Daily Telegraph editorial: Take the 1985 jumping test
Modern children have every advantage over earlier kids, but they are far less inclined to join in physical activities.
Opinion
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Anyone visiting a museum that contains clothing from previous centuries is immediately struck by just how small that clothing is.
The White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, for example, has several examples of uniforms worn by soldiers during the US Civil War.
Size-wise, these garments could have come from a Kmart children’s section.
By almost every measure, humans are becoming larger, stronger and healthier with each new generation. Improved diets and advances in medical technology are also ensuring we live longer on average than all who have gone before us.
Yet Australian primary school children cannot jump as far as kids could in 1985. In fact, they are falling short by 16.4cm.
At first glance this seems to be an inexplicable anomaly. If today’s children are healthier and better-fed, it surely stands to reason that their athletic abilities would also have improved across the board.
But here is the thing about athletic ability: if you don’t use it, you lose it.
Modern children have every advantage over earlier kids, but they are far less inclined to join in physical activities.
“We need children to be motivated to play actively in their free time,” Dr Louise Barnett, of the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, told The Saturday Telegraph.
“Screen time is taking away time that 20 or 30 years ago was spent playing outside, in the backyard or street.
“They played with siblings or older neighbours and had a lot of opportunities to practise, but now they are not getting that, so it makes today’s structured opportunities like PE even more important.”
Concern over declining athleticism is not just a matter of pining for older, better times. Healthy, active children tend to maintain their fitness as adults. A sedentary, slothful childhood leads to all manner of health issues later in life.
For the record, the average distance a Year 6 boy could jump from a standing start in 1985 was 151.5cm. Girls recorded average leaps of 141.9cm.
If you have children of similar age, perhaps you could put them to the 1985 test. There should be no punishment for failure. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Anyone falling short might be required to enjoy themselves running around outside.
Phelps fantasy’s real cost
To this point, most discussion about Wentworth MP Kerryn Phelps’s bid to relocate refugees in Australia has centred on potential border protection costs.
Now there is a further issue. According to estimates, the financial cost to taxpayers for Phelps’s fantasy will run to billions.
Impractical politicians rarely consider mundane aspects of their policies, such as how to pay for them. That’s for someone else.
If Labor supports this irrational bill, it will signal that the party has learned little from its previous ruinous border protection experiments. Australia cannot afford another such debacle.
Virtual invaders attack
Most Australians have far better things to do than follow political antics in Parliament House.
Certain outsiders, however, are absolutely fascinated by the place — even to the extent of hacking the Parliament House computer network.
An apparent security incident yesterday required all parliamentary members and staff to immediately enter new passwords in a bid to outwit whoever the electronic intruders may be.
Those intruders most likely have very little interest in Question Time or other routine proceedings. Worryingly, they may instead be seeking for ways to disrupt or probe Australia’s defence or financial systems.
It is obviously significant that a previous cyber break-in, in 2011, was conducted by Chinese intelligence agencies.
A spokeswoman yesterday offered little other than that security teams were working to understand “the full extent of this network compromise”.
In this internet era, a nation can be invaded without physically being invaded.
But a virtual invasion may in every way be just as destructive.
The Daily Telegraph, printed and published by the proprietor, Nationwide News Pty Ltd A.C.N. 008438828 of 2 Holt St, Surry Hills NSW 2010, at 26-52 Hume Highway, Chullora. Responsibility for election comment is taken by the Editor, Ben English.