FOSTERING FITNESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 99, 23 October 1936, Page 8

FOSTERING FITNESS

The, British Government's new campaign for physical fitness, announced in, an Official Wireless message today, is in keeping with the trend of the times. The importance of the sound body, as well as the sound mind, is being realised all over the,world. The measure of a nation's health is the health of its individual members. Recent investigations have tended to show that modern civilisation, with its crowded cities and unnatural conditions, is apt to take toll of physique, and the idea now is to build up the body, as well as the mind, in the schools so that both may be fitted to stand the strain of later life. Hence the determination of the Board of Education, as expressed by its president, Mr. Oliver Stanley, "to give every possible assistance and encouragement" to physical recreation. For this purpose model schools are to be established with ample playing fields and gymnasium equipment and it was in opening a prototype of these that the Minister made his remarks. The test, he said*, of the success of the system would be how far children, after v leaving .school, wanted to continue recreative physical exercise. The danger of the cult of sport and games in the past has been to make spectators instead of participants and players, but one of the objects of the present campaign is to foster an active open-air life with its ensuing benefits. There is much that New Zealand can learn in this direction by way of organisation of.physical training under expert guidance and the Minister (Mr. Fraser) in his public utterances has already indicated that lie considers attention to physical needs an important aspect of educational reform. In this, we feel sure, lie will have?the Mfcso^c^^^ho^ornniuriiigj t