DRILL IN SCHOOLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20332, 13 August 1929, Page 12

DRILL IN SCHOOLS.

Sir, —One appreciates to the full the courage of the Education Department in utterly discarding the old form of physical exercises for the new. At the same time, ono wonders how much longer Government departments and other authoritative and responsible bodies aro going to follow the same old, stupid policy of working with slow, expensive .ambulances down in tho valleys rather than putting up tho speedy and inexpensive fences at the tops of tho cliffs. In other words, how much longer arc wo determined to undo all tho fine work of the Plunket Society by incarcerating the young life of the Dominion within the prison walls of the schools as they aro to-day ? Mufh may be said on this subject, but suffico it io draw attention to the fact that the latest medical reports tell us that 99 pccent, of tho infants entering our schools aro fit and well, and that there- is an ever-increasing percentage of physical defects as they • continue through the standards. To bo "toe-twiddling" in the circumstances points to a yet callous and unenlightened parental public, not yet awake to the benefits of the open-air school. New Eka.