PHYSICAL EDUCATION FOR HEALTH
Radio Program

"Personality and Character development in Physical Education"
(Dre Ve W. Lapp)

Physical Education is usually thought ef as being the work carried on in
a gymnasium, and athletics are usually considered as consisting of the major sports
that are performed before paid audiences and which receive the publicity to be had
in the sport pages of the newspapers. However, the term physical education includes
athletic and gymnasium activities as well as other physical activities performed on
the play grounds, parks, otce

_ When I say physical educction has in its program greater possibilities
for personality and character development than any other subject in the curriculum,
I mean that athletics are to be included as a part of physical educations Let me
repeat tho statement in another waye I believe that tho teacher of physical educat=
jon has greator possibilities for doing good in the developmont of charactor than
any other teacher in a public school system, © college or a univorsitys

I do not want to be quoted as saying that all physical education teachers
are actually doing the most good at tho job of personality or character building
because I know they are not, and it is not so much the fault of tho teachers and
coaches as it is the fault of those who train theso toachers, the fault of those
who hire these teachers, and tho fault of the public which makes domands on these
toachors so that they weaken their own charactors and those of their pupils in an
attempt to satisfy the public.

; Soveral years ago I wrote a curriculum for a high school and as an intro-
duction I wrote that character is caught, not taught. I thought I had coined a
phrasé and was proud of mysclf; but on looking into physical education philosophies
I found that others had used this term. Howevor, I am convinced that it is still
truco; Charactor is caught and not taught. All tho preaching and talking that a
man can do on sportsmanship will bo of little avail if the ones to whom he is preach=
ing know that when ho plays tennis he never gives a line ball to his opponent or
that when he plays golf ho only counts every other stroke.

In mentioning the word preaching an illustration of this point comes to
mind. A young minister camo into a town in the fall and built up his young peoplo's
work to a very high plane. By spring he wes tho ideal of the boys and girls and they
foll in line readily when he suggested some playground ball teams for the Sunday
School. Leagues were organized and this young athletic preacher pitched for one
of the teams in an older leaguee All lost respect for this man bocause overy bell
was a strike and overy man was out. Tho umpiro was never right, etc. This minister
lost in two weeks of playing all the good he had preached into his church flock in
six monthse His usefulness was overs

I repeat, charactor is caught and not taught. May I illustrate the power
of imitation? Only last fall a little incident brought this forcefully to my mind.
A little three-year-old boy clad only in a smo 11 under garnent was scon kicking a
box about a vacant field. It was very funny and the neighbors called the child's
mother who captured him and, after gotting the rest of his clothes, took him home.
When asked what he was doing he said he was playing football, and after much quest=
joning it was discovered that he had scen two men playing catch and ono had taken
off his shirte Hoe too had taken off his blouse to play, but his clothors were so
constructed that his pants came off with his blouse. A harmless incident, yet the