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History of Physical Education Essay

Decent Essays

Physical education is defined nowadays as a “systematic instruction in sports, exercises, and hygiene given as part of a school or college program” (Park). When most people think of the term “physical education” they think of it as “a broad, inclusive term comprising the fields of physical education, health education, safety education, athletics, recreation, dance education, kinesiology and so on” (Zeigler 1). It may sometimes be referred to as physical training or gym class and mainly is taught in grades kindergarten all to the way up to your senior year in high-school in the United States. The history of physical education dates way back to the Greek and Roman times and has slowly evolved into what it is now today. There is a …show more content…

So things such as running, jumping, swimming, wrestling and boxing were all part of the Roman education system and were used for military preparation as well. There were also sporting events that the Roman Empire put on in honor of the gods they worshipped similar to that of the Greeks (Siedentop 24-25).
Back in those days of the Greek and Roman women were not able to participate in physical education and sport to the same degree as men, so they never had the same chances that men did. Greeks would never let women partake in physical education, but the Romans were not quite as harsh letting them occasionally do dancing or light exercise. Once the fall of the Roman Empire happened it became what was known as the dark ages for physical education (Siedentop 25). It was a period of 1,000 years “in which physical activity, sport, and fitness diminished in importance amid political and economic chaos” (Siedentop 25).
The Roman and the Greek civilizations were a great influence on the European culture and philosophies. Europeans then eventually came to settle in America (Siedentop 24). This meant that early ideas and perspective on physical education in the United States were based on European traditions and beliefs which were based on the Roman and Greek culture.
Physical education did not really start to make a comeback until the seventeenth and eighteenth century. This is around the time when the European settlers were migrating

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