THE PLAGE OF ATHLETICS IN EDUCATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1384, 17 May 1881, Page 3

THE PLAGE OF ATHLETICS IN EDUCATION.

There is perhaps no greater proof, Bays the Field, of the genuine popularity of athletic sports than the extent to which they have made their way into the school life of the period. They have become an integral portion of it, and this not only at our public 'achool*, where the traditions and tbetjVfftM loci might be supposed to be favourable to their cultivation, but at t,he majority of private schools of any magnitude, and even at not a few preparatory establishments Everywhere we find the annual athletic meeting asserting itself as one of the features of the scholastic year, and the competitors fighting out their battles with as much earnestness, as much oonsciouwAcss of the importance oi tne contest, us if the fate of nations hung upon the issue. It is not surprising that, under these circumstances, the relation between athleticism— to which we must give a wider scope than what are usually designated athletic sports, and hold as including manly games of all kinds — and education should have attracted considerable attention, or that there ahould be murmurs both loud and deep at the extent to which, under these conditions, athleticism has been permitted to emancipate itself from control, and to set itself up in some degree as a force almost antagonistic to intellectual culture. These matters have before now engaged the attention of able writers —Mr Herbert Spencer amongst others — mid the latest addition to the literature on the subject is to be found in the current number of Mac Milhni'i Magazine. There is one fact which lies on the very threshold, and which is scarcely generally recognised by those — and they are not a few — who talk glibly about the evil of school athleticism ; it is that the tendencies which have developed themselves of recent years, as well as the opposition which they have provoked, are in the main alike the outcome of superficial knowledge incautiously applied. Theie ure, indeed, two sides to the picture. That athleticism has on the whole been allowed to gain too prominent a place in the school life of the country may bo freely admitted. But is this entirely the fault of the boys themselves? To tho average healthy hohoolbj it is as natural to use his limbs in vigourous exercise as it is to a fish to swim, or to a lark to carol in the bunnhine ; und if his love for athleticism sometimes huriies him into excessive indulgence in it, this is of itbelf often a pruc'ical, though uuconscious protest against the disregard of elementary phisjological laws on the part of tho*e with whom rests the arrangement of the details of his life duiing the time that he is in btulu pupil/an. As Mr Herbeit Spencer has pointed out, it is absuid to nuke a science of the phyhical perfection of horses and to allow the physical training of our youths of both sexes to manvge itself ; and yet this is what is commonly done, even by those wh'i have the largest interests at stake in the m-itter. It is universally admitted that there is an intimate relation between health and intellectual energy ; and yet health, apart from such matters -is diaiuuge and the avoidance ot epidemic disorder*, is not " avowedly and primarily considered by the masters. 1 ' If the physical training received by a number of boys at school be very good, " this id due," truly Bay& Mr Almond, " and is felt by the boys to be due to the t>yt,tem of games enforced both by public opioiou and by tho boy authorities of the sch joI." I'eihaps, however, it is not tlic individuals, either masters or boys, who are responsible for this so much as the system, or lather the luck of system. It m<iy bo m the recollection of Someof our leaders that, in the evident c which was given before the commissiosion appointed to inquiie into tho advisability of instituting a phvbical test for commissions in the aimy, the opinions of the head-masters examined wcie stiongly iv favour of the project. They are by no me ins blind to the importance of physical exercise ; and yet — though, fioiu the nature of their institutions, in a less degiee at our public schools than elsewhere — it happens that whilst some boys devote themselves to athleticism to an excessive deirrae, others — and the Litter, tho-c perhaps who need it most — do nit get a sufficiency of phy.sictil work. Boys should not be deprived of exercise, nor should they be allowed to deurivo themselves of it. At a public hchool a boy must sometimes play tootb.ill, or I.ijj: out at cricket ; but at private schools a similar mle is far from being of universal application, and the loafer or tho bookworm cm generally manage to reduce bis exercise to a minimum, and to avoid violent exercise altogether, lo the "jioat detiiment of his own health »nd intellectual powers. It follows th it a school may bo able to hold its own at cricket and football, may carry out each year its athletic meeting, and yet numbir amongst irs roembersan undue propoition ot doliuite complexions, narrow chests, and feeble limbs, the property of those physically indolent and bookish boys, who, of all others htaud iv the most urgent need of vigoious and regular oxercise. Mr Almond urges and wo entirely agree with him, that the remedy for this is to be found in the .systematic enforcement of compulsory exercise , that, "in ndflition to work in the gymnasium, eveiy boy able for it should be compelled to be out-of-doors taking active exeicise for an average time of two or three hours daily, except in veiy bad weather. "At many of tho schools most distinguished in athletics," he writes, " a larsre number of boys do not get neatly exerci.se enough, and on some days few boys get enough." Thure can be no reason to doubt as to the accuracy of this statemeut, and it shows how far we are from having yet arrived at a solution of the problem, how to allot to athleticism its pi oper place in education. We find, on the other hand, boys devoting themselves to it to an axtent which even the best friends of athletics are compelled to admit is excessive, and, on the other baud, we find boys who stand most in need of physical training, as a means of health, not getting any at all. What is wanted is some method by which exorcise, with a view to health, shall be enforced, not casnally, but as a nystera ; a n ethod by which athleticism in all its branches shall, on the one hand, be kept Avithin due bounds, and, on the other, shall be encouraged, from a physiological point of view. How this is to he found is a matter to which not only schoolma a ters, but parents, may very well direct their attention.

An Indian Elopement.— Young Spotted Tail, son of Spotted Tail, the renowned chief of all the Sioux, took advantage of the absence of Chief Stranger Horse on a hunting expedition to perAuade Stranger Horse's squaw to dope and live with him. Stranger Horse returned from the hunt to find his fire gone out, his squaw — he hud but one—departed, and tepee desolate. Gathering his friends about him, ho started out with his-rifle, threatening the life of the chief who bad brought shame into his household. The affair was reported to the agent, who summoned the faithless wife and her paramour to the agency, -where they were confronted with the wronged husband. After a full heaiing of the case, in which the agent acted a*; mediator, it was decided that the Wonderful honour of Stranger Horse • should be healed with the gift of an American horse and a number of valuable artioles, and that he should take back his •wife and' live with her again. Thus bloodshed was averted and the scandal hushed. In following the usages of his tribe, SljHWger Horse will very likely take another squaw unto himself.