THE PURPOSE OF GAMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 208, 2 September 1932, Page 6

THE PURPOSE OF GAMES.

The proper purpose of games in the schools was to produce healthy, lit, and active boys and girls, full of the joy of effort for its own sake; and to cultivate in tliem the qualities of the good citizen (said Mr. H. Ramsbottom, Parliamentary Secretary to i'he Board of Education, at a gathering of secondary school teachers in London). The finest games for schools were those which required not only high skill, but which called for individual effort as an element in the combination and team work of the side as a whole, and which also contained the possibility of the player getting hurt. Parents might think that a brutal doctrine to come from an educationist, but Rugby football was not a gentle game, and all who had played it would agree that it was the finest school game in. existence, becauso it called for high individual skill and effort, courage, fair play and combination. ' Let them beware of the cant of games. They knew that it waj team work that was the merit of games, but they also knew that, although the poor performer might often get much enjoyment from playing, it was the star performer who got most of the fun. How many of them would, in their heart of hearts, prefer to make a "duck" for the winning side to scoring a century for the losers? Team games strengthened the quality of unselfishness, but the effect on character which was caused by individual excellence at games was very dubious. Individual excellence at games might lead to the foolish cult of athletic hero-worship. It was a task for the educator in England to-day to popularise the doctrine that the cricketer at the top of the batting averages was not . really so important si man as the Prime Minister. Another danger of which the educationist must beware was that of making' games a form of forced labour for. those who were not proficient at them. Some young people always would dislike organised games; for them physical exercises were sufficient, and for the obviously rioii-athletic boys and girls other activities which would appeal to their minds must be found. With reference to the doctrine of "mens sana in corpore sano," unkind critics of athletii cis'ni had translated that platitude as "the mind of a prig in the body of a barbarian." As for the "corpore • sano," in this town-bred age they might well envy the barbarian his physique. He did not know that lie had come across any better illustration of "mens sana in corpore sano" than a few years ago at Oxford, where, in the same year, tile captains of the University Rugby XV. and of tihe Association XI. both took "Double Firsts" in their honours schools.