GAMES FOR GIRLS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 53, 4 March 1922, Page 16

GAMES FOR GIRLS

ARE THEY HARMFUL?

VIEWS LAY AND MEDICAL. (XXOM OUR OWN COKX2BPONDIHT.) LONDON, 10th January. For some while past a good deal of controversy has been taking p'laee 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, who presided, referred to the wild statements on the subject which had been given wide publicity , and she considered it wise to find out if there was. any foundation for the statements made, because people were doubtlesSj influenced by what they read, so it was wise to clear up misapprehensions and misunderstandings. ■ ' Miss Gray (headmistress of St. Paul's Girls' School) said: '.'I think the• at-' tacks 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 produced that was of the slightest; value, and, therefore, being a•■ very busy person, and having great gratitude in. my heart towards my-owri games mistresses, and great_ thankfulness, for this 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 multiplied a hundredfold she would still say the ;good they did enwmously 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 to-day, just as there was ir the great world outside, a feeling .of deep unrest, with the disposition to start new, educational ideas without very much forethought or very deep investigation as to the results the experiments were likely to have. There were two groups of experiments in vogue today, founded not so much on revolutionary ideas as ideas which were, the product of the revolutionary spirit—selfgovernment and auto-education—and: in games for girls there was the antidote for some of the evils which might result from some of these experiments. The fallacy underlying the "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 leajcn unless he had learned to be taught. ' The glory of games for girls— games for anybody^ .was that they did -riot .tolerate; those vagaries. \ \ The cricket -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 ah 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 a good training for life. ..';'/ ;':-.'.'. „' . THE FUNCTIONS OF.'GAMES. '".

Miss Reaney, Science Lecturer of I Furzedown Training College, dealt with i the biological side'of games, and suggested 1 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, co-operative games played under a leader - according to rule by a team in races which had reached a certain stage of development. Such 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 or inherited tendences which , were repressed in civilised life. It was ! probable a'great deal of the social unrest of to-day was • the result of. that I 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 the 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 needs. Everybody who realised how thoroughly men and boys were fascinated, by football must-realise that ifhad met some need. The woman 'who had no outlet for her instincts in this way might, become "catty," and the girl who had no outlet ai for those primitive instincts might develop into a flirt, or : follow an even j more morbid tendency. • Excess .in games, as in anything else, was bad, whether played by girls, or boys, but that was not an .Argument againstgames.. As a result of playing games - t English girls were approximating more and more to the Greek type, where the . sexual'": tendencies were not over accentuated. ! Whether the gn :mes should be .-those which >vere played now- she. left to i others to decide. ' . ' I

So far as Miss Margaret G. Thackrah, 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 priori grounds they might suppose that Nature was not go-; ing to ,be 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 ■af ■ present figured in the curricula of physical training colleges and schools was not excessive, and was not likely to produce any harmful effects; but an 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 aisingle instance of an over-strained;heart due to athletics. Care should always be taken after'a'girl had been'ill with fever, but otherwise no gM need worry about overstrained heart. She had also vseen it stated that displacement of various organs but shfe had never come across a single instance of ■ this' in her experience. . ' '..''' Asked whether she approved of rowing for girls, Dr. Thackrah said not the 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 Impey (gymnastic teacher) produced statistics to show that gymnastic teachers who married were as fertile nff.er marriage as the women of other classes, and had healthy, fine children. Statistics compiled showed, slip said, that 8.7 per cent, had extraordinary easy labour, 66 per cent, ordinary labour, and 20 per . cent, very score If''"Tir. Mrs. William P'att. formerly 1' headmistress of a co:P<4"™t've school, mentioned that girls did better than boys at swimming.