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Observations such as these are necessarily open to criticism in that the standards employed
cannot be defined precisely, and that the comparison of the children depends on the judgment
of a single observer. None the less, they have a definite value as representing the considered
opinion of an experienced school doctor. They show several points which are of interest:—
(1) Some 40 per cent, of the children have really good posture.
(2) In this respect the girls are rather better than the boys. The advantage is apparent
in each of the age groups examined except the leavers, of whom 50 per cent. of both boys and
girls are in class 1.
(3) Definite defects of posture are also less prevalent among the girls than among the boys.
They have been found in 15 per cent. of the total.
(4) Taking boys and girls together, it may be said that posture improves as age increases,
the entrants making the worst showing and the leavers the best.
By way of comparison, it is interesting to recall that By waters and Wood,*
after examining 1,600 12-year-old children, reported to the Board of Education that
75 per cent. of them showed a greater or less deviation from the standard posture,
and that only 11.4 per cent. were passed as having good posture. In this inquiry
the boys were found to be better than the girls.
Report of
the organisers
of physical
education.
The biennial report of the organisers of physical education (Mr. A. H. A. Gem
and Miss Grant S. Clark) for the two years ended September, 1933, was summarised
in my annual report for 1933. The organisers' report for two years ended September,
1935, was presented to the Education Committee in May, 1936. Mr. Gem and Miss
Clark have kindly supplied me with the following brief survey:—
Owing to the limitation of space it is impossible to review the progress of physical education
in all types of school, and this brief survey will therefore concentrate on certain aspects of the
work' in elementary and secondary schools.
The 1933
syllabus.
Elementary schools
The feature which has dominated the work in the elementary schools has been the issue,
by the Board of Education, of the 1933 syllabus of physical training. The release of this
publication was foreshadowed in the last report, and details were given as to the position of the
schools in relation to the newer type of work.
The first task which faced the organising staff was to disseminate, throughout London,
information with regard to the main features of the syllabus. The area to be covered was large
and the staff available all too small. The problem was how to spread the information quickly.
Teachers wanted to know about the "new syllabus" before it became an "old syllabus."
* The Posture of School Children. The Health of the School Child, 1932, p. 92 et seq.