The influence on national life of military training in schools / by T.C. Horsfall.

  • Horsfall, T. C. (Thomas Coglan), 1841-1932.
Date:
[1906]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The influence on national life of military training in schools / by T.C. Horsfall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of inilitaiy training in their twenty-tirst year, and also compels them in sui)se(jiient years to practise tiring yearly, and to re- ceive a sliort course of militaiy training every second year. It is, therefore, much k*ss dei)endent than is this country on the use which it causes to he made of the time spent in the elementary school for its chance of training its people in love of country and in ])ower to defend it. Yet Switzerland gives all its boys elementaiy military drill, and in many of the cantons the older boys in the elementary schools are trained in shooting, and receive a little training also in skirmishing. In con- junction with all this military training they receive much instruction respecting their duty towards their country. Xo chauvinism is jiroduced, and the Swiss are a most jieacc- loving people. It is sometimes said that military drill is poor exercise and that children soon tire of it. In Macclesfield the Patriotic Association in the year UHM) began to give instruction in drill and other kinds of ])hysical training to the boys of some twenty elementary schools in and near the town. The exercise and the orderly movements seemed so delightful to the girls that in some of the schools they begged that they too might be drilled, and their retjuest was comjilied with. Some of the older boys were taught to shoot out of school-time, and a Cadet Corps was formed for the lx>ys who left school. This system of work was continued till last year, when, owing to the change in the management of elementary schools, the giving of drill by our instructor had to be discontinued. Recently, the local authority which controls the schools outside the town has announced that it is willing to allow drill to be renewed, at its cost. So convinced were the head-teachers of the goodness of the physical and moral results of the training, so fresh had they found the interest of the children to be in it, that everyone of them is delighted to hear that the training can be continued. I am convinced that very great good would come to Hnglish children and to the whole community from the intro- duction of military drill and instruction in shooting into all our schools, and that there would be no drawbacks to the ad- vantages which it would give in imi>rovement of health, increase of j)ublic spirit and patriotism, and of increase also of the safety ot the nation.