Why study the history of anything?

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What does history tell us in general?
What difference has history made to present day events?
What influence does history have in decision making for leaders in various fields, professions or disciplines?
What can history do to help “me” in the field of Physical Education?

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History is the study of change or lack of change over periods of time.
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In physical education, historical perspective provides teachers and students with an appreciation of our field and how it has evolved from areas such as survival skills, medicine and war.

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Not serious
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Free activity standing outside ordinary life, may be intense depending on participants
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Absorbing
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No material interest
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Has it’s own boundaries and/or limitations
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Can form social groups
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Amusements engaged in freely, for fun, and devoid of constraints

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Somewhat more organized than play
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Has playful elements
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Explicit rules
Boundaries which can be flexible
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Sequence of actions that are essentially repeatable
Generally rules are agree upon by participants prior to beginning
Usually implying winners and losers, can range from simple diversions to competitions with significant outcomes governed by rules

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…

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A process through which an individual obtains optimal physical, mental, and social skills and fitness through physical activity. (Lumkin, 1994)

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Their purpose is to optimize quality of life through a longterm commitment to enjoyable physical activity and sport experiences that will meet varied needs in a changing world. (Lumpkin,
1994)

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Survival was the basic aim of all education in primitive society
Skills of an individual were developed for the good of the group.
Adult competitions came about as a form of recreation and to determine the most effective hunters and fighters.

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Early period of education included physical activity but it did not last as
China took on an Isolationist policy.
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Early versions of soccer, wrestling and archery were evident in their history.
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Cong Fu was a program of exercises devoted to prevention of disease through physical activity.
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Dance was popular both for ritual and recreation.

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This was one of the earliest cultures to provide women with equal opportunities.
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Education was primarily for occupational reasons such as learning a trade.
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Physical Education was of little importance since Egypt was not militarily oriented.
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Egyptians enjoyed sport and games and had a great love of dance.

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Primarily a military focus in the culture.
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What impact did the concept of military training have on the general education and physical activity levels in the ancient
China, Egypt and the Middle
East?

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Early accounts suggest that “Games” were religious activities that surrounded funeral rites.
 Foot racing, boxing, wrestling and chariot races were the common forms of competition.
 Physical Education was geared toward the use of weapons and hand-to-hand combat techniques.

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Spartan culture and life was primarily military in nature.
Weak children were abandoned in the wilderness to die.
Education for males was focused on their readiness for military service.
Female education revolved around preparation for childbirth and motherhood.
Dance was encouraged as a means of physical conditioning and to honor the gods.

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The motto “a sound mind in a sound body” stresses the goal of education.
Schools were for men and women were educated at home.
“Gymnasium” is the Greek word for
“naked” and was the name given to a training school for males.
“Palestra” was a small training school for wrestling and the physical training teacher was called a “paidotribe,” the original physical education teacher or coach.

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The term “Olympiad” means a four-year period.
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The first recorded Olympics were in 776
B.C.
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“pax Olypmia” referred to the month-long treaty or truce that surrounded the games.
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The festival of Hera was held every four years to allow for competition among women of Greece.

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The first presence of a “coaches handbook” on training was in the third century B.C.
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Amateurism versus Professionalism was never an issue in the ancient form of the games.
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The ancient games came to an end in 394
B.C. because they were considered a form of pagan worship by the Roman Christian rulers of the time.

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Training for males was directed entirely toward preparation for the military.
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Women were considered more important in the Roman culture than the Greek culture.
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Roman civilization quickly became a nation of spectators as the empire grew and they conquered surrounding nations.

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Roman viewed sport in two ways:
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Military training
Entertainment
Roman culture used the concept of
“sport” as a means to entertainment to the point where they used captured slaves as the competitors or “Gladiators.”
“spectacle is the opiate of the masses”
The ideal of sport and competition for the joy of competing was lost to the concept of winning in order to survive during the
Roman Empire.

It is reported that there was a revival of athletic tournament during this period so that
Knights could maintain a level of fitness and refine skills for battle.
The Crusades were the reason that the Catholic Church accepted physical training again.

Roman Catholic Church was opposed to physical education for three reasons:
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it considered the Roman character that resulted from sport and games to be undesirable
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the Roman style games were considered pagan due to their relationship with honoring the gods the church believed that the emphasis on development of the body was evil in nature.

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Upper classes were primarily the participants in sport and games activities.
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Lower classes were generally not permitted to compete and did not have the time to train in order to be competitive.
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How would you compare this with today’s perceptions of sports and participation in sports?

Colonists organized and attempted to fight against the British forces for independence.
It quickly became apparent that colonial life was not adequately rigorous to prepare them for life as a soldier in war.
Skills used in earlier colonial life we limited to the job skills of the individuals.

Frontier life had hunting, tracking and survival skills as their basis.
Indians shared my skills with new settlers as the move west continued.
Male Indians played a game called Beggataway which meant “game of ball” that was similar to current day Lacrosse.
Females played a game with sticks that eventually became Field Hockey.
The topic of Hygiene was taught primarily by
Physicians during this period.

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A variety of activities and competitions contributed to the revival of the modern
Olympics.
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The continued efforts of many individuals culminated in 1896 when the games organized by Pierre de Coubertin and held in
Athens, Greece.
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Olympics through history
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Olympic History
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10 points to remember!

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George Hengel and Karl Marx were prominent political figures who influenced trends in education.
They both believed that every individual needed to be strong enough to be a “contributing member of society.”
Marxism and Socialism contributed to the incorporation of exercise and physical activity as staples in the education of all citizens.

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The late 1800’s and into the 1900’s researchers began to study the effects of strength training and the measurement of increased level of fitness on participants in various programs.
This signaled the beginning of our modern concepts of fitness and strength training as structured programs rather that arbitrary results.
Two systems of German exercise battled for prominence in early school Physical Education programs: the Turner and Swedish systems of exercise for physical training.

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Stages of development of organized sport
(1850-1900):
Growth of University and school sports;
Popularity of sports both for participants and spectators;
Development of sports clubs;
National organizations organized and sponsored national championships;
Common national and international rules were written;
Records were kept in sports where it was appropriate.

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Non school sports were first on the scene and created an interest for the physical education curriculum and fueled the growth of intramural sport activities.
Influences on sport and athletics in schools and colleges:
1905 development of the NCAA
1922 establishment of the national federation of high school sports
The “New Physical Education of the
1920’s that saw sports incorporated into the PE curriculum.

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Rapid growth of women’s competitive sports.
Popularity of competitive intramurals as an established portion of the college and school programming.
Games and sports became a standard portion of the general physical education curriculum.
Physical Education gradually shifted its’ focus from health and wellness to sports and games and this created a need for the preparation of teachers who were more “athletically inclined” rather than focused on a medical and formal gymnastics background.

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War-related injuries brought about an increased need for physical rehabilitation programs.
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This was the birth of physical therapy and the belief that through exercise the body could be restored, a Chinese approach evident many centuries earlier.

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Roger’s Strength Index and Physical Fitness
Index was a general motor fitness test that measured: balance, flexibility, agility, strength, power, and endurance items.
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Fitness testing became part of physical education curriculum at the college level.
Wartime training tests demonstrated the need for additional fitness and health emphasis.

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Kraus-Weber Test was used to conduct a comparison between the fitness levels of children in Europe and the United States in the 1950’s.
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Low scores eventually led to the establishment of the President’s Council on
Physical Fitness during the Kennedy
Administration.

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1885 Adelphi Academy held to discuss common interest in physical activity and development.
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Edward Hitchcock and Dudley Sargent led discussions concerning the present and future of the fields of fitness and physical education.

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1885 at this conference the creation of the Association for the Advancement of
Physical Education signaled a national interest in the subject area.
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The objective of this association was “to disseminate knowledge concerning physical education, to improve methods, and by meetings of the members to bring those interested in the subject into closer relation to each other.”

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1885 Association for the Advancement of Physical
Education
1886 American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education
1903 American Physical Education Association
1937 American Association for Health and
Physical Education
1938 American Association for Health, Physical
Education and Recreation
1974 American Alliance for Health, Physical
Education and Recreation
1979 American Alliance for Health, Physical
Education, Recreation and Dance.

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The Great Depression saw Physical
Education in schools as an expensive
“frill” and many programs were dropped.
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Intramural sports programs grew at the expense of interscholastic programs due to increased participation at a reduced cost to the schools.

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Recreation expanded during the Great
Depression for two reasons:
Unemployment created increased leisure time
The government created jobs programs that focused on the construction and development of recreational facilities including public parks for playing games as well as outdoor leisure pursuits.
Women’s sports suffered because women administrators held back the development of women’s programs due to the fear they would suffer from examples set by the men’s programs.

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During the initial draft for WWII, 45% of the draftees were rejected for physical or mental reasons.
The government immediately saw the need to address health and fitness issues among the general population.
The government created the Division of
Physical Fitness.

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Physical Education programs focused on physical fitness and were oriented toward preparation of students for military needs.
Numerous attempts were made to create comprehensive fitness tests that could be administered to prepare individuals for military service when needed.

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A significant wartime gain was that many states went from “recommended” to
“required” physical education programs in the school curriculum.
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Post WW II saw the return of the Olympic
Games in 1948 and this brought about an international consciousness and cooperation regarding sports and physical education.

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1953 Kraus-Weber Test results suggest that
European children were at a higher level of fitness
1955 President Eisenhower created the
Council on Youth Fitness
1958 AAHPER published their first Youth
Fitness Test Battery.
1961 President Kennedy created the
President’s Council on Youth Fitness.

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Kennedy’s efforts to infuse more fitnessoriented activities and sports into schools curriculum was the first non-war effort supported by upper levels of government.
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The launch of Sputnik satellite by Russia signaled the start of the “Cold War” and created a new reason to investigate the fitness level of our population.
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1946 Jackie Robinson was the first black professional athlete.

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Olympics became a stage for political statements and activities.
1968 Mexico Olympics saw riots and demonstrations.
1972 Munich games resulted in the murder of
Israeli athletes by Arab extremists.
1976 Olympics athletes raised their hands in tribute to “Black Power.”
1980 games in Moscow boycotted by the United
States Team.
1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles were boycotted by the Soviet Block countries.

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“Big time” college sports were viewed negatively as “sports for the few” and students began to demand money be put back into intramural programs and club sports.
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The growth of professional sports and television sports turned the nation into a nation of spectators and youth began to imitate “role models” rather than the more traditional individuals from neighborhoods.

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War in Southeast Asia brought a renewed interest in the role of Physical Education in school curriculum.
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The general educational movement was toward students having more choices in curriculum and individual class offerings.

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By the 1980’s the concept of student choice had lost it’s push and educators moved back to the more traditional emphasis on standardized curricular offerings.
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Professionals became aware of the need to prepare students for their future activity needs and the trend toward elective “lifetime sports and activities” were developed in the curriculum.

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The “Wellness” movement began to pick up momentum and the focus of physical education moved toward recreation and fitness.
“New Games” became popular among younger students due to the emphasis on cooperative, group-oriented activities over competition.
As in the years of the Great Depression, school budget were reduced and so were the allocations for programming and time allocations for physical education.

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“In physical education, the most noticeable changes in the last 30 years are the trend from fitness to a lifetime wellness focus in required programs, a disappearing requirement even as youth fitness levels worsen, and continued fracturing of the profession into disciplinary groups.”

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1871 West Chester Normal School opened
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1889 Construction of the gymnasium and beginning of the Department of Physical Training directed by Dr. Clyde Ehinger
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1921 Department of Physical Education under Dr.
Charles Lewis
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1927 West Chester State Teachers College
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1960 West Chester State College (WCSC)
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1972 Opening of the Health Sciences Center
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1982 West Chester State College becomes West
Chester University
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1993 Struzebecker Health Sciences Center