PHYSICAL TRAINING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2503, 17 May 1909, Page 2

PHYSICAL TRAINING.

A LESSON FROM MILTON. In the course of their annual report to the Education Department given in at the last meeting, on the work of the past year in the Hawke’s Bay Education District, Inspectors Hill and Smith say: —“Commendation must bo bestowed on the teachers generally for the real progress that has taken place in the physical training of pupils. Breathing exercises are taken in most-schools and since their introduction it has been noticed that the’ younger pupils do not suffer from coughs or colds as formerly. The girls are trained in calisthenics and other forms of movement that are of great value to them but the special feature is the attention paid to military drill among the boys. Many bead and assistant masters are enthusiasts in this form of training, and the annual meetings that are arranged by teachers to foster a higher standard of physical culture among their pupils are worthy of more encouragement than they now receive from the public _ and the Government. Milton, writing in the troublous times that preceded the Civil war in the reign of First King Charles, says in his ‘Tract on Education,’ ‘that an academy ought to provide, in addition to a thorough and complete course of instruction, thorough books, a perfect system both of gymnastics for the pupils singly, and of military drill in the days of the .Stuarts, the need is greater to-day when external dangers are increasing so rapidly. Xs it, then, too much to urge that tho manhood of tb-morrow should be train-

lid in habits of discipline and self-pro-tection so as to fit them for any contingency that may arise in connection with their homes* and their Fatherland?”