ORGANISED GAMES AT SCHOOLS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22339, 1 March 1938, Page 4

ORGANISED GAMES AT SCHOOLS

PARENTS CHARGED WITH APATHY MR W. A. ARMOUR ON VALUE OF SPORTS TO BOYS (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, February 28. Far too many pupils in the school took part in no organised games, said Mr W. A. Armour, principal of Wellington College, in a report to the Board of Governors. “I feel convinced that many parents are very remiss in this matter," Mr Armour said. ‘‘When one considers all the publicity recently given to the value of physical fitness one is astonished how lax many parents are. Tc go to the seashore or to a public swimming pool and lounge about there on nearly every afternoon of the week cannot, in my opinion, be considered, as the development of physical fitness Organised games help to develop physical fitness, and even more valuable and important, they develop character.. “A parent is making a great mistake in allowing boys, without sufficienl reason, to omit participation in games organised for them in the school. “One pupil actually told me that he did not play games because he wanted to go home and do his lessons in the afternoons so that he could spend the evenings playing cards. Yet for such a pupil' does a beneficient Government provide a free place. "Happily, such flagrant cases as this are very rare," continued Mr Armour, “Parents should realise that, provided there is not over-indulgence, participation in games will perhaps do as much as anything else to develop character and enhance the chances ol their sons for preferment in examinations and in any walk of life. “The value of a testimonial from me is, I believe, strengthened if I can say that a boy takes his part in some

of the extra-classroom activities of the school. Indeed. I have found that many employers do not desire to employ a boy without such participation. I have never yet found an employer pass over a boy because of his interest in manly sport and in other activities at a school.”