PHYSICAL TRAINING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23081, 6 January 1937, Page 10

PHYSICAL TRAINING

FOR FRENCH YOUTH Compulsory physical education for all French boys and girls from seven to 18, with “ pre-military training ” obligatory for young men between 18 and 20, is provided in a Bill sponsored by the Popular Front Government (says a message from Paris in the Christian Science Monitor). . , France has hitherto resisted the general tendency in continental Europe towards compulsory physical education. Not only has French youth never been regimented and trained after the fashion followed in Fascist Italy and Germany, but even a minimum amount of sport and outdoor activity has been admittedly lacking frbm France’s educational system. Pierre Dezarnaults, Under-secretary of State for Physical Education in the Cabinet of Leon Blum, has recently announced that the Government will present to Parliament this fall, and urge early passage of, a Bill reversing this situation. Although protesting that there will be “no militarisation nor statisation, M. Dezarnaults acknowledges that after the age of 18 until they begin their period of military service at 20 or 21, all young Frenchmen will be required by law to undergo “ pre-military phythe Minister of War, sees in the development of physical education an added reason for confidence in our young army,” M. Dezarnaulls declared. “He will do everything to help us in our task, because military preparation must be based above all on physical education.” REGULAR EXERCISES

As envisaged in the Government’s project, this physical education will consist of a minimum of five hours’ training a week. Between the ages of seven and 14, when school attendance is obligatory for all French children, the training will be given in schopls. From 11 to 18, the physical education would continue in the schools for those children who have not left them, ana would be carried on in sporting clubs, military centres, and municipal sports grounds for young French men and women no longer attending school. Outdoor sports of all kinds under State instructors will be the keynote of the physical education compaign, according to M. Dezarnaults. But he emphasises that this does not mean merely organised play and leisure. Serious and regular exercises are planned to "save the French race from alleged lack of sufficient outdoor physical training. Such a project will require an immense expenditure for training and employing instructors, building gymnasiums and sports fields, and other facilities. Accordingly the Government’s plan is to proceed gradually, beginning the programme in a few districts of France and extending it progressively to include the whole country. The three departments of the Aude, the Loiret, and Meurthe-et-Moselle have been chosen as the subject of the first experiments.