Physical Education Curriculum, History of

The history of physical education can be seen as an important dimension of the history of curriculum because it treats the story of responses to questions of what is worthwhile in the psychomo-tor realm. The psychomotor as such is not merely an alternative to the cognitive (intellectual), the affective (emotional), the social, and the spiritual domains of human functioning. Instead, psycho-motor realm is an integration of all five, with a foregrounding of the physical. This history can be traced in ways that invoke many issues such as the influence of European sport and Puritan religious values, the role of physical activity for women, the emergence and popularity of sport, dueling versions of the purposes of physical education, and more recently, racial, ethnic, and gender issues. Evolution has certainly occurred, and physical education has established a foothold in schools, universities, and to a lesser extent youth agencies. Nevertheless, its subject matter and purposes have remained contested.

Although physical education now has a number of curriculum models to choose from as well as a wide range of curricular content such as exercise, sport, dance, and outdoor/adventure activities, these developments occurred gradually over two centuries. Precursors to the field of physical education include the active games of early Greek and Mayan societies, which were often part of prevailing notions of education for life. However, physical education as a field was unknown until the 1800s. In the United States at that time, the dominant forms of physical education were imported from Germany and Sweden. The German system included gymnastics exercises, running, throwing, and rudimentary games, whereas the Swedish system emphasized “medical gymnastics,” which purported to have science-based therapeutic effects. Germanic and Swedish systems were called gymnastics, but were unlike gymnastics of today.

Another approach countered the prevailing notion that women were fragile and was illustrated by a book in the 1830s that focused on “calisthenics for young ladies.” Still another system combined the scientific gymnastics of the Swedes with women's programs. Aspects of these programs and emergent fitness measurement, strength, and health training approaches were combined at Harvard into a comprehensive approach. During these early days, physical educators represented a variety of backgrounds: medical, YMCA, the ministry, and the Women's Christian Temperance movement.

All of this activity preceded and contributed to what became known as the field of physical education (then referred to as physical training or physical culture). The Adelphi Conference of 1885 brought together the key contributors to organized physical activity programs from the various systems in vogue, including a representative group of women who were strong advocates of physical education, members of the news media, college presidents, and clergy. This conference is recognized as the birthplace of physical education. A new professional organization, the Association for the Advancement of Physical Education, was founded at the Adelphi Conference. This organization provided programs to prepare instructors of physical education, among the first being the Department of Physical Education at Amherst [Page 652]College. The YMCA was also an early player in training physical education instructors, leading to the creation of Springfield College in Massachusetts. Soon, Springfield began to be recognized as a major professional preparation institution for the development of physical education, fitness, and sport practitioners, a reputation that has continued.

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