physical education

physical education, training in physical fitness and in skills requiring or promoting such fitness. Many traditional societies included training in hunting, ritual dance, and military skills, while others—especially those emphasizing literacy—often excluded physical skills.

The spread of literacy in the West between 1500 and 1800 coincided with a new awareness that fitness helps the mind. Gymnasiums opened across Europe, the first in Copenhagen in 1799. The German Turnverein movement grew, expanding to the United States with immigration. Per Ling developed a teaching system for physical education in Stockholm in 1814, and Otto Spiess (1810–1858) popularized another system in Germany. As public schools in Germany, Denmark, and the United States tried these systems, physical education joined baccalaureate curricula, becoming a major at Columbia University in 1901 and elsewhere later.

Japan’s schools have linked physical and mental training since the 17th century. Public schools with compulsory physical education were founded in 1872; the trend since 1945 has been toward individual physical and mental development. The Soviet Union, after 1917, placed great emphasis on physical education, both in schools and in special physical education institutes.

Today, physical education is a required course in many primary and secondary schools in countries with compulsory education. Most teaching takes place inside gymnasiums or other facilities built specifically for physical education activities, although outdoor sports are also emphasized.