Considerations about the fundamental reasons for school physical education

Abstract

The current paper attempts to consider the fundamental reasons for school physical education by (1) examining the historical perspective, (2) reviewing critically the approaches adopted up to the present time, and (3) examining the future prospects for physical education in schools. The reasons for school physical education up to the present have been based on usefulness in a "closed community", which plays a dominant role outside and controls people inside. However, in the current climate of globalization, it is necessary for people with different cultures to understand each other and live together. Therefore the logic of the "closed community", on which modern society is mainly based, creates many problems. In the future, the reasons for school physical education should be sought in an "open community" that encourages people to grow up accepting others. This is not easy, because the logic of the "open community" runs contrary to the traditional western concept that human values are found only in reason. In order to examine the aims of school physical education in an "open community", the human body needs to be understood firstly not as material, but as a place for "co-existence". Thus school physical education needs to be reconstructed on the basis of this understanding of the human body.