ESSAY ON GAMES: A PART OF EDUCATION - Education means full development of the human personality and attainment of full stature. Man has a body, mind and spirit. Accordingly education aims at the physical intellectual and spiritual and moral development of man. Education merely does not give knowledge to a human being and to enable him to earning his livelihood but it does much more than this. Education cannot ignore the physical side of man. Man has been blessed with a beautiful body. Poets, painters and sculptors have gone into raptures over the human body and have tried to depict it in their arts in many ways.
Education means full development of the human personality
and attainment of full stature. Man has a body, mind and spirit. Accordingly
education aims at the physical intellectual and spiritual and moral development
of man. Education merely does not give knowledge to a human being and to enable
him to earning his livelihood but it does much more than this.
Education cannot ignore the physical side of man. Man has
been blessed with a beautiful body. Poets, painters and sculptors have gone
into raptures over the human body and have tried to depict it in their arts in
many ways. Games are a means of keeping the body healthy and fit. Physical
fitness from all kinds of ailments is the desire and ambition of human being.
Indeed, good health is first condition of happiness in life. Those who play
games generally maintain good health.
Games are also a source of recreation or pastime. Education
teaches a man for the need of recreational activities. The essence of a
recreation is that it should refresh both the body and the mind, and provide a
means of escape from ones profession Pursuits. When one is playing golf or
billiards or badminton or table tennis one becomes forgetful of everything else
and gets absorbed in the games. Thus games are very useful as a diversion for
the mind.
Games also provide a kind of training for the mind. Most
games today are a matter of high skill and ripe judgment. Hockey, football,
cricket and other games are not just a matter of physical exertion and
exercise. Proficiency in these games is acquired after a long practice.
The player must acquire the art of playing a game. Every
game, therefore, contributes to the development of the mind and the judgment of
a player. Good players show a lot of mental alertness and ingenuity while
playing.
Fair play is a noble moral quality when practiced in
political dealings. The quality is best inculcated in human beings through
games. The habit of fair play makes a man love, honesty, integrity and justice
which are great moral qualities.
Games also teach the lesson of accepting a defeat on the
play field with a smiling face. A defeated player shakes hands with his
victorious opponent and even offers him congratulations. Defeat does not
dishearten or depress a true sportsman.
On the Contrary, it provides an incentive for a greater
effort. This lesson also is bound to prove useful to a man in the wider sphere
of life. Life has its misfortunes, woes, failures, but a man with a tough
character is not daunted by these. Games make a man tough and thus enable him
to withstand the "slings and arrows" of fortune. Games teach certain
other lessons as well.
They teach team-spirit or the spirit of mutual cooperation;
they teach the value of unity or united effort; they teach the necessity of
always obeying the orders of the captain or the leader. All these are valuable
lessons which prepare man to live correctly and nobly. Education aims at
building up character, and Character includes all the qualities mentioned
above. Thus the value of games in forming and molding character is very great.
Education aims too, at developing qualities of leadership in
human beings. The qualities of leadership are developed most effectively and
fruitfully through games.
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