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PHYSICAL EDUCATION
I am indebted to the Physical Education Advisers,
Mr. J. Hopkins and Miss E. A. Osgathorp for the following
report:—
Children are bigger, stronger and healthier than ever.
This gift of poisitive health possessed by our young is seen
locally as an abundance of vitality and a surplus of energy
which presents a challenge and a problem to the Physical
Education Teache.rs in the Borough's Schools. Every year
these dedicated people include something new, something
exciting in the already large and complex subject called
Physical Education, so that an overall view would show that
boys and girls in the area enjoy a selection from a list which
includes Association Football, Hockey, Rugby, Netball,
Cricket, Badminton, Swimming, Life Saving, Basket Ball,
Dancing, Boxing, Tennis, Table Tennis, Gymnastics,
Rounders, Canoeing, Camping, Rock Climbing, Orientering,
Lacrosse, Fencing and Skiing. The complexity of the task
facing the teachers is evident when it is remembered that some
schools cover fifteen of these activities during the school year.
Although the syllabus has widened out of all recognition
when compared with pre-war days, the length of time available
remains roughly the same and very rarely exceeds three
periods weekly for each class. It is a strange reward for
growing up in a school that as the children's physical powers
develop, so that they are capable of defeating not only their
own contemporaries but even the World's best, less time is
found within the school timetable for their physical development.
The better their intellectual attainment the more the
time available is encroached upon because of academic needs
and pressure. Yet in this mentally sick age nothing is more
important than a healthy shrine to encompass the mind and
soul of the growing child, and the mind is often better
treated by the therapy of play than by the pill. Even before
the war, thirty-four years ago, four periods plus an additional
period for swimming was recommended, but schools somehow
have never found it possible to achieve this. There is
no subject on the curriculum that can cater better for the
child's natural birthright to have fun during the process of
growing up than physical education, and there are no facilities
provided by the school that get fuller use or produce
better results for the money spent.
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