Miss Byrn Miss Bell Miss Byrn Miss Bell Miss Byrn Miss Bell You wore fortunate in having the opportunity to learn so many different activitiose Mony girls como to the University having had very little opportunity to explore the possibilities of various skills. Some girls come from schools whore the only activity offered is basketball or tumbling, and if the activity offered is not intersting to every girl or she is not good enough to make the team, her opportunity to parte icipate is loste Well, Miss Byrn, I can casily understand how a girl coming out of a school with such 2 narrow program might casily learn to dislike physical activitics. Almost all of the girls in our high school looked forward to their hour in the gymnasium as a period in which to have a good timee Our instructor was ansious that we have a good tince Consequently, we regarded each new activity as it ws presented to us as an opport- unity to enjoy oursclves. This was an attitude not present, certainly, sn the other classes I attended, and I supvose it was for this reason more than any other that I decided to prepare myself to teach in this field. It looked as if that field of endeavor somehow possessed a guarantee that I should continuc to live. Yes, Virginia, I believe that our field of physical education is unique jn that respect. Every normal child loves to play. Wo are not faced with the problem of creating a desire to learn the subject matter in our curriculum unless wo have students conditioned unfavorably by pre- vious faulty teaching. Our problom really lics in deciding what it is wo wish to accomplish by dirccting the skills and activities that con~ stitute our program. What things other than skills should be learned in physical education classes? Ts the girl who is an oxpert swimmer or a champion tennis player necessarily “physically educated"? Is the poor sport physically educated, even though expert at games? How about the girl to whom winning is paramount? How about the girl who plays beyond the point of her enduranco? Are these csirls physically educated? No, Miss Byrn, I don't believe we can call our job done when we have taught the skills that constitute an activity or a sporte We all know girls who are so proud of their accomplishment in one particular sport that the opportunities to learn new and stinulating activitics are overkookede’: Those girls have narrowed their appreciations and Limited the possibilities of enriching their experience immeasurablye Yes, Virginia, I believe you are right in thinking that the narrowing of onets experience to an appreciation of one small field of activity and thereby attaining a degree of perfection not otherwise possible, 4s not a worthy objectives It is my feeling that this unfortunate individual is a product of the type of leadership present in many schoolse The practice of perfecting techniques -= insisting upon a prescribed way of accomplishing a given end, has robbed much of our teaching of its value and dulled the natural interest of the average student. We lead our instruction with so much detail that the urge to play the game is lost. I think that is truc, Miss Byrn, but I think we have agreed that the fun of doing things, lics largely in being able to do thom well and unless we are instructed in the way of doing an activity most efficionte ly, it seons to me that much of the thrill of oxccuting a verfect tennis stroke, for instance, would be lost to use