YOUTH MOVEMENTS LONG AGO

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 25 January 1939, Page 11

YOUTH MOVEMENTS LONG AGO

WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS SAFETY OF THE STATE From the very beginnings of recorded history, we find that youth movements had in them the aim of improving the character and physique of the youth in the State. In Persia it is recorded “the boys who attended the schools spent their time learning self-control from the sight of their elders living a daily life, which contributed greatly by example to their learning this virtue themselves. Moreover, they learnt how to shoot with the bow and to hurl the dart.” In this education we see the intermediate stage between primitive people and highly organised systems which prevailed throughout Greece, and found fullest perfection in the Athenian State. RELIGIOUS GAMtfS OF GREECE There was a full recognition that the training of youth was a matter of public concern, and consequently one of public recognition. But in Greece physical education was closely in touch with the national religion of which games and athletic contests formed the very large part. In fact, the whole of the outlook of the Greek was based on an appreciation of beauty, strength, agility and skill of the human body. Displays of this kind were specially pleasing, as they honoured the great Olympian Zeus, their supreme god. Every game had assigned to it a mythical origin connected with the presiding god, and always their religious character was predominant. This was best brought out when the Olympiad began, B.C. 776. Its significance to the people can be realised when the dates of importance in the calendars were marked by the success of Olympiads. When these games became more systematised they evolved into the Pentathlon, which was a five-fold contest in leaping, hurling the javelin, racing on foot, throwing the quoit and wrestling. The exercises were taken in that order, and the weaker competitors were eliminated ‘•tep by step, so that the victor became regarded as the present embodiment of the god, Apollo, who stood for perfect physical form.

EDUCATION FOR COMPLETE CITIZENSHIP

The friendly gatherings at the original Greek contests of men from every part of Hellas, dominated by the same interest and acknowledging the same religious observances, did much to break down the walls of isolation between the different branches of the Greek race, which the physical configuration of Hellas and the political organisation in different small and independent City States did so much to build up. The Greks realised the double function of education, and they combined literary, musical and artistic culture with physical training- so as to produce a balanced citizen Just as an English father to-day would think of the physical effect of games upon his son, and would grant at once to an enquirer that he wished and expected him to grow in pluck, sportsmanship and other manly virtues through his games, so an Athenian quite expected that the training would be one for the soul, as they put it, as well as one for the body. The mere athlete became too much of a savage, and the mere musician melted and softened beyond what was good for him. PROFESSIONALS AND SPECTATORS When the Athenians no longer needed active soldiers of the best type, the Games were limited to professional athletes who had heaped upon them excessive rewards, and so the whole system gradually degenerated from the highest expresison of national life to mere popular spectacles. This degeneration was not finally accomplished until after the conquest of the Greeks by the Romans, though it had begun several centuries earlier. Finally, none but profesisonal athletes i competed, and they were drawn from any and every barbarian nation. THE HARD-HEADED ROMAN The Roman Republic had a very practical aim on the physical side, for. it was esesntial that the soldier should be prepared to run, wrestle, swim, throw the spear and ride a horse. Only by this method could he defend his country and take part in the great armed camp that Rome really represented. There was no philosophy behind the Roman physical education for the Roman was a practical man with a practical mind, and so long as the youths could fulfil their military function well, he felt no need for idealistic and aesthetic studies. GERMAN YOUTH MOVEMENT IN FOURTH CENTURY The first knowledge we have of German youth movement dates back to the 4th centurq, when an old Roman soldier wrote: "There is no person in the whole nation who cannot remain on his horse day and night. On horseback they buy and sell, they take their meat and drink, and they recline on the narrow neck of their steed and yield to sleep there. They wander about, roaming over the hills and the woods, and accustom themselves to bear frosts and hunger and thirst from their very cradles.” Among such people in such times it is obvious that the training of boys would be essentially in physical hardihood and endurance, because they were destined for a life of war and plunder. In the coruse of centuries these barbarians settled down more or less thickly in the various parts of Europe, and adopted, as far as they could, the culture and religion they found indigenous. But the ideal of hardy manhood which had been necesasry to er.rly generations was inherent in them. So, throughout the Middle Ages, life was largely out of doors, and all kinds of manly sports were the delight of men and children. Hunting, fishing, hawking, archery, slinging and the practice of such exercises as running, leaping, wrestling, and swimming developed strength, ability and power of endurance. AN ORDEft OF KING EDWARD 111 In passing, it is interesting to quote 'King Edward 111 (1364) in his prescription of requirements of his magistrates: “We, wishing that a fitting remedy be found in this matter, do hereby command you that in all places in your country, liberties or no liberties, what-

soever you shall see fit you have proclamation made to this effect: That every man in the same county, sobeit he be able-bodied, shall upon holidays make use in his games of bows and arrows and learn and practise archery. Moreover, that you prohibit all and sundry in our name from such stone, wood and iron throwing, handball, football or hockey, coursing and cock fighting, or other idle games under penalty of imprisonment.”