Physical education was aaa to reetify sii physical Aiah ticbitten revealed, in
that draft. Now cones the 1940-41 draft and the rege ction rate, according to pre~
liminary surveys, appears to be as high as 25 years ago! Tho cry is that physical
education has failed! And we must admit that we laid ourselves wide open for that |
charge by claiming that physical education laws and ahysical educstion classes
proper could alleviate the physical defects revealed in the first draft! The —
feature: article in the March issue of the Physical Education Journal seoms to be

written along that same vein, too!

  

|For whatdefects are men rejected in the a numbers? The causes

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(for 1940: rejections), according to a report in the Army Niodical Bulletin, are =

order: teeth, eyes, ears, mental and nervous AP eeaweds Weatey cua lungs,

oO

vencral, nusculo-skeletal, and feet. Tho first three, defective tooth, eyes, and

  

ears comprise 41% of the disqualifications}

Now what can vhysical: education nroper do to rectify these defects? Very
little. -Almost all these defects must be remedied by medical treatment under the |
direction of medical persennel, Particination in paysioel sducation classes and.
in athlotics certainly isn!+ going to fio it! And I beliove it is true to state
that 95% of our ohysical education courses of ewok titel actually consist of |
activity periods. aes

It. maybe within the province of tnevructional hygiene to initiate the cor-.
roction, and to follow-up | on the correction of such defects. But how meriy schools
and how many physical educatora conduct a anki wid fle acaionic course in hygiene
which produces tangible results? These rainy-day, hit-or-miss, bhowdey-por-wook,
suostitute-for-activity—class type of hygicne classes ane not only ineffectual -
but are a waste of time. | |

Physical educators, in my humble opinion, have cof mistake to claim that
tus physical cducation program in itself, can remedy the type of physical (morpho-
“ogical and organic) defects which cause rejection by the Army.