Previous studies have found that higher physical activity levels are associated with greater academic achievement among students. However, it remains unclear whether associations are due to the physical activity itself or sports team participation, which may involve requirements for maintaining certain grades.
The stunted,
emaciated figures and the jittery faces have become synonymous with the school going children now a days. The innocence and exuberance which they carry from their cradle to the backyards get crushed when they reach their educational institutions. The heavy weight of school hours has chained and bowed their restive and jestful spirit. Education, which liberally means bringing up an individual mentally, morally and physically has confined it scope in getting just the onerous facts and figures imbibed in the young impressionable minds. Subjugated under the monotonous and burdensome curriculum, the young lads do not get any time to run, play and enjoy. The mind swells up, the body shrinks. And in the absence of sound physique, the mental power is jeopardised. The result is a dismal show an uninspired limpish generation living a graceless and worn out life. This is the greatest flaw in our educational frame work which has still not realised that games and sports are an indispensable part of education, providing the necessary nourishment needed to nurture the seeds of excellence.
The mechanical infrastructure of ,our body needs regular and meticulous attention. Brain, perhaps the most complicated of all machineries is the most fragile part of the human system. Studies exercise the brain, sharpen the intellect and make the logical understanding incisive. Life is really dull and dreary if it is not kindled by the flambeau of education. But education is equally vapid if it is devoid of sparkle and glow. In absence of any change or recreation, the brain goes dull and sluggish. To stop the “good old order corrupt” the minds, games and sports recreate the dormant spirit of the children. Besides providing the necessary change, they electrify and animate the body, thus galvanising laziness into activity. With brawn revitalised, the brain spontaneously functions with greater efficiency. Students, thus start afresh, riveting their concentration to their studies, and grasping the facts easily.
The importance of games and sports in developing the complete. personality, of an, individual need hardly be emphasised.
The playground is simply not a piece of land where children play, run and sweat out their energies. But in many ways is it a deductive sphere where many human and ethical values are fostered in young individuals. Life is itself a playground where the competence, courage and determination is put to litmus, test. These qualities help man to come out from the field victorious and unscathed. According to Duke of Wellington, Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton. This tells that the soldiers who won on the battlefield learnt the
very basis of battle and victory on the playfields. Audacity and confidence was developed in them through sports and they learnt to parry the imbroglios that beckoned them.
When the players are on the ground, they play with the intention of winning the game. Team spirit and coordination is fostered in them. The desire to glitter the name of their nation is their foremost consideration. Games and sports have always helped in establishing cordial and harmonious relations among different individuals, states -and nations. They provide an opportunity to mingle with persons of different colour and countries, thus giving a fair chance to develop friendship and rapport. The victory and defeat is to be accepted with a sportsman spirit always inspiring to reach the dizzy heights.
Discipline, which is the hallmark of success is developed on a playground. Submitting to the rules and regulations of games and obeying to the referee, we foster in us a strong disciplinary sense. Not only discipline but self-control, self- reliance, aplomb, confidence and determination are imbibed in us through sports. So the playground itself becomes a school, imparting the best education to us.
Education is the very bed rock of a cultured society. It must endeavour to absorb in the life of man all the essential norms, all the important decencies and decorums of an organised and systematised way of life. Initiative, daring and enterprising outlook must be developed in every student. And what can be a better way than sports to achieve this end? The judicious use of games depend on the excellent piece of work, noble in reason and infinite in faculties.
Let the children regain the freedom to jump and play. Just remove the heavy encumbers from their shoulders, and all the jitters from their miens will soon vanish. They will turn out to be better citizens, assimilating the goodness of the books in a much better manner than what they are doing presently.
