The Educational Value of Outdoor Games.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 907, 19 July 1889, Page 4

The Educational Value of Outdoor Games.

Organised play profluc.es a mqss useful effect, flt trainq the fc>oy to dp, jpatj he if tolfl tq do, and, vyhilq tfls sppqtaneoqs action ia encoqraged, be is kept eveq ready to aot to pircumstances. Play is healthful; so fa tfie alternation of mental wprk and active pla,y. In rqeqt&i actioq tt*e tyain osnfif.es pfl>b,ab,ly apt iquqh in stimulating another j in play fhq rqqaplea qre stimulated by ffie brqiq qenfres, aqfl fhe ]3prejy Rental qctioq ip fliqflqiqhqd, Thqs plqy ip not jpereiiy mqsqular a change Ip l&W.fl. 'Wffl aotioß, »»”* probably of the aqtson oi the ’ * Ihfeia if the fact - ' jsbo . r x.oial centres. „ere not well established, ._ jjuysiologist would expect to find that moderate athletics and success in mental work are not divorced from one another. This is well illustrated in the list of scholar, ships recently gained by the boys of St. Paul’s School; all the athletic leaders are named in the list. The tendency to self, contemplation which is engendered by the modern system of competitive examination is to some extent counteracted by athletioß. In the examination the individual wins, not his class ; in the cricket club the eleven wins, though one individual may make a winning score. It is sometimes said that athletics make good bodies, to the neglect of mental culture. That may be so when too much time and attention are given to the river and the oricket-field ; but it should be well understood that a highly organised game does exercise the brain as well as the musolea, though not in exactly the same way nor probably in the same parts as 80-oalled intel* leotual training. A just balance between play and work may be struck for the individual, by noting what duration of mental exercise can be borne without the signs of

fatigue foilswing. Recreation of the athletic kind ia. most useful in turning ‘the brain overpressed with thoughts 5 to other modes of action, and preventing it from continuously actiDg in mental modes producing a cloud of uncontrolled thoughts, to be followed by troubled sleep and dreams. Habits of bodily activity are often the best cure for sickly states of mind.—British Medical Journal.