Kansas Health and Physical Education Association
May, 1939

Volume VIII

Bulletin No. 8

THE IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

A paper read by, Mr. BE. R. Sheldon, Supervisor of High Schools, Kansas
State Dept. of Education, at the State Convention of the K,H.& P.E.A. held in McPhers..

Some one has said that teaching is re-
cognized as the most highly cooperative
enterprise in the world. Granted that
civilization in America is face to face
with a youth problem and that the job of
the teacher is one of cooperation, then it
is evident that the schools must assume a
part of that responsibility of helping
young people to find their places in an
adult world. We must keep in mind that
whatever is done for youth in our Nation
must be done by the local community.

What is meant by Health Education? For
practical purposes it is best to think of
the secondary school health program as the
benefits coming to the child through the
health services he receives and the benes#it
fits obtained from classroom instructor,

Good health is not inalienable, It
must be earned and maintained. Nor is this
easier to do in the twentieth than in the
nineteenth century. It is, in fact, ine
creasingly more difficult, The sober truth
is that civilization tends to destroy
health, and only the combined efforts of
an alert public health service and educa-
tion can preserve the vitality of individ-
uals or the Nation.

Although I have had but two decades of
school experience, during which time I have
been especially interested in health educa-
tion, I am quite thoroughly convinced that
the development of good health habits and
the building of sound bodies are about the
most useful services that a school system
can render. I am sure that there is pro-
perly very little or no distinction between
physical and health education. They have
one common purpose: The fostering of good
health and the building of health habits
that will be practiced throughout life.

Out of every child's life should como the
mastery of one or more games or physical

activities that he can — and enjoy
throughout life,

I am convinced that sheratect education
is equally desirable for both boys and
girls and that the games and athletics
should be so varied and extended that all
pupils may participate regulariy in some
activity, It is certainly true that con-
tests for prizes or trophics should be

discouraged as rapidly as we can create
in the pupils the desire to do their
best at all times for no reward beyond
the satisfaction of the attainment of a
worthy goal.

I am positive that our cities need to
establish an adequate number of play-
grounds and recreation centers so that
all boys and girls of the community may
have tho opportunity of healthful out-
door recreation under competent super=
vision, It pays in moral as well as in
health returns,

I am sure that emotional control is a
major responsibility of a program of
health education; therefore student-
leadership should be encouraged.

Education itself is dependent on phys-
ical vitality. A reasonably strong body
is the best guarantee of mental health.
Good physical condition is necessary. too,
to long-continued mental effort. A
strong body makes for mental endurance,
Then, too, learning itself depends on
good health, since the child must be
alert, rested, willing, and responsive,
A siek, tired, or mal-nourished pupil is
inevitably a slower learner because of
his handicaps. The future may reveal
that; for: very many: pupils, a given
amount of time and effort spent in im-
proving health yields more learning than
the same time and effort spent in direct
and immediate study.

We are told that the use of physical
education in controlled situations has
become an important therapy in the recov-
ery of mental patients, Opportunities
are afforded through recreational activi-
ties to gain deeper insight into dif-
ficulties of the personality. Since you
are guides to moving and doing, you in
the profession of physical education havc
speciai opportunities and obligations in
molding personality. No one can guide
physical education activities without at
the same time guiding personality adjust.
ment. Now sometimes teachers who sevm wt:
get good results in athletics get abvomir-
able results in personality outccms.
Usually these unwise teachers do not knov
any better. They have been looking for