KEEPING FIT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 February 1939, Page 5

KEEPING FIT

UNIFORMITY IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION. A report of the Curriculum Research Committee of the College Physical Education Association raises a question which should interest many New Zealanders. "The need for a more uniform programme of physical education throughout the schools of America has been evident to all progressive thinkers for many years,'’ it is stated, "Probably everyone interested in physical education has at some time felt that a basic uniform programme should be evolved. Always, however, the question has arisen, ‘ls it practicable to formulate a programme that will be adaptable to widely varying geographic and climatic conditions, local needs and interests, varying facilities, and the widely differing viewpoints of teachers, administrators and school boards?' A second question has also been inevitable, ‘Would the various states and communities accept such a programme if it could be formulated?’ ‘‘The Curriculum Research Committee during its ten years of operation has been working definitely toward the time when consideration could be given to the possible adoption of a uniform programme. The objective has been to formulate a comprehensive, graded programme which would assure a common ground of basic skills and knowledge, with sufficient flexibility to

be adaptable to the ordinary situation regardless of climatic conditions.

"To this end the committee has sought continuously to secure the cooperative participation of large numbers of representative leaders from all parts of the United States. It has been the hope that when completed, the curriculum would be acceptable to every state and district because it would be a composite programme, parI ticipated in by their own representaI lives and adaptable to their peculiar needs and conditions. "The constituent curriculum elements or activities have been evaluated as to relative worth in terms of physical, intellectual, social, safety, and recreational contribution; they have been allocated to appropriate grade levels to correspond to the peak of natural interest further supplemented by studies of child interests at different ages; they have been allotted appropriate amounts of time in the programme according to their seeming value and difficulty of learning; they have been analysed into basic elements or essential performance techniques on elementary and advanced levels. with suggested sequence and estimated time needed for the learning process in each case for the average student.

"So far as content elements are concerned, this gives a body of material formulated in terms of best available judgment of outstanding experts throughout the United States, which should serve as an acceptable uniform programme provided it can be made adaptable to varying conditions in widely separated sections of the country.”