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Health and Physical Education
for Elementary
Classroom Teachers

An Integrated Approach

Retta R. Evans, PhD, MCHES

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Sandra K. Sims, PhD

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Human Kinetics
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Evans, Retta R. author. | Sims, Sandra K., 1961- author.
Title: Health and physical education for elementary classroom teachers : an
integrated approach / Retta R. Evans, PhD, Sandra K. Sims, PhD.
Description: Champaign : Human Kinetics, Inc., [2016] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015033961 | ISBN 9781450459914 (print)
Subjects: LCSH: Health education (Elementary)--United States. | Physical
education and training--Study and teaching (Elementary)--United States. |
Health education--Standards--United States. | Physical education and
training--Standards--United States.
Classification: LCC LB1588.U6 E83 2016 | DDC 372.370973--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015033961
ISBN: 978-1-4504-5991-4 (print)
Copyright © 2016 by Retta R. Evans and Sandra K. Sims
All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechan-
ical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, and in any information
storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
The web addresses cited in this text were current as of November 2015, unless otherwise noted.
Acquisitions Editor: Ray Vallese; SHAPE America Editor: Joe McGavin; Developmental Editor: Jacqueline Eaton Blakley;
Managing Editor: Derek Campbell; Copyeditor: Joanna Hatzopoulos Portman; Indexer: Dan Connolly; Permissions Manager:
Dalene Reeder; Graphic Designer: Angela K. Snyder; Cover Designer: Keith Blomberg; Photograph (cover): iStock.com/medi-
aphotos; Photographs (interior): © Human Kinetics, unless otherwise noted; Christopher Futcher/iStock.com (pp. 3, 51, and 84),
CDC/Reuel Waldrop (p. 8), Steve Debenport/iStock.com (pp. 19 and 113), MichaelDeLeon/iStock.com (p. 33), SolStock/iStock.
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iStock.com (p. 143), bonnie jacobs/iStock.com (p. 163); Photo Asset Manager: Laura Fitch; Visual Production Assistant: Joyce
Brumfield; Photo Production Manager: Jason Allen; Senior Art Manager: Kelly Hendren; Associate Art Manager: Alan L.
Wilborn; Illustrations: © Human Kinetics, unless otherwise noted; Printer: United Graphics
SHAPE America – Society of Health and Physical Educators
1900 Association Drive
Reston, VA 20191
800-213-7193
www.shapeamerica.org
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper in this book is certified under a sustainable forestry program.
Human Kinetics
Website: www.HumanKinetics.com
United States: Human Kinetics Australia: Human Kinetics
P.O. Box 5076 57A Price Avenue
Champaign, IL 61825-5076 Lower Mitcham, South Australia 5062
800-747-4457 08 8372 0999
e-mail: info@hkusa.com e-mail: info@hkaustralia.com
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Windsor, ON N8Y 2L5 Mitcham Shopping Centre, South Australia 5062
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Europe: Human Kinetics
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e-mail: hk@hkeurope.com
Contents

A Note From SHAPE America vii

Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Accessing the Web Resource xiii

Role of Health and Physical Education in

Part I
the Classroom 1

Chapter 1 Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds 3

Defining Health in the 21st Century 4
History of Health in Culture 6
History of Health in the United States 7
Health Today in the United States 10
Individual Behaviors and Health 13
Responsibility of Classroom Teachers 14
Summary 17
Review Questions 18

Chapter 2 Coordinated School Health:

A Team Approach 19
National School Policies Focusing on Nutrition and Physical Activity 20
Need for Collaboration Between Education and Health 21
Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) Model 22
Applying the WSCC Model 28
Best Practices 29
Role of Teachers 30
Summary 30
Review Questions 31

iii
iv ¾ Contents

Chapter 3 Health Education 33

Growth and Development 34
Improving Health Behavior 37
Learning Styles 40
Comprehensive School Health Education 42
Summary 46
Review Questions 49

Chapter 4 Physical Education 51

Defining Physical Activity 52
Defining Physical Education 53
Standard 1 55
Standard 2 56
Standard 3 59
Standard 4 60
Standard 5 61
Summary 62
Review Questions 63

How to Integrate Health and Physical

Part II
Education Into the Classroom 65

Chapter 5 Advocating for a Healthy, Active School 67

Advocacy in the Classroom 68
Advocacy in the School 69
Advocacy Ideas for Parents and the Community 71
Advocacy Tips for Using a Media Source 71
Advocacy Tips for Policymakers and Administrators 72
Summary 74
Review Questions 75

Chapter 6 Creating a Healthy Classroom 77

Classroom Health for Every Day 78
Classroom Health Throughout the Year 82
Dimensions of a Healthy Classroom 84
Back-to-School Supply List 94
Unhealthy Teaching Practices 95
Summary 95
Review Questions 96
 Contents ¾ v

Chapter 7 Creating an Active Classroom 97

Activity Breaks and Brain Breaks 98
Integrating Movement Into Academic Lessons 99
Equipment Needs for an Active Classroom 99
Class Management and Organization 99
Inappropriate Practices 102
Safety 103
Class Behavior Management 103
Summary 105
Review Questions 106
Labs 107

Chapter 8 Integrating Health Education Into the

Classroom 113
National Standards for Academic Performance 114
National Health Education Standards (NHES) 114
Brainstorm Integration Ideas 115
Link Health Education Standards With Academic Standards 115
Develop Grade-Specific Interdisciplinary Activities 116
Develop an Integrated Activity Plan 119
Summary 121
Review Questions 122
Labs 123

Chapter 9 Integrating Physical Education Into the

Classroom 143
National Standards for Academic Performance 144
National Standards for K-12 Physical Education 144
Brainstorm Integration Ideas 145
Link Physical Education Standards With Academic Standards 146
Develop Grade-Specific Interdisciplinary Activities 146
Develop an Integrated Activity Plan 149
Summary 151
Review Questions 152
Labs 153
vi ¾ Contents

Chapter 10 Best Practices in the Classroom and

Beyond 163
Planning Ahead 164
Teaching Methods That Work 164
Assessment of Learning 169
Learning Environment 171
Professional Development 172
Supporting Policies That Encourage Wellness 173
Summary 174
Review Questions 175

Appendix A: National Health Education Standards 177

Appendix B: National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes for

K-12 Physical Education 181

Glossary 203
References 207
Resources 211
Index 215
About the Authors 223
About SHAPE America 225
 A Note From SHAPE America
Imagine a world in which every child you have
taught or will ever teach leaves your classroom
equipped not just with the foundational knowl-
edge and skills to tackle the academic rigors
of middle school and beyond but also with the
ability and the desire to be physically active for
a lifetime.
That’s the world we envision at SHAPE
America – Society of Health and Physical Ed-
ucators, the leading professional organization
for health and physical educators: that every
child leaves school with the skills, knowledge,
confidence, desire, and opportunity to enjoy a
healthful, physically active lifestyle.
And while SHAPE America advocates for
physical education and health to be taught by
state-licensed or state-certified teachers, we
recognize that elementary classroom teachers
are often asked to teach subjects in which they
have limited background. We also appreciate
that elementary classroom teachers care about
their teaching and the welfare of their students,
50 Million Strong by
2029
Approximately 50 million students are currently
enrolled in America’s elementary and secondary
schools (grades pre-K to 12). SHAPE America is
leading the effort to ensure that by the time today’s
preschoolers graduate from high school in 2029,
all of America’s students will have developed the
skills, knowledge and confidence to enjoy healthy,
meaningful physical activity.
and that they are well trained in child devel-
opment and general teaching methods. That is
why SHAPE America chose to collaborate with
these excellent authors and publisher in bring-
ing this book to you, the elementary classroom
teacher in practice or in training: to ensure that
you have the best tools with which to integrate
health and physical education into your daily
teaching. The skills-based content of the book
is correlated with the National Health Edu-
cation Standards, SHAPE America’s National
Standards for K-12 Physical Education, and rel-
evant Common Core State Standards.
It is our hope that this book will help you
develop physically active—and physically lit-
erate—students, and that you become an ad-
vocate for health and physical education in
the process. If you ultimately are tasked with
including health and physical education into
your daily curriculum, you can do so with con-
fidence that you are providing the best instruc-
tion and experience possible for your students.
—E. Paul Roetert, CEO, SHAPE America –
Society of Health and Physical Educators
vii
This page intentionally left blank.
 Preface
As school budgets shrink across the United
States, elementary classroom teachers are be-
ing asked to teach subjects in which they have
limited expertise. Teaching health education and
physical education might seem like a daunting
task for someone who does not have specialist
training; a teacher might worry, for example,
that she isn’t athletic enough to teach physical
education, or that her affinity for junk food dis-
qualifies her from any sort of authority in the
area of health. Although expertise in these top-
ics is desirable, it is possible for the non-special-
ist to offer quality health and physical education
to elementary students. In fact, teaching health
and physical education gives the elementary
classroom teacher the power to help children
grow in every aspect of their being.
Health education and physical education
may feel like a tremendous responsibility to
a classroom teacher, who likely already feels
as if there are not enough hours in the day to
address high-stakes academic requirements.
There can be a lot of pressure when it comes
to standardized test scores and yearly progress
reports from administrators, parents, and even
politicians. What is a teacher to do?
Health and Physical Education for Elementary
Classroom Teachers: An Integrated Approach equips
students with the essential knowledge and skills
needed to teach these subjects without specialist
training. Written for undergraduate elementary
education students and for in-service elementary
teachers charged with teaching health and physi-
cal education, this unique textbook is skills-based
and designed to provide ample opportunities to
practice the concepts taught. All content is cor-
related with the National Health Education Stan-
dards (Joint Committee on National Health Edu-
cation Standards, 2007), the National Standards
for K-12 Physical Education (SHAPE America,
2013), and relevant state-specific academic stan-
dards, including Common Core State Standards.
Most important, the book’s integrated approach
emphasizes the practical ways that health and
physical education can be built into the existing
academic curriculum.
By learning essential knowledge and using
the strategies developed in this book, you will
be able to skillfully navigate health and phys-
ical education! You will discover how to inte-
grate health and physical education into every
aspect of the school day. Are your students
breathing bus fumes while waiting to be picked
up? Are the hallway water fountains clean and
working? Are your students rested, focused,
and ready to learn? By creating a healthy
school environment for students, you will max-
imize your students’ academic achievement.
You will learn how to seamlessly incorporate
health education and physical education into
the core subject areas while meeting state and
national standards. You will reap the benefits of
becoming an advocate for student health with
colleagues, administrators, and parents.
Features
Throughout the textbook, you will find informa-
tive web sites, tips for best practices, tables filled
with innovative strategies, and other resources on
how to incorporate health, wellness, and physical
education/activity during your school day. Each
chapter includes the following elements:
• Objectives
• Summary
• Review questions
Chapters also contain boldfaced important
terms, and you can find a list of those terms and
their definitions in the glossary in the back of
the book. Cited references and valuable sources
of further information are listed in the book’s
References and Resources sections, respectively.
Labs have been included in chapters 7, 8, and
9. These labs are designed to help you brain-
storm the process of integration into practice.
The labs are critical to the textbook and the
reader because they connect the textbook’s con-
tent with practical ways to apply it in a class-
room setting.
Organization
The text is organized into two main parts, each
dedicated to different components of incorpo-
rating health and physical education into the el-
ementary classroom. Part I, Role of Health and
ix
x ¾ Preface
Physical Education in the Classroom, focuses
on the important background concepts needed
to form foundational knowledge for health ed-
ucation and physical education. Chapter 1 pro-
vides an overview of the health risk behaviors
inherent with today’s generation of children,
describes health disparities that contribute to
differences in quality of health among groups,
and explains why it is important for classroom
teachers to take an active role in their students’
health. Chapter 2 focuses on the coordinated
school health approach. It describes how aca-
demic achievement is related to health behav-
iors and establishes why the National Health
Education Standards are significant. Chapter 3
describes how physical growth and brain de-
velopment in children are related to health. It
identifies theories that can be used to change
health behavior and provides an overview of
comprehensive school health education. Chap-
ter 4 provides an overview of the need for
physical education and physical activity in el-
ementary schools. It describes the many bene-
fits of physical activity and characteristics of a
high-quality physical education program.
Part II, How to Integrate Health and Phys-
ical Education Into the Classroom, empha-
sizes the strategies necessary to build health,
physical education, and physical activity into
the curriculum and school day. Chapter 5 de-
scribes how classroom teachers can advocate
for healthy and active schools. It also incorpo-
rates ideas for advocacy with parents, adminis-
trators, and the community. Chapter 6 identi-
fies habits that promote everyday health in the
classroom. Indicators of school violence and
bullying, signs of depression and suicide, and
indicators of child abuse and neglect are just
of few of the important topics discussed in this
chapter. Chapter 7 describes ways to incorpo-
rate physical activity into the classroom. Strat-
egies for incorporating activity breaks, dancing
to music, and movement into academic lessons
are the focus of this chapter. Chapter 8 outlines
how to incorporate the National Health Educa-
tion Standards into the academic curriculum.
Using the Common Core is also described. Il-
lustrations and labs are provided in this chap-
ter. Chapter 9 is similar to chapter 8 but with a
focus on physical education rather than health.
The chapter details how to incorporate the Na-
tional Standards for K-12 Physical Education
into academic curriculum. And, like chapter 8,
chapter 9 also discusses the Common Core and
includes labs. Chapter 10 summarizes practical
approaches to teaching health and physical ed-
ucation in the classroom.
Teaching methods, as-
sessment tools, and eval-
uation strategies are de-
scribed in this chapter.
Web Resource
Students who purchase Health and Physical Edu-
cation for Elementary Classroom Teachers: An Inte-
grated Approach receive access to a student web
resource that will enhance learning. The web re-
source includes the following learning aids from
the book in order to allow downloading for study-
ing and completing assignments:
• Review questions
• Important terms and their definitions
• Labs
• Websites listed in Resources
• Sidebars
The web addresses in the web resource’s ver-
sion of the Resources and sidebars are links
that you can click on so that you don’t have to
manually key in the address.
The following icon is displayed by content
from the book that can also be found on the
web resource.
The web resource also features sample inte-
grated activity plans that demonstrate how health
and physical education can be incorporated into
the academic curriculum. Two activity plans are
given for every health education and physical ed-
ucation standard, for a total of 26 plans.
The school setting provides an incredible op-
portunity for changing the health and overall
trajectory for children everywhere. Our goal is
to empower the classroom teacher to make a
positive difference in students’ health, well-be-
ing, and future.
 Acknowledgments
A lot of work and dedication go into writing a
textbook, but the author’s writing is only a part
of the work that goes into the development and
production of a final product. The authors are
thankful for the support, guidance, and patience
of family and friends throughout this process.
The authors would also like to acknowledge
the hard work and diligence of the following
people; without them this project would not be
possible. A heartfelt thank-you goes to Sarah
Toth for her careful editing, writing, and devel-
opment of ancillary materials throughout the
book. Thanks to Jacqueline Blakley, develop-
mental editor for Human Kinetics. She did an
amazing job of keeping an incredibly complex
process running smoothly, and she gave great
suggestions on improving our textbook. Finally,
we’d like to acknowledge the future teachers
who will use this book. We believe you are the
best advocates for a healthy, active classroom.
Our hope is that you will empower your stu-
dents to be healthy and physically literate for
life.
SHAPE America thanks Cindy Allen, PhD,
professor in the Health Science Department
and director of student teaching and field expe-
rience at Lock Haven University, for reviewing
the content in this book.
xi
This page intentionally left blank.
 Accessing the Web Resource
You will notice a reference throughout Health
and Physical Education for Elementary Classroom
Teachers to a web resource. This online content
is available to you for free upon purchase of a
new print book or an e-book. All you need to
do is register with the Human Kinetics website
to access the online content. The steps below
will explain how to register.
The web resource offers learning aids from
the book such as review questions, lab assign-
ments and blank forms from the book, and
sample integrated lesson plans for each na-
tional health education and physical education
standard. We are certain this material will be
useful to you as you study and learn the book’s
content.
Follow These Steps to
Access the
Web Resource
1. Visit www.HumanKinetics.com/Health-
AndPhysicalEducationForElementary-
ClassroomTeachers.
2. Click the first edition link next to the
corresponding first edition book cover.
3. Click the Sign In link on the left or top
of the page. If you do not have an ac-
count with Human Kinetics, you will be
prompted to create one.
4. After you register, if the online product
does not appear in the Ancillary Items
box on the left of the page, click the En-
ter Pass Code option in that box. Enter
the following pass code exactly as it is
printed here, including capitalization
and all hyphens: EVANS-2TFB-WR
5. Click the Submit button to unlock your
online product.
6. After you have entered your pass code
the first time, you will never have to en-
ter it again to access this online product.
Once unlocked, a link to your product
will permanently appear in the menu on
the left. All you need to do to access your
online content on subsequent visits is
sign in to www.HumanKinetics.com/
HealthAndPhysicalEducationForEle-
mentaryClassroomTeachers and fol-
low the link!
Click the Need Help? button on the book’s
website if you need assistance along the way.
xiii
This page intentionally left blank.
 Part I

Role of Health and

Physical Education in
the Classroom

1
This page intentionally left blank.
 Chapter 1

Healthy Bodies,
Healthy Minds

Objectives
Define the six dimensions of health, and ex-
plain how they interact to affect overall health.
Understand how the health of Americans has
changed since the 1900s. When health is absent, wisdom can-
Describe the Healthy People 2020 objectives not reveal itself, art cannot manifest,
for schools and school-age children.
strength cannot fight, wealth becomes
Identify the six categories of risk behaviors
monitored by the Centers for Disease Control
useless, and intelligence cannot be
and Prevention (CDC). applied.
Define health disparities that contribute to dif- Herophilus
ferences in quality of health between groups.
Determine what behaviors students could
change in order to improve their overall health.
Explain why classroom teachers should take
an active role in their students’ health.
4 ¾ Health and Physical Education for Elementary Classroom Teachers
In the United States, more than 55 million K-12
students spend about 6 hours in the classroom
each day. Therefore, the school setting provides
ample opportunity for changing the health and
overall trajectory for children. This book aims
to empower you to use classroom time to make
a positive difference in your students’ health,
well-being, and future.
The relationship between health and ac-
ademic achievement is undeniable. Healthy
students are better learners and are better be-
haved. Children who come to school without
breakfast, without a good night’s sleep, and
having had no physical activity during the pre-
vious day are not ready to learn or able to fo-
cus. If students are habitually absent and fall
behind academically during the elementary
years, it may hinder their academic success in
middle and high school.
To understand why incorporating health into
the classroom is so critical, you must first un-
derstand the evolution of health and its history.
This chapter examines the modern definition of
health as well as the complex dimensions that
make up the contemporary view of health. The
chapter then provides an overview of the his-
tory of health, its role in modern society, and
the present common health behaviors and de-
terminants of health that may impact you and
your students.
Defining Health in the
21st Century
People commonly define health as physical fit-
ness and the absence of disease. This tendency
is rooted in the medical model of health, which
defines good health as having low levels of dis-
ease, illness, and infirmity. Many definitions of
health exist. A broader definition of health is
a state of mental, physical, and social well-being.
This definition supports the concept that a per-
son’s health is influenced by multiple factors
and cannot be based solely on the presence
or absence of disease and illness. A person’s
health depends on both the individual strength
of and the interactions among these six dimen-
sions: physical, intellectual, emotional, social,
spiritual, and environmental (figure 1.1). Main-
taining a balance among all six dimensions is
key to achieving a high overall state of health.
• Physical health refers to the well-being
of the physical body. It is the most visible di-
mension of health and can be influenced by
multiple variables, including genetic makeup,
exposure to infectious agents, access to medi-
cal care, and personal health-related behaviors
such as tobacco use, levels of physical activity,
and nutritional habits. Observable characteris-
tics (including height, weight, and energy level)
are often associated with this aspect of health
and wellness.
• Intellectual health is the ability to in-
terpret, analyze, and act on information. Intel-
lectual health also spans a person’s ability to
reason. Intellectual health can influence a per-
son’s overall wellness by controlling the ability
to recognize, understand, and utilize informa-
tion about health.
• Emotional health involves a person’s
feelings and how they are expressed. An emo-
tionally healthy person practices self-control
and self-acceptance and can express both pos-
itive and negative emotions in productive,
socially acceptable ways that are not self-de-
structive or threatening to others. Poor emo-
tional health can be characterized by poor
management of negative feelings and emo-
tions, which can lead to stress-related illnesses
as well as susceptibility to infection and heart
disease.
• Social health is characterized by the
ability to navigate social environments while
maintaining healthy relationships with oth-
ers. People live and work in a variety of social
environments, including homes, workplaces,
schools, and neighborhoods. The ability to nav-
igate these environments effectively is a crit-
ical part of social health. Maintaining strong
personal relationships, communicating with
respect for and acceptance of others, and rec-
ognizing ways to enrich relationships are all in-
dicative of strong social health.
• Spiritual health involves the ability to
deal with day to-day life in a manner that leads
to realizing one’s full potential, finding mean-
ing and purpose of life, and experiencing hap-
piness from within. The definition of spiritual
health is not confined to sacred terms or prac-
tices. Rather, spiritually healthy people have
developed a strong sense of personal values and
the capacity to integrate these values (including

Physical
The well-being of
the physical body
Intellectual
The ability to interpret, Health
analyze, and act and
on information
Wellness
Emotional
An individual’s feelings and
how they are expressed
Figure 1.1 The six dimensions of health.
E6007/Evans/fig01.01/533142/alw/r3
trust, honesty, and integrity) into their practic-
es of everyday living. In general, religion is a
way in which spirituality is practiced; it is an
organized practice of beliefs. Religion provides
ways to give life meaning and deeper purpose
while providing organization and structure as
an impetus to action. The words “health” and
“heal,” which refer to putting separated things
back together or to be made whole, are related
to the concept of “holy.” Poor spiritual health
may contribute to feelings of isolation and
may cause a person to struggle in maintaining
productive relationships. Research has demon-
strated that people who have strong religious
faith and people who are active in a church or
religious community reap better overall health
(Rew & Wong, 2006). Specific elements of spir-
itual health proven to contribute to enhanced
health are altruism, hope, forgiveness, feeling
close to God, prayer, meditation, giving up
hostility, loving relationships, and a supportive
community.
Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds ¾ 5
Environmental
Interactions between people
and their environment
Spiritual
The state of being related to
meaning and purpose of life,
reaching potential,
and happiness
Social
The ability to navigate
social settings and maintain
healthy relationships
• Environmental health includes pre-
venting and controlling diseases or injuries
related to the interactions between people
and their environment. It encompasses all
biological, chemical, and physical factors ex-
ternal to the body that impact behavior and
over which a person has limited or no control.
These factors include indoor and outdoor air
quality, water quality, soil quality, toxic sub-
stances, hazardous wastes, and natural disas-
ters. Daily life and health are affected through
the air, water, food, and products people con-
sume. Globally, environmental hazards are to
blame for approximately a fourth of all disease
(World Health Organization, 2013). Air pollu-
tion alone is responsible for 3.7 million deaths
each year worldwide and is a leading environ-
mental cause of cancer deaths (World Health
Organization, 2013; 2014a). Arsenic, which is
highly toxic and a known carcinogen, occurs in
high levels in U.S. groundwater (World Health
Organization, 2012). Lead exposure in young
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Title: Rusticus
Or, the future of the countryside

Author: Martin S. Briggs

Release date: November 29, 2023 [eBook #72263]

Language: English

Original publication: London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner &

Co, 1927

Credits: Tim Lindell, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book
was produced from images made available by the
HathiTrust Digital Library.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUSTICUS

***
RUSTICUS
 TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW
For the Contents of this Series see the end of the Book.
 RUSTICUS
OR
THE FUTURE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE

BY
MARTIN S. BRIGGS

Rusticus exspectat dum defluat amnis.

Horace, Epist. I, i, 42

London
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & Co., Ltd.
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR
In the Heel of Italy. 1910.
Baroque Architecture. 1913.
Through Egypt in War-time. 1918.
Muhammadan Architecture in Egypt and Palestine. 1924.
A Short History of the Building Crafts. 1925.
The Architect in History. (in the Press)

Made and Printed in Great Britain by

The Bowering Press, Plymouth.
 CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. “SO THIS IS ENGLAND!” 7
II. BEFORE THE DELUGE 12
III. KING COAL (c. 1810-1910) 26
IV. THE AGE OF PETROL (c. 1910 onwards) 46
V. THE FUTURE 61
SOME ADDRESSES 95
 I.
“SO THIS IS ENGLAND!”
ON every side a wail is rising over the irreparable damage that is
being done to the rural England that we all claim to love. The change
that has occurred is most evident to those who have not witnessed
its steady progress, rapid as it has been. To realise what has
happened, let us put ourselves in the place of an Englishman who is
now returning home after a sojourn of twenty years in some remote
Eastern outpost of our Empire. Imagine him as a sensitive observer
like Doughty or Kinglake, a man who has learned to appreciate the
savage beauty of the Arabian desert, the very antithesis of his own
land. But now at last the sand has eaten into his soul, and he is
longing to see the English countryside that he remembers so well.
He thinks of small green fields, of little grey churches with rooks
cawing among the elms, of running water, even of grey skies, in fact
of everything that is most characteristically English. There is nothing
in our poetry that better describes this England than Kipling’s
“Sussex,” and Kipling knew all about the East.
Our traveller lands at Folkestone eagerly anticipating his journey
through Kent, and, in order to see as much as possible of hedgerows
and villages and fields on the way up to London, he charters a
motor-car. There is something rather daring, to his mind, in this
business of the car; on his last visit to England in 1907 cars were not
entirely unknown, but there was then a touch of novelty about them.
His driver gingerly threads his way up from the harbour through a
maze of hooting charabancs and yelping Fords, with several
hairbreadth escapes which make the traveller wish himself back on
his lurching camel. But soon Folkestone is left behind, and he settles
down to a contemplation of the number-plate of the car in front, while
the fumes of its exhaust mingle with those of his own Corona. He
expects to find some changes in the aspect of England, but then of
course there was the Town-Planning Act in 1909, so that nothing
very unpleasant need be feared, and at any rate one misses the
East Kent Coalfield by coming this way. The road is very wide and
very straight; there is no dust. A small lighthouse with black and
white sides, crowned by a red lamp busily blinking in broad daylight,
indicates a cross-roads. Yes, this new route avoids the streets of
Sandgate and Hythe, which must be very crowded in these days, but
the wire fences are a poor substitute for green hedges. And these
terrible petrol-stations every few yards with their glaring red and
yellow pumps are very trying to the eyes. Still there are some old
landmarks left: the hoardings are bigger than ever, and some of
them bear the familiar legends of Edwardian days.
He looks forward to passing through Lenham, Charing, and
Harrietsham—three beautiful villages on the main road—but as each
is approached his car swerves along the new racing-track and thus
avoids the village High Street, rejoining the old main road, widened
beyond recognition, a little farther on. He passes through a great
cutting gashed through the chalk. Felled trees lie by the road, old
walls are pulled down, all bends are straightened out, everything is
cleared away to allow the cars and charabancs to roar through the
countryside. But is it countryside any longer? More than anything
else in this nightmare drive he is impressed by the New Architecture,
which appears to consist mainly of bungalows.
The bungalow as he knew it in the East was a large, low, cool, white
building surrounded by verandahs, as un-English in appearance as
anything could be. But these bungalows are quite different, and
seem to be thrown haphazard all over the place, along the main
roads for miles beyond every town. Shoddy, ugly, vulgar shacks they
are, recalling to his mind some of the worst aspects of life in the
Middle West as depicted on the films. The materials of which they
are constructed are cheap and nasty. Round each bungalow is a
collection of smaller shacks, where the Baby Austin and the chickens
live; and in place of embowering trees he sees a jungle of wireless
poles and clothes-props. Untidiness, vulgarity, Americanism, discord
of colouring and form, seem to have invaded every village through
which he passes.
Nor is this change confined to roads and buildings. The whole
character of the villages is altered. Smocks and sunbonnets have
gone for ever, and with them most of the old village crafts. The
blacksmith’s day is done. Artificial-silk leg-wear and gramophone-
records fill the windows of the village store, a blatant cinema has
appeared next door, and most people do their shopping in London.
So this is England!
 II.
BEFORE THE DELUGE
IN order to understand the changes that have taken place in the
English countryside during the last century or so, and in order to
forecast probable future tendencies, one must first endeavour to
analyse the charm of the unspoiled English village and landscape
before coal and petrol began to dominate our whole life. That charm
is universally admitted but not always rationally appreciated. To
begin with, ruin in itself is not a worthy subject for admiration. An
American critic is said to have observed to an Englishman:
“What thoughtful people your ancestors were; they not
only built churches for you to worship in but ruined abbeys
for you to admire.”[1]
The worship of ruin is a sign of decadence, though it has appeared
from time to time in history for hundreds of years. There is a social,
even a moral, reproach implied by the sight of a tumbledown
cottage; and to the present writer’s mind a ruined church is as much
inferior to a perfect church as a dead dog is to a live one. Nobody
who really loves architecture can really love ruin; his admiration for
the fragments of a great building only makes him wish he could see
it in its original splendour. But there is a mellowness and softness
that comes to a building with age, and that is a genuine æsthetic
attribute. Moreover, the element of historical association is a
legitimate cause for our pride in our old villages and towns, a cause
by no means to be neglected in this survey. But, apart from these
two factors, the charm of the English village, for our purpose, is to be
judged strictly on appearances.
Up to about 1810, when the Industrial Revolution began to affect the
face of England seriously, the village remained almost unaltered
from its medieval state. Though its “lay-out” varied greatly according
to its situation, on a hill-top or in a valley, it was generally grouped
round a “green” and along the road that ran through it. The “green”
was the focus of communal life, at a time when each community was
inevitably far more self-contained than it is to-day. Here took place
such sports as wrestling and bear-baiting, and revels and dances
round the Maypole, of which a rare example survives in Otley,
Yorkshire. Here too were the stocks for malefactors, the pound
where stray animals were temporarily confined, the well where all
water for the smaller houses had to be drawn, and perhaps a stone
cross. Usually adjoining the green stood the village church, which
gathered the rustic inhabitants within its ancient walls. Gray’s Elegy
gives us the ideal picture of a country church and churchyard, but in
only too many villages such an ideal was unrealised. On the village
green would also be found the inn, but the heyday of the roadside
inn came with the introduction of stage-coaches on the main roads in
the nineteenth century. There might be a group of almshouses, but
no post-office or bank and probably not a school. Down by the
stream stood the mill with its great water-wheel, or if there were no
stream there would be a wooden windmill such as we see on the
Sussex downs. To an extent that we hardly realise, industry was self-
contained in these little communities. Nearly all the simple wants of
the cottagers were provided for within their own parish. The
blacksmith and the carpenter, the saddler and the basket-maker,
practised their crafts in every hamlet. Weaving and spinning, baking
and preserving were done by the women at home. Shops were few
and small, storing rather than displaying their wares. The
comparatively rare goods that were brought into the place from other
parts of England had to be carried on pack-horses, so that naturally
they became expensive luxuries. There were no newspapers, and
hardly anybody in the village—except perhaps the squire and the
parson—possessed any books. All these factors, though they may
not seem germane to this study, had a bearing on the outward
appearance of the village. The squire, as he came to be called, was
the great man of the community, for, though he himself might be the
“lord of the manor,” that celebrity was more often non-resident.
Hence the squire’s house, then “Manor House,” “Hall,” or whatever it
was named, was a substantial building standing in a good garden,
and because of its size and position it has seldom been affected by
the unfortunate tendencies that have so often played havoc with
cottages and barns. Barns usually adjoined the squire’s house and
sometimes were attached to the rectory as “tithe barns,” for there
was collected the tribute of the fields. These barns are invariably
simple in design but often of great beauty, and the two qualities are
not unconnected. Then there were a few other houses of medium
size, and lastly the humble cottages where most of the inhabitants
lived, standing close to the road with a small garden behind them.
Such were the components of the old English village.
Beyond its doors was the common where the cattle grazed, and
beyond that again there were common woods where the pigs picked
up their food and where fuel could be gathered. Then there were
fields for pasturage and for cultivation, divided up into one-acre
strips, of which one man might hold any number. These long strips,
separated only by a foot or so of rough grass, must have resembled
our modern allotments in this country and the great open fields that
one sees in France and elsewhere abroad, where hedges and
fences are seldom found. The system of enclosing fields within
hedges did not become common until about the time of Queen Anne,
so that one feature of our landscape that we rightly regard as
characteristically English is comparatively modern. In many cases it
is also immoral, for enclosure of common land proceeded apace
during the eighteenth century.
Yet of all features of the English countryside the one that has
changed most is the road. Up to the beginning of the eighteenth
century roads were simply open tracks through fields or over
commons. They were not fenced in, their boundaries being vaguely
assumed; and they were not metalled. Their condition was so bad in
North Herefordshire in 1788 that they had to be levelled “by means
of ploughs, drawn by eight or ten horses; and in this state they
remained until the following autumn,” Each parish was held
responsible for the “repairs” of its roads, but this process seldom
involved more than a cartload of faggots or stones in the worst holes.
Hence wheeled traffic was impossible. Everything and everybody
had to travel through the mire, on horseback or on foot; and at a time
when the population of London amounted to 700,000, its fish was
coming on horseback from the Solway, and its mutton was walking
up in thousands on its own legs from Scotland and Wales, disputing
the road with vast droves of geese and turkeys. Such was the state
of affairs up to the third quarter of the eighteenth century, when
turnpikes and tollbars began to take effect, but the good coaching-
roads of Telford and Macadam were not constructed till the
nineteenth century. Nor were bridges very common at a time when
there was no wheeled traffic, for any shallow stream could be forded
by a pack-horse. But such bridges as then existed were almost
always a pleasure to behold.
This picture of rural England at the end of the eighteenth century is
no more than a descriptive inventory of the contents of the average
English village at that time. Yet everyone who knows such a village,
unaltered by the march of civilisation since 1810 or so, can be relied
on to say that it has an undoubted charm of its own. There is
certainly no charm in an inventory, so we must now seek for the
ingredients that are lacking in our list.
The first is, without doubt, the perfect harmony of Nature and art.
The colours and texture of the old buildings harmonise admirably
with the colours of the surrounding landscape. In some places that is
due to an actual identity of material. Thus the old stone farm-houses
that one sees in the Yorkshire dales are built of the same sandstone
rocks that jut out from the hillside all round them. But, on the whole,
that is unusual. There is no similarity between the rich red brickwork
of East Anglia and anything in the surrounding earth or vegetation,
nor between the Cotswold stone cottages and the green slopes on
which they stand. After making all allowances for the mellowing that
time produces, all we can say about this matter of colour is that old
building materials seem to harmonise with their natural surroundings,
whatever colours are involved and whatever may be the
surroundings. That is not quite accurate. In Yorkshire, Scotland and
Wales, where the prevailing colour of the landscape is in dull tones,
buildings of local stone with roofs of sturdy thick local slates do
undoubtedly merge into the general colour-scheme more
successfully than buildings with red-tiled roofs; whereas the warmer
colouring and more generous sunshine of the southern half of
England allows of a greater range of tone in buildings, even
assimilating the “magpie” half-timber houses of the West Midlands.
But texture, too, has a part to play. The materials used in old
buildings were all “home-made”; therefore they lacked the smooth
mechanical surface that is so antagonistic to Nature, and thus the
very defects of their manufacture prevented any clash between
nature and art. But, above all, most of these old farms and cottages
were simple, spontaneous, unsophisticated, and English. Their
design and their construction were traditional, born of the soil on
which they stood. The snobbery of the Victorian suburban villa was
unknown to the village yokels who produced masterpieces of cottage
design. The very simplicity of their “programme” was their salvation.
They had to provide a dwelling-house of given size from local
materials. There was no question of deciding between Welsh slates
and red tiles: only one form of roofing was available locally. The
rooms were shockingly low, according to our ideas, but as an
external result there was a long low roof, and low eaves, all assisting
to produce an unobtrusive effect attuned to the landscape. On the
other hand, the fireplace and the chimney above it were large, for
wood was the only fuel available, and thus bold chimneys are found
externally. The windows were glazed with small panes because
nobody then could make large ones.
The old-fashioned cottage, a truly beautiful thing, was the work of
competent men who, generally speaking, were content to satisfy a
utilitarian demand without trying to create a sensation.
On the other hand there is a question that I have not yet heard
asked: was there never an ambitious tradesman or tradesman’s wife
in the past who wished to create an architectural sensation in the
village? Surely a flamboyant half-timbered inn must have looked
rather startling when first erected? And the village “highbrow” of 1750
or so who procured from an architect in the nearest town a design for
a Palladian façade in the latest mode, did he not create a discord in
the harmony of the village street? The answer to this compound
question must be in the affirmative, but the results are less obtrusive
than they would be to-day. The black and white inn would have the
same proportions, the same fenestration, the same doors and
chimneys, as a brick building in the same street; and the “genuine
antique” façade from Palladio would become a little less exotic by
the time that the village bricklayer had finished with it. The harmony
and repose that characterises the old English village is mainly due to
its isolation: there was no disturbing influence from outside, no
filtration of alien ideas, and no introduction of discordant materials.
But the “silk” stockings and the gramophone-records that now
decorate the shop-window of the village store have their counterpart
in the modern architecture of the village street.
An endeavour has been made in the preceding paragraphs to picture
the unspoiled English village as it appears to the ordinary intelligent
observer of to-day. No attempt has been made to glorify village life,
past or present. There are some people who see nothing but cause
for regret in the invasion of the villages by what we call “progress,”
but for the most part those people are not sons of the soil: they are
either “week-enders” or people of comfortable incomes who have
retired to a cottage orné amid congenial surroundings. They see and
know little of the monotony that drives the young people into the
towns, or of the hardships of lambing and winter work on the farms.
There are other critics who say that architecture is so much a
reflection of social conditions that a beautiful village could only have
been produced by a happy and contented people.
It is a question whether such a village is, or ever has been, specially
attractive to the eyes of its inhabitants, if indeed they have the ability
to consider such things at all. Admiration for the beauty of the
countryside seems to be a very modern cult, if we are to take our
great writers as typical of their time, though in fact they were usually
ahead of their time. Scott, Wordsworth, and other poets of that
period certainly saw something in it, but prior to their day there is
little evidence that even cultured men noticed anything worthy of
comment in the English landscape or the English village. There are
exceptions of course, and we find evidence of love of the English
countryside even in the work of so classical a writer as Milton, and
later in the poems and letters of Cowper. But probably Dr. Johnson is
typical of eighteenth-century men of letters. He declined a country
living on one occasion, and in several passages of Boswell’s Life we
find Johnson making fun of country manners, country conversation,
and country life generally, while of landscape and of the beauty of
the English village he has little to say. William Cobbett, writing a
century ago, is so obsessed with indignation about agricultural
poverty and the iniquities of the governing class, that he seldom
comments in his Rural Rides on the charm of a village. Sandwich is
“as villainous a hole as one could wish to see,” Cirencester “a pretty
nice town,” and so is Tonbridge. But he waxes furious about some of
the tumbledown cottages that modern well-fed tourists would call
“picturesque,” and he regards the barrenness of the New Forest as a
blot on our civilisation. Cobbett provides a very good antidote to an
over-sentimental view of country life.