sith

the schools today are poorly trained, in many instances only having had an op-
portunity to play on some varsity team and having no sound philosophy of phys-
ical education to guide then,

This move for improvement of our National Physical Fitness, if pro-
perly administered should raise the physical fitness status of the people of
the country as a whole and should dso develop a sound appreciation of the
necessity for physical fitness, not only as a war time defense mechanism but
for the improvement of all phases of general living. Such a program is neces-
sary today as the present health examination figures of high schools and col-
leges show a physical condition which is not in any respect an inmprovenent of
the figures given by Love and Davenport concerning the draft for the last war.
Here it should be emphasized that the authentic figures of the last draft re-
veal the fact that over 50% were rejected for full-time army service and the
figures of 33-1/3% are for those who were so unfit that they were practically
useless for any form of any activity.

It occurs to me that representatives from the Anerican Medical As-
sociation; the Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation; the
Surgeon General; the U. S. Navy and the U. S. Public Health Services could de-
visé a procedure for raising our national physical fitness and should be in-

vited to confer on the above proposal.

 

The above data was submitted by
DR. GEORGE T. STAFFORD
of University of Illinois.