Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/302

LEFT PHYSICAL EDUCATION 236 PHYSICAL EDUCATION and in the humanistic literature of the times there are many allusions to phy- sical education for the gentleman. But the training was still very largely con- fined to exercise in arms and horseman- ship. In the eighteenth century a new conception is added by Rousseau, who in Emile (1762) urges the policy of making the child a healthy animal before start- ing to train his mind. In 1774 modern physical education may be said to have begun when Basedow founded his Phil- anthropinum at Dessau and introduced daily physical exercises for all students under the direction of a competent in- structor. In the second decade of the nineteenth century Friedrich Ludwig Jahn started the popular Turnverein movement in Germany, modeling his system on that of the Greeks with the athletic spirit left out. The famous Swedish gymnastics owe much to the Lings, father and son, whose work cov- ers the period from 1814 to 1815. In England in the nineteenth century nearly all the emphasis was laid on sports and games. "In physical education," as the great authority Dr. Dudley A. Sargent, of Harvard, writes, "America has become the battle ground upon which Old World theories are being fought over again." In the early pioneer days of this country there was little need of at- tention to physical education; but as the country developed systems were in- troduced. Thus in the thirties we find the military academies of Captain Al- den Partridge in Norwich (Vt.) and Middletown (Conn.) A little later Jahn gymnastics were introduced, and then the Swedish system became popular. Probably in the United States physical education has been more developed than in any other country, although America has originated very little in the way of physical exercises, the Indian game of lacrosse and the game known as "bean bag" of Dr. Dio Lewis being her chief contributions. In our schools it may be said with truth that physical education is still in its infancy. The American public was aroused to the need of paying more attention to bodily exercise by reason of the large number of men ex- amined and rejected under the draft laws during the war. The system usually followed in our schools was that of German or Swedish gymnastics vnth- out, however, either adequate equipment or expert instruction. Of late several States have passed laws providing for compulsory physical education in our schools and a bill is now before Con- gress "for the promotion of physical education in the United States through co-operation with the States in the pay- ment of supervisors and teachers of physical education." Supporters of this bill (known as the Fess-Capper Bill) as- sert that careful surveys in all parts of the country prove that at least half tha youngsters of America have some kind of physical defect and that all will profit by training in effective, body building physical activities. In our colleges and universities much attention is now being given to physical training, usually though not always to be distinguished from athletics. The pioneer in this work, Dr. Dudley A. Sargent, began at Bowdoin College in 1869 his system of measurements of students which he afterward developed at Harvard Univer- sity and which has had such influence on gymnastic work in all of our insti- tutions. Through this system he intro- duced corrective gymnastics which have done so much for the physical improve- ment of American youth. To-day nearly every American college requires the com- pletion of a certain amount of work in physical training for the degree; and in many institutions the work is graded as in other courses. In progressive col- leges the program consists not by any means of gymnastics alone, but also of games and athletic sports. There is still a lack of properly equipped teachers; but professional training is now being given at such in- stitutions as the Y. M. C. A. College at Springfield, (Mass.) and in many of the universities. Many excellent women teachers are also being trained at Dr. Sargent's school in Cambridge. Physical education is by no means confined to colleges and schools. The public gymnasium for people of all classes is becoming more and more com- mon; and in public playgrounds also, par- ticularly in the larger cities, there are classes for men and women as well as for boys and girls. In the army and navy much attention is given to setting up exercises and other calisthenic work. Much progress has been made lately in the study of theory not only, but also of practice. There is a society for the Ad- vancement of Physical Education which holds annual meetings and which since 1885 has published annually a volume of proceedings. The American Physical Education Review (1896) is published at Springfield (Mass). Among the col- leges the interests of physical education are furthered by the National Intercol- legiate Athletic Association and by an as- sociation of college teachers of physical training. Physical education occupies an important place in all public health pro- grams both State and National. With the massing of population in the cities