trained in gymnastics." -