"A healthy mind in a healthy body" is a well-known adage. So is the saying, 'All work and no play makes jack a dull boy.' Proverbs and saying reveal the practical wisdom and log experience of the world. They are like golden coins whose currency is for ever. Without games and sports our youngsters would develop into cowards, lethargic weaklings and imbeciles. One of the most effective and time-tested ways to ensure healthy growth of body and mind is to make students and young men and women take active part in outdoor activities of sports and games. The aim of education is all round development of the personality of the students, the future of the nation. Unless they are bodily fit, they cannot be mentally competent. It is a well established fact that development of mental faculties depends to a great extent on the proper and timely growth of body and it various organs. For want of physical growth there would be lopsided development and children will be wanting in balanced personality.
Games and sports, athletics and outdoor exercise inculcate discipline, teamwork, patience, sense of justice and fair play, courage, endurance, cooperation and perseverance. These are the qualities which can be easily acquired in the field through playing various games like football, cricket, volleyball, badminton, basketball, tennis etc. Similarly, weight-lifting, gymnastics, swimming, running, jogging, horse-riding etc. are very rewarding as they stimulate physical and mental growth.
Intellectual or mental power as well as manpower are equally important for the progress and development of a nation. Manpower means not merely the number of hands but also the powerful and healthy hands that can venture any task, challenge and odds. Weak hands and faint hearts can neither turn the wheels of industry, nor plough the field, nor protected the country against foreign aggression. It is said and rightly that the battle of Trafalgar was fought and won on the playground of the school where the hero of the war, Horatio Nelson( 1758-1805) played games and enjoyed sports.He got training in discipline and imbibed the qualities of leadership here.
We want tough trained, disciplined, brave, dashing, noble-minded, intelligent, powerful and patriotic citizens, men and women. Such product is possible only when the activities of the students in schools and colleges are judiciously spread over both class-rooms, laboratories, libraries and the arena of sports and games. Swimming pools, gymnasiums, playgrounds and stadiums are as important as class-rooms and libraries. It is by taking part in games and sports right from the elementary school that young men and women can have necessary physical fitness, right mental make-up and abilities to face the tough challenges,realities and difficulties of life when they enter their manhood and womanhood.
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