GAMES FOR GIRLS

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17393, 2 March 1922, Page 2

GAMES FOR GIRLS

ARE THEY HA|MFUL > VIEWS LAY AND MEDICAL. (IBOM OCR own cobbespokdent.) LONDON, January 10. For some while past a good doal of controversy has been taking place as to whether or not, games are harmful for girls. • So the subject came up at the education conference in London a few days ago, under the auspices of the Ling Association and Affiliated Gymnastic "Societies- ■ Miss Graham, \xlio presided, referred to the wild statements on the subject which had been given wide publicity, aud she considered it wise to find out if there was any foundation for the statements made, because people were doubtless influenced by what they read, so it was wise to clear up .misapprehensions and misunderstandings. Miss Gray (headmistress of bt Pauls Girls' School) said : "I think the attacks made within the past year on games for girls; such utter nonsense that I really did not set myself to discover any' little atom of truth in them. I think there was no evidence pioduced that was of the slightest value, and, therefore, being a very busy person, and having great gratitude m my heart towards my own games mistresses, and great thankfulness for the system of Swedish gymnastics, which has made such wonderful developments in our games for girls, I just let the whole thing go by." If all the harm games had ever done to girls were mu - tiplied a hundredfold she -ttoiild still say the good they did enormously outweighed the harm. (Cheers.) It was of one particular aspect of the good they did that she wished to speak. There was in the educational world today. just as there was m the great world outside, a feeling of deep unrest, with the disposition to start new educational ideas without very much forethought or very deep investigations as to the results the experiments were likely to have. There were two groups of experiments in vogue to-day founded not so much on revolutionary ideas as ideas which were the product of the revolutionary spirit—self-government and auto-education —and in games for girla there was the antidote for some of the evils which might result from some of those experiments. The fallacy underlying tlie "self-government" idea was that a person was never fit to rule unless he had learned to obey; and.the fallacy underlying "auto-education was that he was never fit to learn unless he had learned to be taught. The glory -of games for girls—games for anybody—was that they did not tolerate those vagaries. Tho aricket captain knew that she had the responsibility, and she did not shirk it; she never dreamt of consulting her team or submitting the question as to who was to be wicketkeeper 'to the popular vote. Cricket was an ideal game, because every player had a chance of excelling in any place, and yet every player had her allotted place, in which she must try her hardest for her own side to succeed. Cricket was a little epitome of life, and therefore & good training for life. The Functions of Games. Miss Reaney, Science Lecturer of Furzedown Training College, dealt with the biological side of games, and suggested reasons why they were necessary and important. It Had been said that play in the animal world allowed the young animal to get its inherited 'tendencies under the-control of its intelligence so as to be able to cope with the serious facts of life. That function of play was equally true for human beings. They only found, however, cooperative! games played under- a leader according to tolq. by a team in races which had reached a certain stage of development. Ouch games Had reached their highest level in the Anglo-Saxon race. Another equally important function of games was they provided an outlet for the primitive, instincts orinherited tendencies which were repressed in civilised life. It was probable a great deal of the social unrest of to-day was the result of that repression- Any kind of game that gripped the imagination and gave a sense of freedom and enjoyment was good. Cricket was the highest game they had. In football or hockey they had all the team working together. In cricket each had to go out alone-as a member of the team and keep up the standard. (Cheers.) A more .primitive game like hockey satisfied any number of primitive desires, chasing an object, running, hunting, stalking. At the same time tho primitive qualities of alertness, quickness of eye, judgment, and endurance were developed. Any games that were not suitable for girls would gradually be dropped by them or modified to suit their special needsj. Everybody ,who realised how thoroughly men and boys were fascinated by football must realise that it had met some need. The woman who had no outlet for her instincts in this w;av might become "catty," and the girl who liad no outlet for those primitive instincts might develop into a flirt, or follow an oven more morbid tendency. Excess in games, as in anything else, was bad, whether played by girls or boys, but that was Dot an argument against games- As a result of playing games English girls were approximating more , and more to the Greek where the sexual tendencies were not over accentuated. Whether the games should be those which were played now she left to others to decide. So far as Miss Margaret G. Tbackrah, M.D. (South London Hospital for Women, and Physical Training College, Dartford) had been able to discover there was no evidence of any value to support the view that athletics produced sterility. On a priori grounds they might suppose that Nature was not going to lie put out of her stride by anything so simple and natural as running about on a field. , The amount of physical exercises and games that at present figured I in the curricula of physical training oolleges and schools was not excessive, and was i not likely to produce any harmful effects ; but ay amount of physical exercise which was all right for a normal girl might be excessive for a married woman anxious to have children. In the past five or six years she had examined all the students leaving Dartford, and she had never found a single instance of an over-strained heart due to athletics. Care should always be taken after a jgirl had been ill with fever, but otherwise no • girl need worry about overstrained heart. She had also seen it stated that displacement hi various organs occurred, but she had never come across a single instance of this in (her enceAsked whether she approved of rowing for girls. Dr. Thackrah. said notthe kind of rowing boys at the universities went in for, because that was certainly excessive. If overstrain of the heart occurred at all it would be in the course of such an exercise as that. ' Mrs Adair Impy (gymnastic teacher) produced statistics to show that gymnastic teachers who' married were as fertile after marriage as the women of other classes, and had healthy, fine children. Statictics compiled showed, she said, that 8.7 per cent, had extraordinary easy labour, 66 per cent, ordinary labour, and 20 per cent, very severe labour,: Mrs William Piatt, formerly headmistress of a co-educative school, men- j tioned that girls did better than hpys J at swimming-