HEALTH AND ATHLETICS.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Sir R. Baden-Powell's letter in the Spectator of July 19th contains the following : " We encourage . . . activities. where proficiency cornea by desire from within, and is not a task imposed by order from without." This is to say, " we encourage activities promoted by selfish desire," as distinct from those imposed by the needs of others. This is, I think, the idea at the bottom of many of the modern methods of education, and the cause of much of the widespread selfish- ness of to-day. " Desire from within " is encouraged in the young in the belief that this will yield better fruit than did the severe training given to the youth of the Victorian era. But whatever the training, the ultimate aim of the teacher should surely be to obtain selflessness rather than selfishness.
Mr. Alan Porter wrote in a recent article " We must include in ourselves our inheritance from the past ; this before we can hope to transcend it, to advance to new conquests of spirit, to be ourselves . . . For no man has a right to reject authority until he can fully accept it." The child must therefore be taught to accept authority—only thus can he learn the fullness of life, only thus can he be prepared to live his life in the sense of the two greatest commandments.—
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