PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Evening Post, Issue 13, 16 January 1936, Page 10

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

No precise reason is given for the fresh interest in the physical training of British youth indicated by the circular issued by the Board of Education, according to ah Official Wir^ess message today, with the object of assisting local authorities and others in framing a comprehensive plan of physical education suited to the needs of the various areas. All that is said is that "the board regards it as a matter of national importance that more consideration should be given to the "development of facilities for physical training and games among young people who have left school, but states that any imitation of centralised methods in use in some Continental countries would be altogether inappropriate." That there is need for some form of regular physical training is evident from the revelations of recruitment for the Army and Navy during the War. It was found that the general physique of the nation was not, all that it should have been or might be. Yet no effective steps were taken to remedy this evil in the years immediately following and it may be that the results of organised youth movements and physical culture in some countries of the Continent have impressed the British authorities, who at the same time have realised that identical methods would not be likely to succeed in Britain. The AngloSaxon does not take kindly to mass evolutions in physical drill or to gymnastics generally as a form of culture of the body. So the Board

of Education desires to leave it to local organisations to devise the methods most suitable to their respective areas. Temperamentally the Anglo-Saxon prefers to take his exercise and bodily training in the form of games and it is rather curious that these should appeal so strongly just now to Continental nations. There are virtues in both their methods and ours.