SCHOOL ATHLETICS IN RELATION TO MENTAL TRAINING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIV, Issue XIII, 30 March 1895, Page 308

SCHOOL ATHLETICS IN RELATION TO MENTAL TRAINING.

The mere circumstance that discussion has long been and still is active in seeking to define the true position of physical exercise in relation to mental training should suffice to prove the essential nature of the connection which binds to gether these diverse methods of education. Each is in its own placs indispensable, and this fact happily is in a greater or less degree recognised in every school curriculum, even the most humble. The reason is not difficult to find when we consider how closely and inseparably associated is the health of the mind with that of the body. It is not in the nature of things that we should be capable of sustained and vigorous mental activity unless dne provision be made for the Curification andnutrition of tissue, including that of the brain y means of an active blood circulation. The relation between the latter and mnscnlar energy requires no explanation. It is true that bodily activity does not confer mental power or even encourage mental exertion. It is also trne that exceptional powers of mind have displayed themselves in persons physically weak ; but neither of these admissions affects our present argument, which maintains the certain advantage resulting to all mental processes, ordinary or exceptional, from that which promotes the health of their nidus in the brain. A further benefit conferred by physical training is its influence upon character. A host of mushroom frailties, vices, and foibles break down in presence of such vigorous growths as the resolution, the endurance, and the manly self-reliance engendered by a habit of orderly and energetic action. Justice, fairness, and fellowfeeling are developed by the same wholesome training, and thus many a boy at school acquires almost unconsciously that living force of character without which intellect is but a brittle gem. For obvious reasons our public schools have been a leading part in promoting physical education in this country. The pupils trained in them are, in very many ca«es, resident, and the consequent responsibility for their bodily health imposed upon teachers who act in loco parentis has no doubt bad to do with the formation of a compulsory system of exercise. Administered with due regard to individual fitness or unfitness, we regard this arrangement as beneficial, and we welcome the development of a similar, though naturally somewhat less stringent, method in the management of day schools throughout the country. Into the comparative merits of the particular means employed we cannot now enter. It is enough that the principle which they express is generally admitted, and that those who now administer education are for the most part firmly convinced of its importance as a power to be regulated and employed for the mental as well as the physical well-being of those under instruction.— The Lancet.