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Physical
Education: A New Profession *Luther Gulick, “Physical Education: A New
Profession,” Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of
Physical Education (Ithaca, American Association for the Advancement of
Physical Education, 1890), p 59-66 Of Dr.
Luther Halsey Gulick, one of the foremost leaders in physical education in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Dr. Dudley A. Sargent once wrote:
“In power of concentration, in intellectual discernment, and in ability to sum
up a complex situation and state it in clear and concise terms, had no equal
among the physical educators” of his period. Born in Honolulu of missionary
parents, Luther Halsey Gulick had traveled widely in Europe and the Orient
before attending Oberlin College, where he came under the influence of Dr.
Dolphine Hanna. He began the study of physical training at the Sargent Normal
School of Physical Training in Cambridge in 1884, and five years later he
completed the M.D. degree at the University of New York. Important positions
followed, such as Superintendent of Physical Education at the YMCA Training
School in Springfield, Director of Physical Training for the Public Schools of
Greater New York, Director of the Department of Child Hygiene under the Russell
Sage Foundation, and Director as well as President of the Camp Fire Girls of
America. He was also President of the American Association for the Advancement
of Physical Education (now the AAHPER), President of the Playground Association
of America, and President of the American School Hygiene Association.
Commemorating his achievements are the Gulick Award, The Roberts-Gulick Award,
and the Gulick Medal. In the field of research and publications he was editor of
Physical Training, Physical Education, American Physical Education Review, and
the Triangle, for which he created the “Triangle Emblem” of the YMCA
symbolizing the trinity of mind, body and spirit. Among the most memorable of
his articles was “Physical Education: A New Profession,” in which he pointed
out that physical education was a profession in its own right, which would
increasingly be recognized as a broad, scientific, philosophic field as well as
a part of education. There seems to be a very
general misapprehension, even among intelligent men, as to the nature of the
work in which we are engaged. By many it is regarded simply as a specialty in
medicine; others think it merely a department in athletics; others still, with
more gross ideas, regard us as men who devote our time and energy to building up
of muscular tissue. Perhaps I can best define the
profession by stating its objects. It is difficult to formulate any
classification that is at once logical and complete. The following, therefore,
is presented, not without feelings of diffidence, as in some respects at least,
it differs from any that have been hitherto presented. I will make three grand
divisions of exercises, according to their purpose: namely. Educative, Curative,
and Recreative gymnastics. Hard and fast lines cannot be drawn, assigning each
exercise to a particular one of these classes, as frequently it will be found
that one exercise belongs to two or more classes at once, as in medicine, opium
is a hypnotic, cardiac stimulant, antispasmodic, cerebral stimulant, anodyne,
etc. This is a division of the objects of exercise, and not of exercises
themselves. I will now take up the divisions somewhat in detail. 1. Educative Exercises,
or Physical Education. We adopt the following definition for the object of
educative exercises: “To lead out and train the physical powers; to prepare
and fit the body for any calling or business, or for activity and usefulness in
life.” This may be divided as follows: a. Muscular
Strength. This includes strength of the heart and respiratory muscles, as well
as the arms, legs, and body. b. Endurance, a
matter of the heart, lungs, and nervous system as well as of the extrinsic
muscles. c. Agility
or quickness of action, being largely an affair of the central nervous system. d.
Muscular Control. Excellence in almost any art or trade involves accurate
control or discipline of certain parts of the body. In playing the violin, a
great deal is demanded in this direction; first as to the co-ordination of the
fingers of the left hand, being able to place them rapidly, independently, and
with absolute precision, both as to time and locality, upon the finger board of
the violin, in a position that is naturally awkward; second, to be able to use
the right and left arms with entire independence, the muscles of the wrist being
used principally in one case, and of the fingers in the other. In piano playing
there is similar training. The hands have to learn to work independently, and
even the fingers independently of each other. They have to learn to act with
extreme rapidity, with absolute certainty, with automatic regularity. And so on
with all the musical instruments, there is a large amount of work to be done
which primarily, fundamentally, and essentially physical training. In the trades there is a
similar state of affairs. Perfect control is fundamental and is usually secured
only by years of practice on the thing to be done…. There are numerous departments
in the trades, the arts, and daily life where the excellence of work depends
largely upon physical training in some branch. Today these are manned by
Specialist, -specialists, not in physical training, but in the end for which the
training exists. To make my meaning plainer, let me refer to the violin player
again. The music teacher teaches the violin, and gives finger exercises, and a
large portion of the time of the music teacher is spent, not in teaching music,
but in physical training. Now, the music teacher, unless exceptionally
qualified, as a music teachers are not ordinarily in this direction, is not as
competent in physical training as a man of equal abilities would be who gave his
whole time to the subject. Thus the physical-training part of learning to play
the violin or piano could be done better by a man who made a specialty of
physical training than by a man who was primarily a very find musician, and who
took up this physical training as an incidental matter. Flexibility of the
wrist, perfect control and co-ordination of the muscles, independent action of
the hands, action and quickness of the fingers, can all be gained better by
other means than by mere finger exercises on the violin or piano; but in general
it is not the teacher of music who is best qualified to take up this work, for
the questions are primarily those of physiology rather than of music. Let each
do what he can do best: physical trainer, physical training---music teacher,
music and not physical training. e.
Physical Judgment. This may be called a correlative of muscular control, this
the intelligence telling when and where. “It is a sort of psychic trigonometry
by which the trained mind calculates the distance, position, and motion of
objects.” None of the important points already considered can take the place
of this, nor can we get along without it. A man wishes to jump ditch; he has no
time to measure it and calculates how much muscular effort will be required to
clear it, but physical judgment enables him to do all this at once. There seems
to be confusion as to the difference between muscular control and physical
judgment. Take a catcher behind a baseball bat; physical judgment tells him
where to put his hands and the exact instant that the ball will reach them;
muscular control enables him to put his hand where he chooses. One might be able
to put his hand where he chose, but not know where; or he might know where
without being able to place his hands there. f. Self-Control.
This may be described as the power of the mind over itself. It is the power
which gives self-possession, allowing a man to act naturally in time of
excitement and danger. g. Physical
Courage, that which renders a person willing to undertake, that quality which
comes to one naturally, from a knowledge of his ability, gained through
experience. “There is sometimes a constitutional timidity, or lack of what we
may call physical faith,. that has to be overcome.” A presumptuous daring is
not physical courage, being born usually of ignorance of the real dangers rather
than a calm meeting of them. h. Symmetry,
harmonious, or all-around development of the body. The strength of a chain is
represented by the weakest link, and this is not untrue of the body. i. Grace, which
is fundamentally economy of action. It differs from muscular strength and from
muscular control. A man may have both these and not be graceful.. Comparing
grace and symmetry, grace is beauty of action, while symmetry is beauty of form. l. Expression.
In this country we do not know very much about these special exercises. The
Delsarte gymnastics, perhaps, are the best example of this type, their aim being
primarily to enable the body to express the thoughts, ideas, emotions of the
mind in the most intelligible way to other minds through their eyes and ears,
thus including much of gesture, elocution, etc. 2. We now come to the
second division, Curative Exercises. It is not designed to trench upon the field
of the medical profession; but it is well known that some disturbances of the
system can be cured, and many prevented, by the correct use of exercise. The
same is true in relation to some bodily deformities. Certain cardiac, spinal,
and nervous diseases and disorders of the nutritive system are peculiarly
susceptible to gymnastic treatment. I will not speak further of this branch, as
its importance is already coming to be understood. 3. Recreative
Exercises. There is a real and fundamental difference between recreative or play
exercises and educative gymnastics. It consists primarily in the attitude of the
will, and it matters little so far as this is concerned whether it has to
exercise itself in confining he mind to a difficult task in arithmetic, or to
keeping a fixed and sustained attention on the leader of a callisthenic
drill…. I wish next to speak of the
opportunities that are offered for scientific work in the profession. It is
hardly possible at the present day for a man to look forward to adding
materially to the sum total of knowledge in any one of the older professions. A
man who goes into physical education with fair abilities and preparation expects
in the course of a few years to have acquired all that has been known up to his
time (the scientific side of the subject is as yet young) and to add materially
to the sum total of knowledge of this subject. In this respect, then, does this
profession differ from others, in that it is new, and every man may expect to do
that scientific work which will be not merely original with him, but original to
the world. In fact, each man will have to depend to a considerable extent on the
results of his own investigations, for he has not as in medicine, reliable and
elaborate treatises on which to rely. The science is as yet too young to have
developed them. He must expect to assist in the development of such works for
the use of those who come afterward. An oak tree during the first year of its
existence is susceptible to slight influences which would be entirely unfelt a
few years later, even if multiplied a thousand fold. This profession has still
to be defined, it has not yet crystallized, and thus it is possible to stamp it
with one’s own character as it will never be possible again. …..There are few scientific fields today which offer
opportunities for the study of problems of greater value to the human race, or
more fundamental in regard to its ultimate success, than does that of physical
education. It is a factor in modern life, that is as yet unappreciated. It deals
with life on a broad side, is in line with the most thorough modern
physiological psychology in its appreciation of the intimate relations of body
and mind, is in line with our modern conception of evolution, as it works to
develop a superior race. This profession offers to its students a large and
broad field for intellectual activity, involving for its fullest appreciation a
profound knowledge of man through psychology, anatomy, physiology, history, and
philosophy. To sum up this part of the argument, I would say that physical
education offers a greater field for original work than almost any other.
Second, on account of its youth and plasticity, it offers the possibility of a
permanent influence that is never offered except in the youth of such
profession. Third, this work is intrinsically of great value. Fourth, it offers
a great field for intellectual activity. This profession, then, differs
from any that now exists. It is readily seen that it is not merely a department
of medicine, which relates primarily to the prevention and cure of disease. The
mere fact that a man is an excellent medical practitioner will not qualify him
to take hold of educative gymnastics, although it would qualify him to
understand curative gymnastics. On the other hand, the study of psychology and
pedagogy will not qualify a man to take hold of curative gymnastics, although it
might qualify him to understand educative exercises. I take it that there is no
other factor which is as prominent in the development of any profession as the
kind of men who take upon themselves the functions of that profession. The
advance of physical education will depend more upon the kind of men who take up
this works as their profession, than upon any other one factor. If it is largely
taken up by men of little education and small abilities, the work will never
become of the greatest value, nor will it be favorable known to the general
public. If however, on the contrary, men of collegiate training, philosophic
minds, of broad purposes and earnest hearts, are induced to enter this field,
the profession will show that it is intrinsically a broad, scientific,
philosophic field, and it will be recognized by thinking men as one of the
departments in education, fundamental in the up building of the nation. I have endeavored in this
paper to show: First, that this is a profession, and in the rough to define its
aims. Second, to show that opportunities for valuable work are abundant. Third,
that the great importance is to be attached to the kind of men who enter this
profession. |