Call for Army to straighten out children

It has often been said of errant young people that they could do with the Army to straighten them out.

Fine Gael's defence spokesman, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, is taking the advice to heart. He is proposing that the Army be involved in teaching correct posture to children in schools.

Deputy Deenihan said bad posture could result in backache, headaches and was both a cause and a result of bad morale.

The ram-rod straight former Kerry All-Ireland winning captain said that it had become unfashionable for schools to teach children how to walk tall, sit upright and look the world right in the eyes.

In the 1950s and 1960s, "drill" was common in primary schools which often involved children walking around the playground with books on their heads to ensure that they maintained the right posture.

"I went to a small, little school [ Dromclough Primary School in Listowel] and I remember there was a teacher there, a Mrs Costello.

"When we were in infants she took us out in the yard and we did drill. She emphasised holding our heads upright and walking tall and doing shoulder exercises to correct any curvature of the shoulders," he said.

"When drill was abandoned, physical education was supposed to take over, but it didn't because the facilities were not there and the expertise was not there to do [ it].

"It's a real issue with self-esteem and personality development," Deputy Deenihan said. "A number of young people are low in self-esteem and that is reflected in how they walk and how they hold themselves.

"It's an area we will have to look at collectively as a nation because it causes a lot of medical problems down the line," the deputy explained.

"If there was a posture development programme in the schools, it would be well worth it," he said.

Deputy Deenihan said he was struck by how well Eastern European immigrants hold themselves - a legacy he believes of the emphasis put on physical education in the old Communist regimes.

The Kerry North deputy has tabled a priority question in the Dáil calling on the Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea, to involve the Army in setting standards of fitness for children in school, a large part of which he believes would be teaching good posture. "The Army has a lot of expertise in this area. It should set standards and benchmarks for schools in particular that they would strive to obtain," he said.

He said that West Point, the most famous military school in the United States, sets fitness benchmarks which are copied by schools across America.

The priority question is scheduled to be answered by the Minister tomorrow.

However, a Department of Defence spokeswoman said fitness levels were a matter for the Department of Education and no role was envisaged in the current White Paper on defence for the Army being involved in teaching physical fitness in school.