PHYSICAL EDUCATION AS PART OF GENERAL EDUCATION

C. H. McCloy, (From an article by the author published in the Journal of
Physical Education, November, 1928)

Physical Education has for many years proceeded upon the assumptions that
Christian virtues were cultivated in the individuals participating in physical
education activities and that these virtues in some way could be assumed to
influence all of life's activities. In modern educational psychological
parlance, it was assumed that these virtues were learned and that they trans-
ferred.

These assumptions were based largely upon the writings of a past generation
of psychologists who believed in the development of "faculties" of mind, such as
memory, reason, moral appreciation, etc., which were applicable to almost |.
any related problem when once they were developed. In addition, this psy-
chological teaching was often takon out of its context in order to make a
point. A quotation like the following from G. Stanley Hali:1

"The motive of bringing out latent, decaying or even new powers,
skills, knacks, and feats, in full of inspiration. Patriotism ig aroused,
for thus the country can be better served; thus the German Fatherland was
to be restored and unified after the dark days that followed the humilia-
tion of Jena. Now the ideals of religion are invoked that the soul may
have a better and regenerated somatic organism with which to serve Jesus
and the Church. Exercise is made a form of praise to God and of service
to man and these motives are re-enforced by those of the new hygiene which
strives for a new wholeness~holiness, and would purify the body as the
temple of the Holy Ghost. Thus in Young Men's Christian Association secoe.
gymnasiums the gospel of Christianity is preached anew and seeks to bring
Salvation to man's physical frame, which the still lingering effects of
asceticism have caused to be too long neglected in its progressive de-
generation. As the Greek games were in honor of the gods, so now the
body is trained to better glorify God, and regimen, chastity, and tem~
perance are given a new momentum, The physical salvation thus wrought
will be, when adequately written, one of the most splendid chapters in
the modern history of Christianity ....e. Strength is prayed for as well
as worked for, and consecrated to the highest uses. Last but not least,
power thus developed over a large surface may be applied to athletic con-
tests in the field, and victories here are valuable as fore-gleams of
how sweet the glory of achievements in higher moral and spiritual tasks
will taste later."

was not followed by its next paragraph, which reads as follows:

"The dangers and sources of error in this ideal of all-sided training
are, alas, only too obvious, although they only qalify its paramount good.
First, it is impossible to thus measure the quanta of training needed so
as to rightly assign to each its modicum and best modality of training.
Indeed no method of doing this has ever been attempted, but the assessments
have been arbitrary and conjectural, probably right in some and wrong in
other respects, with no adequate criterion or test for either save only
empirical experiences. Secondly, heredity, which lays its heavy ictus
upon some neglected forms of activity end fails of all support for others,
has been ignored. As we shall see later, one of the best norms here is