Celebrating the Past - CAHPERD 75th Anniversary

Celebrate the Past
In Their Own Words

Keynote address delivered by Dr. Arthur Lamb at the first convention in 1933.

"Its members must constantly aspire towards a richer background of professional training, wider scholarship, ripe experience and a constantly high purpose to interpret and inspire, for youth will follow only those who have met these standards….."

We must demonstrate how a modern programme in health and physical education can transform a community; how health, happiness, general well-being and proper use of leisure will depend upon intelligent foresight and planning into these troubled times. We must demonstrate our faith with Adam Lindsay Gordon when he says:

‘Our hopes are wild imaginings,
Our schemes are airy castles,
Yet these, on earth are lords and kings,
And we, their slaves and vassals.’

Is there, then, any obligation for us to show a unity of interests and purpose? Are the problems involved not common to all sections of the country? Even if there were not special and immediate problems, is there no inspiration to result from the exchange of ideas by those engaged in a common cause? Few will deny the advantages to be gained from a unified effort, such as the launching of the Association. Difficulties have presented themselves and doubtless will continue to do so. Just how rapid and thorough the growth of the Association will be depends upon many factors. It must have ideals, objectives, aspirations, breadth of vision, enthusiasm and courage. If it does not have these, then its days will be numbered. Its platform must be basically sound, its vision broad, its ideals high, its enthusiasm boundless and its courage great. Its members must constantly aspire towards a richer background of professional training, wider scholarship, ripe experience and a constantly high purpose to interpret and inspire, for youth will follow only those who have met these standards….. It must strive to develop a national consciousness for the full and complete education of the individual. Our child born at this meeting, in April 1933 might well respond:

‘Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be.’

CPEA JOURNAL, VOL 1:1

Quote from Past President of CAHPER, during the fortieth celebration in 1973
Hart Devenny	“There is a tendency on the part of those who are engaged in professional tasks to forget the past, concentrate on the present and dabble in the future. The tendency to forget or pass over what has gone before, and yes, even to reject the past as traditional, is commonplace. And yet the answer to many of the problems of the present is to be found in a better knowledge and understanding of the past. We must use the knowledge of the past history of Physical Education to understand the development in the present while we constantly should contemplate the needs of the future in terms of what is happening in the present.”
Quote from CAHPER Journal V 39, N6 (July – August 1973)
S. J. Shamsie From CAHPER Journal V 39, N6 (July – August 1973)	Our task is to admit how little we know, how much we must still learn, how tenuous are the methods we employ to help them young people and their families. Our task is not to retire in insult or hurt nor to embrace in unthinking enthusiasm every new (and often half-baked) idea that comes along. Our task is to be open, considerate and considering, both willing and eager to change. If we can accept change as the only constant of today, and we see the challenges and opportunities in it, we can then perhaps join hands rather than locking fists in a partnership for progress with the most valuable resource of a country – its young people.

Quote from PHE journal 1954

Dr Lamb says, “are we satisfied with the “What do I get out of it” attitude, which is permeating far deeper into our competition than we care to admit? Is the love of the game for its own sake being forsaken for the returns it may bring? Intensive competition, the desire to win and gate receipts are masking our vision as to the more important functions which sport and recreation should serve. The attendant evils are apt to make very rapid inroads on our traditions of play, which may become so impregnated as to create a most serious situation for the rising generation.”

Dr. A. S. Lamb

Physical and Health Education Canada
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Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1H 7X3
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