PHYSICAL TRAINING.
In accordance with the wish of educational officials to diffuse among the schools of Uruguay the benefits of international progress in the physical betterment of school children, a commission was named by the executive in April, 1916, to draw up a plan of physical education in schools. This commission, acting in cooperation with the general direction of primary instruction, recommended to the executive the appointment of a permanent technical commission of physical training for schools, and this recommendation was approved by executive decree of March 8, 1918. The commission so appointed was to consist of a member of the general direction of primary instruction, one of the national commission of physical education, a physician of the medical school staff, a physician to be named by the National Council of Hygiene, the technical inspector of primary education, the technical director of the National Commission of Physical Education, the teachers of gymnastics of the normal institutes and of the primary schools of the capital, and two physicians who were specialists in diseases of children.
The province of the commission was to draw up for the general direction of primary instruction programs of physical exercises for schools; to outline methods of instruction; to see that these programs and methods were practically carried out in the public schools, to inform the school authorities upon points of deficiency in instruction and to indicate measures of correcting these; to organize gymnastic meetings and exhibitions for schools, and in general to promote the diffusion of physical education in the schools.
In furtherance of the awakened national interest in physical education, the executive has appointed departmental commissions in various departments for the immediate provision of adequate playgrounds and the acquisition of apparatus for games to be installed in town and village plazas. These have cooperated with the National Commission for Physical Education, the latter having decreed the establishment, upon application of residents, of neighborhood and community playing centers. All games, especially those of North America, which are adapted to the climate and environment have been systematically encouraged. In localities where it was required by law the executive has authorized the municipal authorities, with the consent of the national commission, to negotiate such loans as were necessary for the financial carrying out of this nation-wide scheme. These are steps of very great significance in a country of South America not by tradition or racial inheritance addicted to outdoor sports.