DOCTRINE OF EXERCISE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 284, 1 December 1933, Page 6

DOCTRINE OF EXERCISE.

How much can be accomplished by physical training was made plain during the war, when large numbers of apparently under-developed yountr men were transformed within a few months (says "'The Times"). The lesson, learned, indeed, long before but to some extent forgotten, has not this time been wasted. As the preface written by Sir George Newman to the revised syllabus of physical training of Board ofi Education shows there is a growing appreciation throughout the country of the importance of regular and systematized exercise in the training of children. The Board of Education began to devote attention to physical training as long ago as 1904. Experience has suggested many improvements in the methods then adopted, but it has also confirmed amply the ideas upon which the first official syllabus was based. ■Sir George lay special stress on posture, contending that good posture is necessary for good health and for complete physical development, since it makes the body more useful, skilful and beautiful, and since, in addition, it helps to produce self-respect and therefore self-confidence. "The child," he writes, "who has learnt to stand straight and hold his head up has, other things being equal, a better chance of making his way in life than •his stooping, weak-kneed brother." At the same' time, however, lie sounds a note of warning which certainly deserves careful and constant attention. Physical training, lie urges, cannot exert its full effect unless certain conditions have been fulfilled. The child must be of good stock; it must have been carefully nurtured; the laws of hygiene must have been observed during its upbringing; it must be in receipt of adequate nourishment; and it must be living in good and healthy surroundings. None who has witnessed the effects of exercise in cases in which some of these conditions were absent will doubt the wisdom of insisting upon them. Children 'cannot give what they have not received. Thus the progress of physical training depends, in large measure, upon progress in other directions. Health is a complex of many £oorl elemepts.' If any one of these is wanting all the others are necessarily robbed of a part , of their advantage.