Historical Issues in PE

1
Historical Issues in PE

• 19th Century Public Schools

2
Athleticism in 19 Century Public Schools

• An English Public School an endowed place of
  education of old standing to which the sons of
  gentlemen resort in considerable numbers and
  where they reside from eight or nine to eighteen
  years of age.

3
Public Schools

• Endowed regular income
• Boarding
• Fee paying
• Spartan living standards were poor and young
  children were treated violently by teachers and
  prefects.
• Non local high status schools attracted pupils
  from wide radius.
• Controlled by trustees not owned privately.
• Boys and gentlemen elitist system.

4
Types of Public Schools

• Clarendon Schools 9 exclusive boys schools.
• Ladies Academies finishing schools for
  daughters of the gentry.
• Proprietary colleges middle class copies of the
  gentry schools, examples, Cheltenham College and
  Malvern College.
• Denominated Schools Cathedral schools to
  educate sons and daughters of the clergy,
  examples include, York, Worcester and Canterbury.
• Endowed Grammar Schools free grammar schools,
  examples include, King Edwards Birmingham.

5
Stage One Schoolboys and Popular Recreation.

• The transfer from popular recreation to the
  public school.
• Activities such as mob games, court games,
  cricket and blood sports.
• Characteristics violent, rural, local, ritual
  and uncoded.
• Public Schools boy culture, institutionalised.

6
Problems and Key Features.

• Drinking and gambling.
• Behaviour in town and other schools.
• Boys brought games into schools and were
  responsible for organising games and rules.
• Facilities available determined the development
  of the game, for example, the Quad at
  Charterhouse and the Close at Rugby School.

7
Stage 2 Arnoldian influence and the role of
Christian gentleman.

• Godliness and manliness.
• Educational Reform and Sixth form culture.
• Expansion and house system
• Specific sports sports days, football, cricket,
  tennis, bathing, rowing, gym and limited field
  sports and bullying.
• Regular competition.
• Written Codes.
• Special Facilities.
• Headmasters encouragement.

8
Stage 3 Athleticism and the Corinthian Spirit.

• Physical endeavour
• Moral integrity
• Gentry and middle class mix
• Girls
• The church
• Compulsory activities gym/drill, swimming,
  athletics, cricket, football, rackets, football,
  rowing, martial combats and field sports.
• Full staff involvement, public school
  championships, time space and expertise.

9
Social Control through Physical Activity in the
Public Schools.

• The most significant feature was the belief that
  school sport was not only a vehicle for for
  personal development, but the essence of
  education itself, representing a model lifestyle.
• It consisted of a fundamental link being made
  between manliness and godliness in what has been
  called muscular Christianity an educational
  experience involving physical endeavour and moral
  integrity.