Orijinal
The Past, the Present and the Future in Physical Education
2013 Volume 21 Issue 2 Pages 51-62
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2013 Volume 21 Issue 2 Pages 51-62
Generally it is believed the direct origin of physical education as a subject was “gymnastics” lessons in the latter years of the 19th century. However, this paper assumes that sports as extra-curricular activities in English Public Schools led to the origin of modern physical education. Because most of the contents of the present PE curriculum are “sports”, not “gymnastics” and English Public Schools found out the educational value of sports besides simply training body and discipline.
The purpose of this paper is to trace the past of PE focusing on English Public Schools and to describe the present PE connected with the influence of the past, finally to try to examine the future of PE which promise to conquer the present.
The process in which sporting activities had been recognized as education can be divided into three stages. First of all, teachers repressed and prohibited sports from the latter years of the 18th century to the earlier days of the 19th century. Secondly, teachers gave official approval to sports to gain the co-operation of boys in order to maintain discipline from the earlier years to the middle of the 19th century. Thirdly, teachers encouraged sports positively therefore sports had their own educational values for building boy’s character after the middle of the 19th century.
The most important stage was the second one. The character of these days’ sporting activities was a means of social control for teachers but must have been pure “play” for boys. We have to pay attention to the fact that the starting point of sports as education was produced by the spontaneousness of boys.
When we look back at the history of PE above , we can notice that PE even up to now ignores the fundamental meaning of physical exercise for the people who play them which is to have fun. With this viewpoint, the possibility of the theory “Tanoshii-Taiiku” which emphersizes the play element of physical exercise can present one of the future directions in physical education.
