by Robert McCollum, Director, Physical Education, Biola College, La Mirada
temple of God
There are scientific studies showing a significant rela tionship between physical fitness and the following: fatigue, coronary heart attack, social adjustment, leader ship qualities, and academic achievement. Comparatively recent research studies have shown con clusively that there is a very positive correlation between physical fitness and scholastic achievement. The following principles have been supported by these scientific research studies. 1. A higher percentage of physically weak students are dropped from college for academic reasons than physi cally strong students, even though there is no difference in their native intelligence. 2. Improvement of one’s physical fitness level is often accompanied by higher school grades. 3. The intellectually gifted child is generally healthier, stronger, and larger than his counterpart who possesses only average mentality. 4. A youngster who does not develop proper muscular control will be retarded in penmanship. This, in turn, will limit his development of organizational skills. 5. Male students who rate superior in physical ability generally rate superior in leadership ability. As a result of this overwhelming evidence which shows a significant relationship between physical fitness and scholastic achievement, Rogers proposed the Law of General Learning Potential. This law proposes that for a given level of intelligence, the potential to leam and to produce is increased or decreased in proportion to the person’s physical fitness status at a given time. Does this not have definite and compelling implications for the Christian student? Are you concerned with getting the most dividends from your college career? Do you really desire to develop your talents to their highest potential? What is God’s will for your life? Perhaps now he wants you as a teacher, a clerk, a business man, a missionary, a housewife. But what of tomorrow? Are you really intent on preparing for His future use? To achieve the maximum for your Saviour, mental alertness and willingness may not be enough. The healthy, robust, virile person is able to surpass far his counterpart with like ability who is frail and sickly. Christ implores: “ And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first com mandment” (Mark 12:30).
LITERATURE RELATING PHYSICAL FITNESS W ITH SCHOLAST IC ACH IEVEMENT 1. Frederick Rand Rogers, Master’s Thesis, Stanford University, 1922. Two groups of students were studied. They had nearly equal IQ averages, but varied in muscular strength. The scholarship of the high-strength group (IQ 107) was significantly superior to the low-strength group (IQ 111). 2. C. Getty Page, Case Studies of College Men With Low Physical Fitness Indices, Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Syracuse University, 1940. Eighty-three percent of the freshmen male students dropped for low grades during the 1939-40 year were below the national average in the Physical Fitness Index (PFI) test; 39 percent fell below the national average. However, the scholastic aptitude scores on standard tests for these same students produced a median at the 72nd percentile. 3. John R. Coefield and Robert H. McCollum, A Case Study Report of 78 University Freshmen Men With Low Physical Fitness Indices , Microcarded Master’s Thesis, University of Oregon, 1955. The lowest-scoring 78 male freshmen entering the University of Oregon during the fall of 1954 were low in scholastic accomplishment, when com pared with all University men. These same students were superior in scholastic aptitude, as determined by their high school stanine ratings. During the fall semester these low-fitness men were subjected to an intensified course of developmental physical education, designed to improve muscular tone. There was an increase of 4.6 percent in the Grade Point Averages (GPA) for the low-fitness students during the winter term, accompanied by an increase in PFI of 15.3 percent. No other University group showed GPA increases exceeding 3.5 percent; all other dormitory freshmen men improved their GPA only 1.8 percent. 4. Lewis M. Terman, The Gifted Child Grows , 1947, p. 24. After twenty-five years of studying the intellectually-gifted Children, Psychologist Terman stated: “ The results of the physical measurement and the medical examinations provide a striking contrast to the popular stereotype of the child prodigy, so commonly predicted as a pathetic creature, over-serious and undersized, sickly, hollow-chested, stoop-shouldered, clumsy, nervously tensed, and be-spectacled. There are some children who have some resemblance to the stereotype, but the truth is that almost every element in the picture, except the last (glasses), is less characteristic of the gifted child than of the mental average.” 5. The New York Regents Council on the Readjustment of High School Educa tion, Bright Kids (pamphlet, no date). The New York State Regents Council, after studying the academically talented high school students, concluded that bright students normally are superior to the standards for their age in size, strength and general health: “ There is no law of compensation whereby the intellectual superiority of the gifted tends to be offset by inferiorities along nonintellectual lines.” 6. ‘‘Brains and Brawn,” Scholastic Teacher , Vol. 43:5 (Oct. 10, 1958), p. 1; and “ Gifted Children,” US News * World Report , Aug. 8, 1958. Nason conducted studies with a group of gifted children at the University of Southern California, and found significant relationships between achieve ment level and muscular coordination. When a student’s proper muscular control is not developed, penmanship is retarded. The investigator states: “ Thus, there develops a block between his thinking process and what he is able to communicate intelligibly in writing. He never develops organiza tional skills. A ceiling is placed on his future attainment. 7. “ Is American Youth Physically Fit?” , US News a World Report, Aug. 2, 1957, pp. 73. In a five-year study at the United States Military Academy by Appleton, candidates were classified into five groups, according to physical aptitude scores. It was found that 51 percent of those ranking lowest in pnysical ability failed to graduate; 24 percent of those rated highest in physical ability failed to graduate. The two groups rating highest in physical ability also rated highest in leadership ability and in academic achievement. 8. Physical Fitness News Letter , No. 3 University of Oregon (Eugene), January, 1955. Rogers, after studying the evidence of twenty-five years of research, stated that youth at all levels of intelligence, who are physically sub-par, have more difficulty maintaining mental alertness. He proposed the following Law of General Learning Potential: “ The capacity to leam anything depends on both intelligence and physical fitness: generally physical fitness is twice as conducive to learning as intelligence.” That is, for a given level of intelligence THE POTENTIAL TO LEARN AND TO PRODUCE is increased or decreased in proportion to the person’s physical fitness status at the specific time.
APRIL, 1960
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