Part I. Historical Overview
1. Physical Training Through Natural ActivitiesIn uncountable years of environmental changes, the human organism met with innumerable movement experiences and developed specific movement patterns. From the time of primitive life when man lived close to nature up to the time of modern culture, the human body adapted to the needs of each era. Alleviation of living conditions, organization of tasks in group living, specialization of occupation, urban living and technology altered man's functions and specific movement requirements. The hardships of living in primitive life, man's exposure to the elements and the struggle for the means of survival demanded fortitude and skill in natural, useful movements. Man's very existence depended upon the development of strength, speed and skill, and upon the mastery of the simple tools and weapons of the times. As civilization advanced, social and political change, the developmental stage of the arts and sciences, and changing standards of living brought about the need for education and physical education, and different methods of body training evolved.
GYMNASTICS IN GREECE AND ROMESkill in natural activities was imperative for living in
early Greek civilization, which was established about 776 B.C. [i] These activities were not only the means of survival in both peace and war but they were also used in the
traditional gymnastic contests and displays of the religious festivals. Physical training thus became an important part of Greek education and
all the Greek states gave careful attention to the training of boys and men in running, jumping, throwing the discus and javelin, boxing and wrestling. [1] [ii] The Greeks named these activities "gymnastics" and
they were often performed to the accompaniment of music and song. [2] Other useful activities commonly practiced were the
pancration, ball games, archery, riding, hunting and dancing.Ancient Greece consisted of a number of small, independent city-states which were constantly involved to some degree in warfare. The most prominent city-states were Sparta, a strong military state in the interior of the Peloponnesus, and Athens, a maritime power in Attica. Both Athens and Sparta practiced similar physical activities, but their educational objectives and methods often show marked contrasts. The
Spartans stressed constant military preparedness in order to overcome the insecurity of their geographical location, and to maintain sovereignty over conquered people. In Sparta the state was the supreme authority and it prescribed the regulations for the life and training of the citizen-soldier. From the age of seven years to manhood, the youth was trained by hard, often brutal methods to develop strength, courage, cunning, obedience, and patriotism. The Spartans stressed perfection in athletics, vigorous dancing, and skill in handling arms. Even the young women were taught to "wrestle, run, throw the quoit and cast the dart" to gain maximum physical development and so breed healthy children. [3] Women also took part in religious choruses and processionals and they competed in women's games. [4] The Spartans were famous soldiers and athletes at the expense of intellectual and artistic pursuits.
The Athenians were more individualistic and imaginative than the Spartans. Their maritime economy brought them in touch with other cultures and they prized intellectual, artistic and cultural achievements. Education for citizenship in Athens meant "the harmony of mental, physical, aesthetic and moral development." [5] From childhood to manhood, young men were schooled not only in gymnastics, hut also in literature and language, philosophy and religion, music and dance. Patriotism, morality, manners, the health and beauty of the body, and physical perfection were equally stressed. Although education was supervised by the state, Athenian parents were responsible for the schooling of their sons. The Athenian women led secluded lives and no provision was made for their physical training, although some
girls of the lesser sort were skillful entertainers as dancers, jugglers, and acrobats. [6]
During the Golden Age of Athens (479-431 B.C.), Athens produced its greatest literature, philosophy, architecture, and art. Its commerce and empire grew and Athens gained wealth and power.
It was in these days of glory that a transition from old to new values in Athenian education commenced. The personal discipline demanded for the harmonious development of mind and body and the social discipline required for service to the state began to decline while intellectualism, philosophy, and oratory for personal aggrandizement began to flourish. In the course of time, instead of participating in physical activities, the majority of Athenians became spectators at the performances of highly trained professional athletes. [7]
Prosperity and wealth brought luxurious living and consequently lack of exercise which, in turn, caused illnesses. Physicians from Hippocrates (460- c.367 B.C.) to Galen (130-201 A.D.), as well as philosophers and athletic trainers stressed the importance of diet, exercise and bathing for healthful living. Dietetics and exercise became an important part of hygiene and medicine, and bathing grew in popularity. Luxurious buildings, with hot, cold, and vapor baths, with facilities for exercise and swimming, were erected for the wealthy, while public baths were built for the masses. [8]
Still the internal wars continued, [9] sapping the strength of the little city-states, and their power began to decline. Even in the centuries of decline, however, Greek learning continued. Greek culture spread through the Eastern Mediterranean countries, and the University of Athens became a world center of higher learning. After Greece was conquered by Rome in 146 B.C., Greek culture flowed into Roman civilization, and
when the Roman Empire was broken up by the barbarians, the Greek influence remained in the Eastern Empire. When East and West met again in the Renaissance, Greek learning was revived and Greek concepts of education and physical training reappeared. Furthermore, the natural beauty of human motion which was portrayed with such fidelity to nature in Greek sculpture and friezes has had a continuing influence on the
dance, gymnastics, and athletics which transcends time.
About the time of Athens' Golden Age, a small Latin tribe settled in Rome and started a new civilization, a civilization which became the foundation of the civilization of the Western world.
The Romans were a practical people bent on war and conquest, and their physical activities were directed to the training of the superior soldier. Courage and endurance, skill in arms, patriotism and heroism were stressed in this training. In the simple rural life of the early Roman Republic, the father was responsible for the education of his sons and for teaching them virtue, religion, and citizenship. Children played a wide variety of games, and military exercises began early in youth since each boy was subject to compulsory military service. The Greek idealistic concept of gymnastics as an essential part of cultural education seemed ridiculous to the Romans, [10] although they used practically the same gymnastic activities for the training of their soldiers.
The Roman legionnaires, with their superb military discipline and personal bravery, extended the Roman Empire throughout the Mediterranean countries and as far north as the Rhine and the Danube and across the channel to Great Britain.
Rome established the pragmatic foundations of civilization, law and order, government and politics, roads and engineering, military arts, and a common language. While the practical Romans did not equal the creative achievements of the Greeks in philosophy, art, and science, they did adopt the Greek educational system and thus spread Hellenic thought and learning throughout the Greek-Roman world. [11] The influence of Greek culture is also evident today in ruins of Roman theatres, stadiums, and baths in the Mediterranean countries. As the Romans became prosperous and wealthy, they adopted the more luxurious refinements of Greek life including Greek health exercises. Today,
the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome show hot, warm, and cold baths, sun rooms, rooms for ball exercises and wrestling, and the palaestrae for the practice of gymnastics [12]
In the early years of Roman life, the citizen himself was actively engaged in farming and in the practice of military arts, but as wealth and luxury grew and urban life developed, the prosperous Romans depended on the activities of others for their livelihood, their protection, and their pleasure. Slaves did the work, mercenaries fought in the legions, and professional gladiators entertained the people. The physical and moral deterioration of the Roman nation, its consequent social, political, and economic instability,
the rise of Christianity, as well as the invasion of the barbarians, all contributed to the decline of Roman power and to the fall of the Roman Empire.BODY TRAINING IN THE MIDDLE AGESThe centuries from the decline of Rome as a world power about 500 A.D. until the fifteen hundreds are known as the Middle Ages, and in these centuries the Church was the supreme spiritual, political, and educational authority. From the time that Christianity first gained a footing in Rome, it spread steadily, for the Christian message of faith, and hope of a better life in the world to come, drew many adherents, particularly among the oppressed.
The appeal of Christianity was moral and emotional rather than intellectual, and to the early Christians, education was of little importance because Christian doctrine prophesied the imminent end of the world. According to the American historian E. J. Power, "there was no Christian school worthy of the name until the fourth century," because "Christian education meant family education" and,
though hostile to pagan learning, Christians both attended and taught in Roman classical schools. [13]
Even before Rome was conquered in 493 A.D. by the barbarians, the Christian church had been organized in accordance with the political structure of the Roman Empire. Converts to Christianity were prepared for Christian doctrine in simple catechumenal schools. Monasteries had been founded, monastic schooling for the brothers had been introduced, and cathedral schools had started to prepare clergy and staff for various church services and offices. As the Roman Empire disintegrated under the impact of barbarian invasions, the Roman Christian church assumed power and eventually Christianized the pagan barbarians and spread Christian ethics over the whole Western world. It developed its religious and educational institutions, and many prominent church scholars contributed to the evolution of the Christian doctrine and educational theory. Many
monasteries became famous for their promotion of learning and they are known in history for the preservation of ancient and medieval writings. [14]
THE EFFECT OF CHURCH DOCTRINEIn contrast to the emphasis on body training in Greece and Rome, the Christian religion stressed morality and the denial of body indulgences.
Ascetic discipline was the ideal of Christian life and it was opposed to the Greek belief in bodily exercises for health and the enjoyment of life. As church philosophy developed, church scholars began to seek an intellectual basis for Christian doctrine, and so scholasticism evolved.
Power explains scholasticism as "a means for employing reason in the search for truth." [15] Following the
Aristotelian method of deductive logic, truth was reached through a logical analysis of issues and problems which were then reasoned through to a conclusion. Scholasticism increased mental skill; it produced many famous church scholars and it stimulated an intellectual awakening which led to the founding of universities. Yet, as Power states,
"medieval educational theory remained within a rather narrow framework of educational thought," education was primarily for clerics, "and its purpose was largely otherworldly." [16]
Thus neither asceticism which disdained the body, nor scholasticism which stressed mental discipline provided fertile soil for body training, and
except for court schools where knights were trained, physical training was ignored.CHIVALRYIn the constant wars of the Middle Ages,
the knight on horseback was the mainstay of the military system, and of necessity a training for knighthood and chivalry, restricted by birth to the upper classes, evolved. Chivalry consisted of a "body of laws and customs related to knighthood," laws which regulated conduct in warfare and instigated a culture of courtesy.
The Church fostered the development of chivalry, blending religion with military training. [17] The duties of the knight were the defense of the Holy Church and Christendom, protection of the weak and injured, tempered judgement, humane and honorable behavior, reverence for women, and gallantry. The knight fought in honor of his chosen lady in accordance with the precepts of chivalry, and so exalted womanhood.
Although chivalry did not always function in practice, it did have a civilizing influence on the existing brutalities of warfare, and it also set a standard for the manners of the true gentleman and lady. [18]
Practice in the use of lance, sword, and battle axe, perfection of the knightly arts of riding, hunting, and fencing, and engagements in tournaments and jousts prepared the knight for actual warfare. [19] Training in arms was regulated by the code of chivalry, and the knightly arts of riding and tournaments served as activities for recreation as well as war. Chivalry reached a peak at the time of the Crusades against the Saracens, who had overrun the Holy Land, and declined toward the end of the Middle Ages. With the introduction of missiles and gunpowder in warfare, the knight in armor became outdated. The forms of chivalry continued as social procedures and artificial deportment in court life, and the gestures of courteous behavior became formal and punctilious. Today, some chivalric formalities are still evident in equestrian events and fencing.
HUMANISMWith the progress of civilization, medieval scholarship grew and universities were established. The search for new knowledge and truth led to
the Renaissance, which began with the discovery of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts. Power regards the Renaissance as "a renewal of contacts with classical Greece and Rome," "an emphasis on humanness," a "criticism and dissemination" of the contents of old manuscripts, a disregard for medievalism, and a heightened "spirit of individualism." [20] The Renaissance brought about a revival of classical learning and subsequently a movement known as humanism. The search for new knowledge permeated every aspect of civilization, and stimulated exploration and new discoveries in the arts and sciences, in geography, invention, and industry, and in physical education. The Renaissance laid the foundations of modern civilization.
The Renaissance started in Italy in the fourteenth century and gradually spread to other countries. In general,
the patrons of humanism in Italy were the aristocracy, wealthy merchants and the bankers who ruled the small north Italian city-states. In North Italy, the time was ripe for an emergence from the sterile rigidity of medievalism, and the rediscovered literature of Rome and Greece stimulated the desire among men for recognition of the intellect and reason, for personal dignity and individual distinction. Rulers of both republic and despotic states vied with one another in attracting scholars, artists, and writers to their courts to promote the new humanistic education. [21]
In contrast to medieval clerical education,
the new education for the patrician layman was "based on the study of Greek and Latin, combined with the courtly ideal and some of the physical activities of the old chivalric education." [22] Both Christian morality and Hellenic thought are evident in the humanist ideal of the harmonious development of the whole personality. Italian humanists mention, in both letters and tracts, the value of physical education for military efficiency, for a sound mind in a sound body, for health, relaxation, and recreation. Thus after centuries of indifference and silence, humanism restored the old Athenian concept of the importance of physical education in the education of the whole man.
Humanistic studies were first introduced in the Italian court schools where many noted humanist scholars and courtiers were educated.
Vittorino da Feltre (1378-1446), the famous schoolmaster at the court of the Duke of Mantua, was a humanist who believed in the education of the complete personality. According to Woodward, "The aim of Vittorino, the aim of the true humanist educator, was to secure the harmonious development of mind, body, and character," and to prepare young men to "serve God in church and state in whatever position they might be called upon to occupy." [23] Vittorino's humanist approach to education is apparent in his effective and humane methods of teaching, his deep interest in the progress of his pupils, and in his attention to the health, morals, manners, and physical training of each student.
He aimed to develop strength and stamina through the physical disciplines of games and bodily activities such as riding, running, leaping, fencing, ball games, and exercises for military skills.
The model for the citizen of the Italian Renaissance city-states was the patriotic Athenian and the noble Roman of antiquity. This ideal the humanists endeavored to reproduce through a harmonious liberal education. Writing about courtly manners and physical graces, Matteo Palmieri (1406-1478), a humanist and a cultured diplomat, insisted that appearance, manners, and other manifestations of human behavior should be true to nature and reflect inner worth.
He asserted that the walk, indeed the whole movement behavior, should be natural and dignified and "reveal orderliness and modesty." The hands, he said, have "a language of their own" and should always be "used with grace conforming to our intentions." [24]
The work of Count Baldassar Castiglione (1478- 1529), Il Cortegiano (The Courtier), embodies
the Renaissance views of "the qualifications and perfections of the Italian gentleman living in the court of princes." His writing had a great influence on the education of gentlemen in both Europe and England. According to Castiglione, the courtier must be a master of arms, skillful in languages and conversation; he must possess extensive knowledge of literature and the arts, a personal comeliness, virtue, and distinction. In addition, the courtier must be "a master of all those bodily exercises which belong to a person skilled in arms," an expert in wrestling because it "generally accompanies all engagements on foot," a perfect horseman, and an "expert in tilting."
Hunting and other activities which "have some relationship and agreement" with arms and "require much courage and bravery" were advocated.Castiglione considered it quite suitable for the courtier to "play at tennis where the disposition of the body, the quickness and dexterity of every limb is visible," and to practice vaulting on horseback because it "renders a man more active and pliant and nimble." If the courtier is "well instructed in these exercises," he said, "he need not concern himself with others such as tumbling, rope-dancing and such mountebank tricks which are not so proper for a gentleman."
For women, Castiglione advised riding, hunting, dancing, and attendance at games so that they could converse intelligently about them. [25]
Following the model of the court schools, new secondary schools with broader programs of classical studies were established, in both Italy and France, to prepare scholars for the universities. In other European countries, preparatory secondary schools such as the gymnasium in Central Europe were also formed at this time. Many of these latter schools concentrated on Latin and Greek as languages and neglected the import of their content, and the spirit of inquiry which started the revival of learning was quenched in the discipline of drill in ancient languages. [26] Under these circumstances, physical training was again forgotten.
While the Italian Renaissance brought about cultural changes, in northern countries, social, political, and religious revolutions took place. In the North, the validity of medieval secular authority and the religious practices of the Church were challenged, and this challenge led in 1516 to the Reformation in Germany, Protestant revolts in other European countries, the English Reformation in 1534, and eventually, in the Post-Reformation era, to far-reaching educational reforms.
Early in the Middle Ages, grammar schools for the teaching of Latin and religion had been established in England. After the Reformation, a large number of new grammar schools for secondary education evolved, and eventually the
new humanistic studies and Anglican church doctrine took the place of Catholic medieval education. Prominent scholars and educators of the Elizabethan Age stressed the need for training the upper classes for leadership in the national affairs of the Post-Reformation period. In addition to classical studies, they recommended bodily exercises and games for health and military efficiency, as well as for gentlemanly pastimes in peace.
Eventually humanist ideas of physical training materialized in the English grammar schools. Many of these private schools still exist and their traditional programs, games, and sports have spread throughout the world. The first American Latin grammar school, founded in Boston in 1635, followed the English tradition, but the Puritan asceticism of the English colonists was not a favorable climate for physical training in the school program.
The health exercises of the Greeks were rediscovered in the Renaissance when Galen's medical theories of the hygiene of exercise, diet, and bathing were translated from Greek into Latin. Several publications on gymnastics which were based on Galen's work appeared, but the book of an eminent Italian physician, Hieronymus Mercurialis (1530- 1606), was most influential. Boykin states that his De Arte Gymnastica, published in 1569 and in later editions, is a "perfect mine of information relating to ancient gymnastics" and that "his arguments are enforced by facts and testimony of one hundred and twenty-three classical authors." Mercurialis described a great number of exercises, games, and sports, and his exercises for the improvement of physiological functions revived ancient theories of gymnastics for health. [27] He thus established a basis for the present physiology of exercise.
PHILOSOPHIES OF PHYSICAL TRAINING IN REALISMAs the influence of the Renaissance continued into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, old ways of thinking were reexamined and new thoughts about the nature of man and his world appeared in the various philosophies of realism. Just as today we seek the truth about the mysteries of outer space, so did
the realists seek the truth about the nature of man, the nature of the world, and the nature of God in religion and in life. The human realists tried to find their answer in the culture of the past, the social realists in the society of the present, and the sense realists in the observation and exploration of the nature of things. It was in these centuries that the foundations of modern science and modern education were laid.
HUMAN REALISMThe human realists believed that the study of the culture of Greece and Rome should be related to the tangible realities of contemporary life. A prominent proponent of human realism was Francois Rabelais (c.1483-1553), a French monk, cure, physician and law student. His book dealt with the deeds of his hero Gargantua, and Gargantua's son Pantagruel. In so doing, Rabelais satirized the religious, social, and political life of his times. His chapter on the "old education and the new" reveals clearly his scorn for the old monastic and Latin schooling and gives his ideas for an education in which the study of the past is applied to the things of the present, where theory is combined with practice, learning with doing, mind with body, play with work, and gymnastics with music. His goal was the harmonious development of all the mental and physical capacities of the individual. [28]
Rabelais' ideas for physical training can be gathered from his account of a strenuous day in which Gargantua "did not waste an hour." Gargantua alternated his humanistic studies with the practice of arms and feats of horsemanship. He hunted, swam, and played games. He wrestled, ran, jumped, leaped, and he climbed trees, practiced throwing the dart, the stone, and the javelin. To develop muscular strength, he lifted heavy lead dumbbells and held them aloft for as long as he could. As a physician, Rabelais included in Gargantua's program hygienic practices, and as a cure, he stressed religious devotions. [29] His ideas had a strong influence two centuries later on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who, in Emile, set down his theories of natural education.SOCIAL REALISMThe social realists were primarily concerned with the kind of education which prepared the sons of gentlemen for effective participation in the social, political, and economic affairs of their times. Two social realists, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) in France and John Locke (1632-1704) in England, are notable for their ideas about the education of gentlemen.
Montaigne, like Rabelais, deplored the exclusive pursuit of intellectual achievements and proposed a more useful education for gentlemen's sons, boys who were customarily taught by tutors in the home. Opposing the Renaissance emphasis on book learning and the memorizing of words, he maintained that the goal of education should be the molding of the man of wisdom and virtue whose reason and judgement enable him to participate effectively in the affairs of his social class. [30]
Influenced by Montaigne's work [31], Locke developed theories and methods which represent the first psychological approach to education. In his book Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Locke, who was both a physician and tutor, starts with a "sound mind in a sound body"' and stresses the importance of sleep, diet, play, games, and exercise in the open air for good health. He emphasized a disciplined training in good habit formation and the development of the capacity to reason while children are young and "like white paper or wax" can be "moulded or fashioned as one pleases." [32]
He maintained that virtue, wisdom, and breeding [iii] were primary to man's character and that these qualities were learned through personal experience and through the senses. He described in detail the methods which parents and tutors should use in cultivating these faculties.
Locke said that "one great part of wisdom is not the product of much reading, but the effect of experience and observation in a man who has lived in the world with his eyes open and conversed with men of all sorts." [33]
Locke deplored the years wasted in learning Latin and Greek and the "Noise and Business it makes to no purpose." He believed that Latin and French were necessary but he advised that "arithmetic, geography, chronology, history and geometry, too" [34] were more practical and useful in the business of life. He stressed the importance of travel in education; his goal was the polished man of the 'world, fluent in languages and seasoned in reason, judgement and virtue.
Opposing the soft way of living, the lack of parental discipline, and unmanly attitudes of boys then prevalent in the lives of the upper classes, both Montaigne and Locke recommended a Spartan-like physical training to habituate the individual to bear bodily hardship. Montaigne recognized the unity of mind and body and he said that physical training should develop "a sinewy, hardy and vigorous young man." [35] The activities which Montaigne and Locke proposed to gain this end were running, wrestling, riding, and fencing, and both included music and dancing in the total education of gentlemen.
SENSE REALISMThe sense realists stressed the acquisition of knowledge and understanding through the senses, and through personal experience with the material things of the environment. The theory of sense realism was substantiated by
Sir Francis Bacon (1551-1626), civil servant and Lord Chancellor of England, when he showed a new way of discovering empirical truth by observation, experimentation, and the pragmatic interpretation of nature. In his book Novum Organum, published in 1620, he set forth the inductive method of reasoning which influenced later scientific thinking and stimulated the evolution of science and education. [36]
The sense realists were the first to organize methods and materials of instruction for educational programs. Although there were sense realists in various countries, the great Bohemian educator Johann Amos Comenius (1592-1670) must be mentioned here because he is known "as the greatest representative of sense realism, both in theory and practice, before the latter part of the eighteenth century," and "one of the commanding figures in the history of education." [37]
Contrary to the old religious concept that man was born evil, Comenius believed that man is inherently good and that education should develop his inborn virtues. He studied the nature of children and their environment and he organized methods and materials which conformed with the child's maturing capacities. He emphasized learning by sense perception and by associating words and thoughts with objects and experiences. Following the order of nature, Comenius introduced the concept of order in education, "order in the management of time, in the arrangement of subject matter and in the methods employed." [38]
The methods which Comenius developed were based on the ways of nature, and his goal was the education "of the whole man, body and soul as well as mind" in accordance with the perfections of God.His thoughts about rearing the infant show the depth of his understanding of the nature of the child. In his book School of Infancy, Comenius gives advice for maternal care, points out the need of diet, sleep, and play for health and strength, and he emphasized teaching and learning through the things which the child ordinarily sees, hears, does, and speaks about. A bishop of the Moravian Church as well as an educator,
Comenius stressed the importance of early instruction in morals, virtue, and piety. [39] He organized orderly programs of education for both elementary and secondary schools, introduced modern subject matter and methods, and arranged elementary
school methods for the children of the common people, progressive theories and practices which were an innovation in education in the seventeenth century.
Exiled from his homeland in the religious wars of the seventeenth century, Comenius developed his new educational methods in Poland, Sweden, Hungary, and Holland, and his textbooks were translated into many languages. Monroe states that his ideas also influenced the writings of the educational reformers who were to succeed him, particularly "Francke, Rousseau, Basedow, Pestalozzi, Froebel and Herbart." [40]
It can be noticed that the various proposals for physical education in the eras of humanism and realism did not come from physical educators but rather from philosophers, writers and teachers. Whenever they mentioned gymnastics, they meant the natural activities or the health exercises of the Greek tradition, and they were concerned only about physical training for boys and men. These activities, together with the knightly exercises and games, were emphasized in all schemes of education. However, the progressive educational theories of these centuries did not necessarily result in immediate educational reforms. Since periods in history are not sharply defined, new ideas overlap old ones, and cause a lag between theory and practice. Change and reform in education are slow because traditional thinking, entrenched principles, customs, and social conflicts delay progress.
The lag between theory and practice may cover many years before the theory, carried on the stream of time, eventually influences the lives of future generations. Therefore, the concept of natural activities in physical training became an established method only in the naturalistic schools of the eighteenth century.
THE INFLUENCE OF NATURALISM ON PHYSICAL TRAININGMarked contrasts and conflicts between old and new social and political customs existed in Europe in the eighteenth century. Feudalism had passed but serfdom continued. The supreme authority of the king and the general acceptance of his divine right to rule persisted, although nations had fought for the right to rule themselves. Naturalism was opposed to supernaturalism. Religions enforced their traditional beliefs while scientists were discovering new truths about the nature of man and his environment. In this century, interest in Greece and Rome gave way to thoughts of the nature of man within his own culture, his political rights, and his rights to freedom of expression. In France, the authority of the King and Church was challenged, and new social, political, and educational reforms were propagated.
In 1762, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), the French social and educational philosopher and romantic writer, presented his revolutionary educational theories in his book Emile. Rejecting the customary treatment of children as miniature adults, and its consequences, artificial education and harsh discipline in the schools, he proposed a new kind of education. Rousseau believed that education should follow the child's natural interests and capacities and that it should aim to develop sense perception and natural reason rather than memory. His stress on reason, hygienic living, play, and games for the development of a sound body and mind shows Locke's influence. [41]
Following the way in which children naturally learn, Rousseau stated that the infant gains sense experience "by looking, feeling, listening" and touching; that through movement he learns the "difference between self and not self," and through movement he discovers the concept of space. As for the child, he wrote, "Let him learn to make all the steps which favor the evolution of his body, and in all his attitudes to take an easy position. Let him learn to make jumps, now long, now high; to climb a tree, to leap a wall. Let him always find his equilibrium and let all his movements and gestures be regulated according to the laws of gravity, long before the science of statics intervenes to explain them to him .... From the manner in which his foot rests on the ground and his body on his leg, he should feel whether the position is good or bad. A secure position is always graceful, and the firmest postures the most elegant." [42]
Rousseau's philosophy of natural education was banned in France but it emerged in the naturalistic and philanthropic schools of Germany. Two of the most famous naturalistic schools were the Philanthropinum, founded by Johann Bernhard Basedow (1723-1790) at Dessau, and the Educational Institute which was established at Schnepfenthal by Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744-1811), a teacher at the Dessau school. These educators adapted educational materials to the capacities and interests of children and used natural methods for teaching the arts and sciences, manual work, and physical training. Their gymnastics were mainly modifications of the natural activities of the old Greek pentathlon, games, current recreational activities, excursions, and military drill. Ditches, streams, and trees were used to provide opportunities for leaping, climbing, balancing, and the like. Eventually, these natural obstacles were supplemented by climbing poles, jumping standards, and the balance beam.
A curriculum for natural activities in physical education began to take form when Johann Friedrich Simon, the first special teacher of physical education at the Dessau Philanthropinum, prepared the first syllabus of exercises classified for different age-groups. His successor, Johann Jakob du Toit, amplified it, and Christian Carl Andre, the first teacher at the Schnepfenthal Educational Institute, introduced movements for the improvement of posture which represent the beginning of modern "free exercises." [43] Andre was succeeded by Johann Friedrich Guts Muths (1759-1839), who remained at the Schnepfenthal Educational Institute for fifty years and who is known as the "grandfather of German gymnastics." Two of his books, Gymnastics for the Young and Games, were widely read and his methods spread first through Europe and then reached England and the United States.
Guts Muths objected to the coddling and effeminacy of boys and to the tendency to blame nature for their lack of health and strength. He attributed these conditions to an unnatural way of life which overemphasized the cultivation of the mind to the neglect of the body. He emphasized the need for exercise to develop "hardiness and strength of body, courage, and manliness, combined with the education of the head and heart," and he extolled as a shining example the classic Greek physical education. [44]
While Guts Muths was "aware that a genuine theory of gymnastics should be constructed on physiological principles, and the practice of each exercise be regulated by the physical qualities of each individual," he nevertheless developed his method "from his own teaching experience. [45] He emphasized natural activities for youth and classified his exercises into gymnastics, manual labors, and social games. His gymnastics were of various kinds: leaping, running, throwing, wrestling, climbing, balancing, lifting, and carrying, as well as dancing, walking, military exercises, bathing, and swimming. He even included declamation and exercises to develop sense perception. Trees, ropes, ladders, and simple apparatus provided natural obstacles for a great variety of natural activities, and he arranged specific exercises for particular parts of the body.
The improvement of the lot of the deprived, illiterate lower classes was the basic concern of the great Swiss educational reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827). Deeply influenced by Rousseau's writings, Pestalozzi believed fervently in social justice and in the regeneration of the underprivileged through universal elementary education. The aim of all education and instruction, he said, was "the harmonious development of the powers and faculties of human nature." [46] Pestalozzi based his methods on sense perception and, like Comenius, on the association of words and thoughts with objects and experiences. He was concerned about the development of each pupil and he constantly gave his pupils guidance in social living and morality. Pestalozzi's philosophy of developing the child's unfolding interests and capacities in accordance with the natural and orderly progression of growth and development is a generally accepted truth today.
According to Franz Hilker, a German historian of movement education, Pestalozzi developed two types of gymnastics, "natural gymnastics" and "art gymnastics." The natural gymnastics were activities for the development of the innate capacities of the child. The art gymnastics were a series of exercises of the joints for the improvement of structure, movements of the body and articulations. [47]
Pestalozzi's student Friedrich Froebel (1782- 1852), who became a teacher at the Yverdon Institute, founded the kindergarten. He based his teaching on the concept that there is an inner connection between the mind and things perceived, and between feeling, thought, and soul, and that these three latter factors are evident in all manifestations of life. He refers to the imagination of the child and he explained that education should utilize the interests which the child reveals through his natural activities and that the child should be helped to develop his true self within the image of God. As Froebel expressed it, "Education consists in leading man as a thinking, intelligent being growing into self-consciousness to a pure and unsullied, conscious and free representation of the inner law of Divine Unity and in teaching new ways and methods thereto." [48]
Froebel stressed the importance of the child's play in education. He explained that the child naturally expresses his impulses and that his feeling, thinking, and doing are united in play. The child thus reveals the good as well as the bad features of his true self. He maintained that through play experiences the child can be led to discipline his own actions and subdue the egotistical drives of his nature for the common good. Froebel's concept of the unity of the human being came years before the biological concept of organic unity was expressed, and his progressive ideas became the basis for many subsequent developments in education and physical education.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Maria Montessori, M.D. (1870-1952), born in Italy, created a method of infant education which, she wrote, was guided by "the natural physiological and psychical development of the child." [49] Recognizing the child's inherent curiosity and biological compulsion for exploration, she provided opportunities for cognitive experiences by creating an environment which conformed to the child's level of maturity. Her school was actually a child's house and garden in which the infant experienced functional living.
To satisfy the infant's primary needs for motor, sensory, and language development, Dr. Montessori invented a number of teaching aids for manipulation and sensory exploration. Similarly, she originated materials and experiences [or the development of language. In her method, movement training evolved naturally through functional activities in personal care, housekeeping, gardening, manual activities, and through simple, natural "gymnastic exercises" for movement and rhythm. [50] Thus Montessori endeavored to bring order and purpose to the child's natural exploratory movements and to provide a social training for functional living in the child's miniature world.
The Montessori method has much in common with modern principles of natural movement education. What Montessori advocated for motor and sensory education is also emphasized in natural movement education. Both methods are based on the idea of adapting teaching to the experiences of the child's level of maturity and both utilize similar procedures and materials.
In the United States, it was the world-famous natural philosopher Dr. John A. Dewey (1859- 1901) who developed Froebel's theories into a modern philosophy of education. Unlike Pestalozzi and Froebel, his ideas were not colored by sentimentality, because in his time scientific knowledge about the nature of the human being and realities of society already existed. Dewey examined philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, science, and psychology in relation to education in modern society.
He recognized that "all conduct is interaction between elements of human nature and the environment, natural and social." [51] Refuting the explanation that special instincts determine human conduct, Dewey maintained that "the whole organism is concerned in every act to some extent and in some fashion," and "the only way of telling what an organic act is like is by the sensed or perceptible changes which it occasions." Some changes "will be intra-organic and they will vary with every act" while "others will be external to the organism." The latter are the most important "for they are consequences in which others are concerned" and they "evoke reactions of favor and disfavor as well as cooperative or resisting activities of a more indirect sort." [52]
In his pedagogic creed, Dewey stated that "the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself." He regarded the individual as a social being, society "as an organic union of individuals," and education as a two-sided, organically related process, "one psychological and the other sociological." Psychology is the basis of the educational process and "the child's own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting point for all education." For Dewey, education was a "process of living," and the school a simplified "form of community life" where children could experience meaningful social living, learn to think and work with others, and develop desirable social and moral attitudes. [53]
Since natural play activities of children are primary organic experiences, rich in opportunities for learning social and moral judgements, Dewey's theories as well as his experience in teaching play, [iv]had a profound effect on physical education. Many leading physical educators who opposed artificial gymnastics in the early years of the twentieth century accepted Dewey's philosophy and began to teach natural activities.
The naturalism and romanticism of the late eighteenth century affected not only social and educational philosophies, but also literature and the arts of expression. Franz Hilker states that the German poets Lessing, Herder, Schiller, and particularly Goethe, had written about fusing nature with art, and that it was Lessing who stressed the need for natural movement in acting on the stage. Hilker points out that Johann Jacob Engel (1741- 1802), writer and dramatic director, pursued Lessing's principles of expressive and harmonious movement and gesture for the mimic, and that Enel's writings were later translated into French. [54] Subsequently, in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, Francois Delsarte (1811-1871) developed in France a system of movements and gestures to enable the mimic, the actor, and the orator to express thought and emotion naturally and effectively. His system, called "Applied Aesthetics," affected the performing' arts, and its great influence on the development of movement education will be explained in Chapter 3.
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Notes:i. The time of the first ancient Olympic Games.
ii. Superscript numbers refer to the Notes at the end of the chapter.
iii. Locke uses this term in special sense of training'.
iv. Dewey conducted a play program at the University of Chicago Elementary School.
1. In Olympic contests, the pentathlon usually consisted of running, jumping, discus, javelin, and wrestling. See Thomas Woody, Life and Education in Early Societies (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1949), p. 377.
2. Ibid., pp. 243, 307.
3. Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Men, John Dryden et al., trans. (New York: John Wurtele Lovell, c. 1883), "Lycurgus," Vol. I, pp. 79-81.
4. Woody, op. cit., pp. 244-248.
5. Ibid., p. 287.
6. Ibid., p. 298.
7. Professional athleticism reached a peak in 331 B.C. See Clarence A. Forbes, Greek Physical Education (New York: The Century Company, 1929), pp. 89-90.
8. Woody, op. cit., pp. 400-402.
9. Thucydides, The History of The Peloponnesian War, ed. in trans. Sir Richard Livingstone (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960).
10. Woody, op. cit., pp. 513-514.
11. Ellwood P. Cubberley. The History of Education (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1920), pp. 62- 63.
12. Personal study of ruins with a Roman teacher of history; see also Joseph Ripostelli, The Thermae of Caracalla (seventh edition; Rome: Terni, Stabilimenti Poligrafici Alterocca, 1925), pp. 9-56.
13. Edward J. Power, Main Currents in the History of Education (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1962), pp. 191-195. He mentions the influence of Roman and Jewish traditions of family education on the Christian view. p. 153.
14. Charlemagne (768-814) was a great patron of learning, and manuscripts written by monks in his reign were observed by Margaret C. Brown at the Charlemagne Exposition, Aachen, 1965.
15. Power, op. cit., p. 245; for an analysis of Aristotelian logic, see A. Francke, Esquisse d'une Histoire de la Logique (Paris: Librairie Classequede L'Hachette, 1838).
16. Power, op. cit., p. 268.
17. Church militancy was evident in the "order of soldier monks, the Hospitallers, the Templars and the Teutonic Knights." See Fred Eugene Leonard, History of Physical Education (Philadelphia: Lea &: Febiger, 1923), p.43.
18. Sir Edward Strachey, Bart. (ed.), Le Morte Darthur (Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and His Noble Knights of the Round Table; London: Macmillan and Company, Limited, 1919), "An Essay on Chivalry", pp. xxxviii-lvi.
19. Cubberley, op. cit., pp. 165-169.
20. Power, op. cit., p. 269.
21. John Addington Symonds, The Revival of Learning (Capricorn edition; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1960), pp. 18-26, 52.
22. Cubberley, op. cit., p. 267.
23. William H. Woodward, Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators (Cambridge: University Press, 1912), pp. 36-37, 65, 245-246. Chronologically, the age of chivalry and medieval Christian education overlapped humanism, resulting in a blending of educational theories. See Power, op. cit., pp. 270-274.
24. William H. Woodward, Studies in Education during the Age of the Renaissance (Cambridge: University Press, 1924), pp. 247-248. Four centuries later, Francois Delsarte developed his art of expression on a similar thought.
25. Count Baldassar Castiglione, Il Cortegiano (a new version of his 1528 book, written in Italian and English by A. P. Castiglione of the same family; London: Printed by W. Bowyer, 1727), pp. 2-5, 37-40. Castiglione set forth his views in a letter to a friend, reporting a dialogue among "persons excellently qualified to determine" the attributes of the courtier. Count Baldassar Castiglione was a pupil of Vittorino da Feltre for eight years. See W. H. Woodward, Vitorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators, p. xi.
26. Cubberley, op. cit., pp. 283-284.
27. James C. Boykin, "Physical Training," Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1891-1892 (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1894), Vol. I, Chapter 13, p. 477; P. C. McIntosh et al., Landmarks in the History of Physical Education (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965), pp. 70-71.
28. Samuel Putnam (ed.), Rabelais (seventh edition; New York: The Viking Press, 1946), Chapter 3, "The Old Education and the New."
29. Ibid., pp. 124-132.
30. Cubberley, op. cit., pp. 402-403.
31. John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, (with introduction and notes by the Rev. R. H. Quick, M.A.; Cambridge: At the University Press, 1902). In the "Introduction," Quick gives the succession of thinkers about realism versus verbalism as Rabelais, Montaigne, Locke, (Fenelon?) Rousseau, pp. xlix, 1.
32. Ibid., p. 187.
33. Ibid., p. 74.
34. Ibid., pp. 128, 156. Locke was a great liberal and humane philosopher, yet he believed in class distinction. He wrote that "a Prince, a Nobleman, and an ordinary Gentleman's Son should have Different Ways of Breeding," pp. 186-187.
35. Boykin, op. cit., p. 474.
36. Catherine Drinker Bowen, Francis Bacon (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1963), pp. 8-11.
37. Cubberley, op. cit., p. 408. Although Comenius preceded Locke, they lived in the same century and both advocated learning through personal experiences and the senses.
38. Will S. Monroe, Comenius and The Beginnings of Educational Reform (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907), p. 90.
39. John Amos Comenius, The School of Infancy, ed. with intro. by Ernest M. Eller (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1956), pp. 19,76-117.
40. Will S. Monroe, op. cit., p. 143.
41. Locke, op. cit., pp. xlix, liii.
42. Rousseau, Jean Jacques, Emile, or Education, trans. by Barbara Foxley (New York: E. P. Dutton &: Co., 1921), p. 31; Rousseau's Emile, or, Treatise on Education, trans. by William H. Payne (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1909), pp. 100-101.
43. P. C. Mcintosh et al., op. cit., p. 110; Leonard, op. cit., p. 71.
44. Guts Muths, Johann, Gymnastics For Youth (London: J. Johnson, 1800), pp. 48-49, 106-107. A free translation of Guts Muths' book by William Blake, who "took a few liberties" with it and incorrectly attributed it to Salzmann.
45. Ibid., p. viii.
46. A. Pinloche, Pestalozzi (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901), p. 125.
47. Franz Hilker, Reine Gymnastik (fourth edition; Berlin: Max Hesses Verlag, 1926), p. 27.
48. Friedrich Froebel, The Education of Man, trans. by W. N. Hailmann (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1897), p. 2.
49. Maria Montessori, Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Robert Bentley, Inc., 1964), p.17.
50. Ibid., pp. 20-29.
51. Reginald D. Archambault (ed.), John Dewey on Education (New York: The Modern Library, Random House, Inc., 1964), p. 67.
52. John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1922), pp. 150-151. Reprinted by permission of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
53. Archambault, op. cit., pp. 427-432; John Dewey, The School and Society (revised edition; Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1967), pp. 6-29.
54. Hilker, op. cit., pp. 28-29. He mentions that Engel's writings probably influenced Delsarte's work.