The influence on national life of military training in schools : [an address delivered before the Medical Officers of Schools, Thursday, February 15, 1906] / by T.C. Horsfall.

  • Horsfall, T. C. (Thomas Coglan), 1841-1932.
Date:
[1906?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The influence on national life of military training in schools : [an address delivered before the Medical Officers of Schools, Thursday, February 15, 1906] / by T.C. Horsfall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the drunkenness, gambling, licentiousness, lying, dishonesty, and physical deterioration which now hold her in bondage. Of the necessary system games, of course, are a part. They have good effects on health which can be gained in no other way ; and they give self-reliance, quickness of decision, and, when played under proper guidance, desire and power to be fair towards others, which no other kind of training can give in the same degree. Even if the matter be only looked at from a money point of view, it is worth the while of the com¬ munity to provide a large playground within reach of every child in town and country. At present very few children in our large towns get exercise in games as often as they need it, and many town children, and not a few in the country, do not know how to play any health-giving game. Games do not suffice as means of physical training. They often do not give the all-round training which everyone should receive ; and though they give some kinds of self-reliance, in the case of many children they fail to give training in courage, in resolution to do, or try to do, difficult things which one knows it is one’s duty to do. The boy who has been taught to try to vault a bar so high that he does not know whether he will get over, not in the excitement of a game but in cold blood, has received training which will help him to face many of the difficulties of life. Moreover, because games are so pleasant to most children, the habit of playing them does not keep alive the sense of the duty of keeping one’s self in good condition for work, as the moderate use of gymnastics does. And it should be borne in mind that while we do not gain from games so easily as from gymnastics the feeling that it is a duty to take enough exercise, they subject many children to a strong inducement, and often to absolute compulsion, to over-tire themselves to a degree which not only prevents the acquisition of love of work and of knowledge, but is also most injurious to physical growth. There can be little doubt that this country owes its pos¬ session of a large number of men, members of the well-fed not over-worked classes, who are small in body and boyish in mind, to the effect, repeated day by day in their school years, of over-excitement and over-fatigue in school games and school runs. Gymnastics carefully taught, compensate admirably for the defects of games. They give all-round training and they need not over-tire. Gymnastics taught in all schools seem to give better physical training to a nation which makes com¬ paratively little use of games, than does our system of games. We know that the physique of Englishmen is not improving.