LEARNING FROM GAMES

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21247, 20 August 1934, Page 6

LEARNING FROM GAMES

DEVELOPMENT OF FINE QUALITIES HEADMASTER'S ADDRESS AT CHRIST'S COLLEGE The importance of maintaining a .sense of proportion in games as everything else, and of learning from them Ihe lessons of unselfishness, loyalty, uenerosity, and friendship, were emphasised by Mr R. J. Richards, headmaster of Christ's College, in his address at the Christ's College chapel last evening. The service was attended by his Excellency the Gov-ernor-General (Lord Biedisloe), and by boys of col leges from other part.--i.i: New Zealand, who are taking part in the inter-collegiate Rugby football tournament. Mr Richards took as his Text a passage from the Gospel of St. Matthew - "Verily, T say unto you, they have their reward." "In some of the islands of Melanesia a fall'mg-ofT in the population is said lo have been due to the putting down oi head hunting." he said. "That sounds very extraordinary, does it not? The white man comes along with his magistrates and his missionaries, and slops head-hunting. One would expect the population to increase-—but it does not—it decreases. Head-hunting was the very centre of their social and religious life—to a very great extent if controlled all the interests and energies of the people. When it was taken .from them, their main interest in life was taken. Now if you take away J'rom people their interest, in life and give them nothing in its place, they will become listless from sheer boredom, like a hive of bees without a queen. Danger of One-Sicled Interest 'This may be a very extreme example of a lop-sided life, but still it will serve to illustrate a useful point. There is always a danger that while you are at school, games and all that they involve may absorb too much of voiir interest, so that you reach a position where life would become dull and flat if you were suddenly cut off from your games. Now if you reach that unhappy position, it probably means that your intense and one-sided interest involves too much thought of yourself. It only leads to selfishness and self-conceit and robs life of its highest qualities. "You may wonder what all this has to do with religion and what our Lord can possibly have taught that can have much bearing on the question whether you allow such mundane activities as games to occupy too much, of your thoughts. But in point of fact He had some very pertinent remarks to make about people who concentrated on petty aims in life. He was denouncing those who for the sake of a show made long prayers in the synagogue, and those who disfigured their faces so that they might appear to be fasting, to gain credit with the mob—for the mere appearance of a holy life they did these things. 'Verily, I say unto you,' was Christ's remark, 'they have their reward.' It is one of those places where Christ must have been partly sarcastic. They had their reward certainly, m the way they were looking for it—but what a paltry reward it was—the mere applause of a fickle mob. Sense of Proportion "Now it is very natural and right that you should, take these games and contests keenly, and if you keep a proper sense of proportion there is great value to bo got from them. In the games themselves the very essence of strategy demands that you should be forgetful of self and think only of the side. When the game is over, are you going to spoil it all by lapsing back into selfishness? In 20 or 40 years' time is all that you got out of a season's football to be represented by a cap hanging over the mantelpiece and a few references in an old school magazine? And that is what will happen if you concentrate" all your energies on your lower self --thinking only of your skill and the physical side of it all. " 'Forty years on, grower older and older, What will it help you that once you were strong?'— "Nothing at all, if you thought only of your lesser powers. The game the skill, the applause will turn to dust and ashes. 'Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.' But what a wonderful chance there is of developing some great qualities that can be translated into actions in wider spheres—such qualities as unselfishness, devotion, loyalty, and generosity. These qualities are demanded in the game. Are you going to forget them as soon as the game is over, and think only of the prize—the actual winning j of the game, the winning of a cup, or, worst of all, the enjoyment of fame. ** ame —Milton describes it as 'the last infirmity of noble mind." Of noble mind—man's mind—man's own self that is capable of such noble qualities as unselfishness, devotion, loyalty and generosity. Are you going to Yorget | all that, and think only of the tinsel : and the shouting? Self-Kculisation "A man must realise himself. Now sell-realisation is not the same as that accursed word.fi selx-expresison, which too often means self-indulgence. Self realisation is the bringhm mfco full ifruit bearing ai' .\-i! ;-.-. i, ~: !p ;;blf c.r, 3n his body, iu h.s mind, and in his boul. And so it is right that you should struggle with all your might to -f\jch the greatest success you can ■-v.f.h .your body. But that is only part «>f your self-realisation. A man cannet realise his full self unless he properly -fulfils his duties to others. Unselfishness, loyalty, generosity, friendship. These are some of the qualities a man must develop if he is to realise Jhis full self. "First there is unselfishness—the very breadth of the football field. It is easy to see how that lesson can be carried on into wider fields. Some of you will be farmers. Some people may think that a farmer can live entirely to himself. But he is probably ■u poor farmer who does not co-oper-ate with his neighbours, who contributes nothing to the common good—to the common stock of knowledge. Then in the profession and in business, unselfish team work is in constant demand, along with an unswerving loyalty. In fact unselfish''jnesß and loyalty go so closely hand in hand that is sometimes hard to dislinguish them. Loyalty to School "You all know what loyally lo your •school means, and a fierce loyalty very often it is. The reason for that intensity of feeling is a proper feeling of pride :in something to which you belong--something which you help to make. It is always growing and you help to make it grow. It has become as it were part of you just as you have become part of it. So the flame of loyalty burns fiercely. 'There is a strong spiritual element in it. Success when it comes is the success of all, and failure when it comes is the failure of all. And the one who is truly loyal is the one who is prepared to ahare the responsibility for failure as well as to rejoic l in success. No one is going to doubt your loyalty to your school. But is it going to end there. or is it going to be but the beginning. the training for larger iovuliies beyond? ''Then there is generosity. If you can find unstinted admiration for v'our ap- i ponents" skill in the football field, vou may carry that good gift with you and in later life meet other opponents in the same spirit and recognise their good points even when you disagree with them over others. These are the things that sweeten life. But probably the sweetest gift of all is friendwrap: it is the reward given for all those | >*>ther qualities, unselfishness, loyalty, i

generosity. You acquire those good qualities and you win this most priceJess gift—not merely of winning particular friends whilst you are at school 'the chances of life may separate you from them as soon as you leave school) —but you learn this most priceless gift of making and keeping good friends wherever yon are. "In the fierce encounters of life—speaking of life generally—in the doubts and difficulties that are bound to beset you from time to time, it is often hard to keep a sense of proportion. We gel our eyes too close up to the picture. It is just the same with our recreation--there is a danger that our enthusiasm of the moment may distort our sense of proportion. But the man who can use his games to learn great, lessons like those we have been considering-—unselfishness, loyally, generosity, and friendship—that man is laying the foundation of a sound and full life. 'Verily I say unto you. he has his reward.' There will be no sarcasm when the words are used about him."