A guide to the history of physical education

The playground movement, which we have already traced in Germany (pp. 132-145) and Denmark (pp. 194-197), was slow in gathering headway in the United States. Minister von Gossler’s playground order was issued in Prussia October 27, 1882, and the German “Central Committee for the Promotion of Games” was organized in Berlin May 21, 1891. The Danish minister Bardenfleth sent out his games circular August 31, 1896, and a group of men and women met in Copenhagen April 11, 1897, to form a “National Committee for Promoting Group Games among School Children.” In this country certain Boston children had access to a sand pile, under supervision, as far back as the summer of 1885, and a public outdoor gymnasium was opened in that city August 27, 1889; but not more than 10 cities are known to have established playgrounds before 1900, and 26 others in the years 1900-1905, i.e., up to the founding of the Playground Association of America, at Washington, D.C., in April of 1906. In the four years following (1906-1909) 83 cities were added to the list, and by the end of 1916 a total of 480 had been reached, according to a report in The Playground for March, 1917.

The first step in the Boston experiment is recorded as follows by Mrs. Kate Gannett Wells, chairman of the executive committee of the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Association, in the second annual report of that body (May, 1886. The Association was organized in 1884): “Last summer (1885), at the suggestion of Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, and in accordance with the plan in Berlin, which has proved so useful to children, a large heap of sand was placed in the yard attached to the Parmenter-street Chapel.... An average of fifteen children connected with the chapel came there three days in the week, through July and August, and under the guidance of Mrs. Gamble, dug in the sand with their little wooden shovels and made countless sand-pies, which were remade the next day with undismayed alacrity. They sang their songs and marched in their small processions, and when weary, were gathered in the motherly arms of the matron.... The same plan was tried at the West End Nursery, but as the children there were hardly two years old they cared little for it. Your committee hope, however, that the success of the experiment in Parmenter Street may have sufficiently demonstrated the usefulness of the sand-garden to secure its adoption elsewhere....”

The third annual report (May, 1887) announces that three sand-gardens “are now permanently established during the summer seasons in the playyards of Parmenter-street Chapel, of Warrenton-street Chapel, and of the Children’s Mission. They are maintained in the interest of hygiene and amusement.... An awning has been placed over the sand at the Children’s Mission; and there, with wooden shovel, broken bricks, and much sand, the long days are passed out of doors....” In 1887 “the number of these gardens increased from three to ten. No rent was paid for them. The sand was given ..., and the School Committee granted the use of the Wait School yard.... The matrons in charge of each garden were generally women who lived in the neighborhood, and who watched, in their play, the children, to whom shovels and pails were given, with which they made castles and pies. At the end of the season the sand was stored in barrels for future use.... This spring (1888) the Association petitioned the School Committee for the use of schoolyards which would be suitable as playgrounds for little children kept in town through the summer....” As a result, during this fourth season (1888) “seven school yards situated in the neighborhoods where children swarm, were open for three hours on four fair days of each week. A kindly matron was ready to welcome the children, and offered them sandheaps and shovels, balls, tops, skipping-ropes, reins, bean-bags, building-blocks, flags to march under, and transparent slates to draw upon. Besides these seven yards which were dignified by the name of ‘Playgrounds,’ there were three ‘Sand-Gardens,’ where only sand and shovels were furnished....” A year later “there were eleven playgrounds instead of seven; there were 1000 instead of 400 children; there was double the number of tops, twice the amount of sand....”

In the seventeenth annual report of the Boston Board of Park Commissioners, for the thirteen months ending January 31, 1892, the open-air gymnasia at Charlesbank are described in detail. The site is a strip of land containing about ten acres, and lies along the Boston shore of the Charles River between the Craigie and West Boston bridges. It measures about 2200 feet in length by 200 in width. A sea-wall and the filling behind it were completed in 1886, and the plan of the grounds was drawn up by Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect. It included a level promenade, 25 feet wide, overlooking the salt waters of the Back Bay, and behind this, on the side toward the city, stretches of lawn planted with trees to resemble a natural grove, but with a space 500 by 150 feet at the north end fitted up as a gymnasium for men and boys, and another at the south end, 370 by 150 feet in extent, enclosed with a screen of shrubbery and prepared especially as an exercise-ground for women and girls. At either end there was to be a landing for boats, offered for hire, and near this and the entrance a house with waterclosets, toolrooms, and offices of administration.

The men’s gymnasium, surrounded by an iron fence, was reached only from the upper story of one of the houses just mentioned, connected with the grounds inside by a bridge on which turnstiles were placed, for registering attendance. The equipment, designed by Dr. Sargent of Harvard University, consisted of two sheds with twelve sets of chest-weights in each, including six high and six low pulleys, “two giant-strides, eight sets of horizontal bars, eight sets of parallel bars, six jumping-boxes, seven boxes for quoit-pitching and shot-throwing, two sets of jumping standards and ropes, two sets of sandbags and attachments, four vaulting poles, three shots, two heavy weights, twenty-four quoits, twenty pairs of dumb-bells, ten sets of hurdles, and two large frames, each 160 feet long, to which are attached the following apparatus: four balance-swings, eight breast-bars, four single swings, two double swings, five swinging-ropes, one rope ladder, one iron Jacob’s ladder, one perpendicular ladder, one inclined ladder, four pairs of flying rings, four single trapezes, one climbing-pole, two inclined poles, two perpendicular poles. Around the outside of the ground there is a running and bicycle track 15 feet wide and ⅕ mile long.” The men’s grounds were opened to the public on August 27, 1889, in charge of Superintendent John Graham, and the next season extended from April 1 to about the middle of December, an average of 447 men and boys a day entering for use of the apparatus during this period. In May of 1891 thirteen electric arc-lamps were added, and thereafter the gymnasium was kept open until 9.30 P.M. The total number of visitors this year was 169,219, and on the three days showing the largest attendance the turnstiles registered 1649 (May 3), 1480 (July 30), and 1572 (July 31) admissions.

Entrance to the women’s gymnasium and the children’s playground was likewise through the upper story of the women’s lavatory building. The apparatus included “two balance-swings and frames, two seesaws (with side-rails and guards), two seesaws (plain), two single swings, two pole ladders, two perpendicular ladders, four hanging ropes (fastened at the bottom), one long inclined rope and attachments, four long and four short inclined poles, four perpendicular ladders combined, five serpentine ladders united (with guard-rails), two perpendicular climbing-poles, twelve swinging-ropes, one horizontal rope-ladder, two sets horizontal bars and stanchions (with heights adjustable), one set of movable parallel bars, one set of high parallel bars, one set of vaulting-bars, eleven travelling rings and attachments, two single trapezes (with height made adjustable by pulley and chain attachments), two sets of flying-rings (with height made adjustable as above), twelve pairs of chest-weights to run in wooden boxes, one set of jumping standards and ropes, two giant-strides (ropes, handles, and fixtures), twenty-four ring quoits and pins, twelve jumping-ropes, twelve hoops, twenty-five long and ninety-eight short wands, ninety-eight pairs dumb-bells, ninety-eight pairs Indian clubs.” In the rear of the building were sand courts for the younger children. “The problem of the proper supervision, management, and care of this gymnasium was satisfactorily settled by our acceptance of the proposition of the Massachusetts Emergency and Hygiene Association, which is under the management of well-known ladies, to take the entire charge and oversight of it without expense to the city, beyond the furnishing of supplies, cleaning the rooms, and taking care of the grounds and apparatus.” Miss Elizabeth C. McMartin, a pupil in Dr. Sargent’s Normal School, was appointed superintendent, and the matron had had six years of experience as assistant in a kindergarten. The informal opening occurred at noon on June 1, 1891. From this time until November 1 the average daily attendance was 945, and the largest was 2477 (July 6), 2368 (July 9), and 2389 (July 11).⁠[286]

At Wood Island Park, in East Boston, another outdoor gymnasium and playground, nine acres in extent, was opened September 6, 1895. Men were admitted on four days of the week, and women on two. Beginning in 1896, and with the effective coöperation of Mayor Josiah Quincy (1895-1899), there was a rapid expansion of public facilities for recreation of all sorts in and about Boston, including playgrounds, indoor gymnasia, beach baths, floating bath-houses, swimming pools and all-the-year baths, and provision for skating and coasting in winter. This whole series of progressive steps is outlined in Joseph Lee’s “Constructive and Preventive Philanthropy” (New York, The Macmillan Co., 1902), along with corresponding steps in other cities, and details will be found in reports of the Boston Park Commissioners, the Boston Department of Baths, and for the North End Playground the instructive annual reports of the Massachusetts Civic League (after 1900). The first municipal indoor gymnasium was the East Boston (Paris Street) building, a one-story, truss-roofed structure 137 by 98 feet, with a main hall 100 by 80 feet. Originally a skating rink, it was purchased by Esther P. (Mrs. Daniel) Ahl and turned over to the East Boston Athletic Association for use as a combined gymnasium and bath, and in 1897 given to the city and opened to the general public. The South Boston (D-Street) gymnasium, the first to be built by the city, was opened in the winter of 1899-1900.

Next to Boston, Chicago occupies a prominent place in the early history of the playground movement. As Mrs. Charles Zueblin points out in The Playground for July of 1907 (pp. 3-5 and 11-13), it has passed through three distinct phases of growth in that city, represented by the independent, schoolyard, and municipal playgrounds. The independent experiments, now almost forgotten, deserve mention, to quote Mrs. Zueblin, “because their experiences and lessons and accomplishment were of proved value later on. In 1893 Hull House opened a large playground in an empty lot, the land belonging to Mr. William Kent; it was equipped with swings, seesaws, giant stride and sandbins, and was maintained under their management for five years.... Play was totally disorganized both on the part of the children and of the supervisors, and everything from games to management had to be learned.... This playground later passed under the number of municipal playgrounds. In 1896, under the auspices of the University Settlement of the Northwestern University, and through the great generosity of Mr. Livingston Fargo, a large and splendidly equipped playground was opened accommodating from three thousand to four thousand children. Besides a fine equipment for play, there was a large shelter with plenty of benches and retiring rooms. A police officer and a matron had charge of the grounds, which were maintained for two years, until the playground had to be abandoned, owing to the extension of the tracks of the Northwestern Railway Company. For six years, beginning in 1896, the University of Chicago Settlement, under the leadership of Miss Mary McDowell, maintained a very successful playground, where there was provision also for mothers with little babies.”

“The first school playground in Chicago,” according to Mrs. Zueblin, “was maintained in the Washington School’s yard in 1897 by the West End District of the Associated Charities. In the spring of 1898 an appropriation of $1000 was obtained from the City Council ($750 additional being later subscribed by individuals) for ‘temporary small parks,’ the administration of which was turned over to the Vacation School Committee of Women’s Clubs.” Miss Sadie American, chairman of that committee, writing of “The Movement for Small Playgrounds” in the American Journal of Sociology for September of 1898 (pp. 159-170) says that “the use of six schoolyards, basements, and one room to be used on hot and rainy days was asked of the board of education, and, being granted, the yards were equipped with swings, seesaws, sandbins, and cedar building-blocks. The Turnverein was greatly interested, and loaned portable apparatus for each school, such as parallel bars, horizontal bars, horse, ladders, etc., which were taken into the building at night. The playgrounds chosen were all in densely populated districts and among various nationalities.... For each there were engaged a kindergartner and a man who should be a ‘big brother to the boys,’ for the older boys were considered equally or more than the younger ones.... The men were inexperienced, but entered into the spirit of the work with enthusiasm, and from week to week rose in efficiency on the mistakes of the foregoing days.”

But it is the municipal aspect of the movement that demands more than passing mention. The City Club Bulletin of March 4, 1908, presents the significant features of the story as follows: “During the last half-dozen years Chicago has achieved a development of small parks and playgrounds more remarkable than has taken place in any other city of the world. It is remarkable, first, because of its extent, and second, because of its unique character. Eight years ago there were, besides the six main parks of the city, fifteen or sixteen small public parks and squares, some maintained by the three divisional park commissions and some by the city Department of Public Works. There was not a public playground, however, in all Chicago nor a public bathing beach. Today there are in the city over 30 such small parks and squares, 13 public playgrounds, 17 combination small park playgrounds and 3 bathing beaches—in all, 63 public neighborhood centers of rest, beauty, recreation and culture. This number is also being added to and does not include school playgrounds.

“This expansion has been carried out by four separate authorities, i.e., the Lincoln Park Commission, the regular park authority for the north side of the city; the South Park Commission, the regular park authority for the south side; the West Park Commission, the regular park authority for the west side; and the Special Park Commission, whose field is the entire city. The first three commissions were created by the legislature about 1870. The Special Park Commission was created by the City Council in 1899, to investigate and report upon the need both for small parks and playgrounds, and for an outer belt park system. While investigating and reporting upon these two subjects it also became, by the very pressure of the subject with which it was dealing, both a promoting and an administrative body. In 1900 it secured from the City Council an appropriation of $10,000 and opened four ‘municipal playgrounds’ in thickly populated neighborhoods of the city. The next year it secured legislation authorizing the three regular park commissions to raise and expend $2,500,000—that is, $1,000,000 each on the south and west sides, and $500,000 on the north side—for small parks and playgrounds.

“The Park Commissions of the north and west sides were slow in securing the necessary amendment, and approval on referendum, of their laws in this matter, but in 1903 the South Park Commission secured the amendment of the law applying to its district, together with legislative authority for a still larger expenditure for like purposes, and the proposed bond issues having been approved at the polls, the Commission entered upon an unparalleled career of small park and playground development.⁠[287] In 1904 and 1905 it acquired fourteen sites, ranging in size from 7 to 300 acres, and equipped ten of them on an entirely novel plan. Two more of these are being thus equipped, and three more sites are being acquired. The proposed bond issue for the west side was approved on referendum in 1905, and the West Park Commission has within the last year and a half secured and nearly finished the equipment, after the south side plan, of two sites in crowded neighborhoods. It is now acquiring a third site. It has also made ‘Holstein Park’ a very attractive playground. The Lincoln Park Commission, having secured approval on referendum for its proposed $500,000 bond issue, has now acquired three sites, and they are nearly equipped in somewhat like fashion. Two of the three lack park features proper, on account of limited space, but they provide equipment similar to the park-playgrounds, among which they are here counted. The sites for these various park-playgrounds range in size from 4 to 60 acres, have cost from $40,000 to $290,000 each, and the buildings cost from $60,000 to $100,000 for each site. Each of these centers calls for an annual maintenance budget of from $20,000 to $30,000....

“Small park and playground development in Chicago is even more remarkable because of its unique character than because of its extent. The assemblage of functions represented in the small park-playgrounds which we have been considering is a new thing in the world, and its creation three or four years ago by the South Park Commission was an event of civic imagination and adventure of which Chicago is worthily proud. A typical center includes both outdoor and indoor activities. The outdoor activities comprise as the central feature a liberally planned bathing pool, with sandbanks, dressing rooms, cleansing showers, life-guards and bathing suits. Collateral to this are an outdoor gymnasium for men, another for women, another for boys, another for girls, running tracks, wading pools, and sand courts for the youngsters; also tennis courts and ball fields—turned into skating rinks in the winter time. The interior features include a thoroughly equipped gymnasium for men, another for women, each having a trained director and being furnished with baths and lockers, a lunch room, reading and library room, one or two small club rooms for small gatherings, and a large and beautiful assembly hall for neighborhood meetings, lectures or pleasure parties. The entire construction is on a liberal plan and is carried out in accordance with high standards. So is the maintenance....”

It is not necessary to repeat here in detail the experiences of other cities in connection with the playground movement. A special report (“General Statistics of Cities, 1916”) of the United States Bureau of the Census relating to the recreation service of cities having a population of over 30,000 contains this statement of progress, prepared by Joseph Lee, president of the Playground and Recreation Association of America:

“Thirty years have passed since the birth of the movement to protect children’s play—an era which has seen the spread of the movement from Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York to Chicago and the Pacific coast; which has witnessed at least the theoretical establishment of the children’s right to play in safety under good influences and of a man’s right to spend his leisure hours, through the provision of the proper facilities by the city in which he lives, in a way which will fit him to make the best use of his working hours, and will keep alive in him those ideal interests for which his work too often furnishes no scope.

“In these thirty years playgrounds have been established in large and small cities and in rural communities throughout the country. A national organization, the Playground and Recreation Association of America, has been called into existence to act as a clearing house for information and, through the publishing of literature and educational work, to further the recreation movement. Buildings used wholly for recreational purposes have been erected. Reports made to the Playground and Recreation Association of America in December, 1916, show that 38 communities have recreation buildings, valued at $4,093,525. In rural communities has come a great awakening to the need of wholesome recreation to counteract immoral influences and to conserve for the community its young men and women who would otherwise go to large cities to find their opportunities. Both large and small cities have established systems, at the head of which have been placed workers employed throughout the year, corresponding to school superintendents in our educational system. Schools have introduced organized play in connection with their school playgrounds and specially trained play directors are employed, who spend their entire time directing the play of the pupils. Cities have come to see the economic waste of great buildings used a few hours each day for educational purposes and have thrown their schoolhouses open at night for the use of all the people for evening recreation-center activities, for dramatic clubs, orchestras, social dancing, gymnasium work, mothers’ clubs, civic forums, lectures, and motion pictures. In December, 1916, 127 cities reported that their school buildings were being used as neighborhood recreation centers. Legislation making possible such a use of school buildings has been passed in a number of states. The creation of special recreation departments and playground and recreation commissions to administer playground work has been authorized by law in many states and cities. Increasingly has the emphasis been laid on the importance of considering recreation work as a governmental function and of administering it as one of the duties of a municipality to its citizens.

“These facts are borne out by the information gathered by the Bureau of the Census in its study of playgrounds and athletic fields, the results of which are to be found in Table II. It is a very significant fact that during the fiscal year 1916, the 213 cities of more than 30,000 population conducted 2190 playgrounds with a total area of 4662.1 acres. There were, in addition, 19 athletic fields, exclusive of those located in parks, with an area of 148.7 acres. For this work there were payments from public funds for expenses amounting to $2,502,902; and for outlays, $1,017,539. Three thousand seven hundred and ninety-four workers were in charge of the activities of these playgrounds. Graphic as these figures are, they by no means represent the total municipal provision for play and recreation even in the 213 cities themselves. In many of these cities the schools have playgrounds equipped with apparatus and with play leaders in charge, and organized play periods are conducted in connection with their school program. Nor do these figures attempt to include the evening recreation-center work conducted at many schools at a considerable expense to the school board, nor the municipal golf courses, tennis courts, skating facilities, and community music provided for the public from city funds. The public provision of recreational facilities is by no means limited to cities of over 30,000. Reports sent to the Playground and Recreation Association of America show that many cities of less than 30,000 inhabitants are maintaining playgrounds and neighborhood recreation centers, while approximately 50 communities of less than 5000 carried on recreational work privately or publicly during the year ending December 1, 1916.”

The founding of the Playground and Recreation Association of America has already been mentioned on p. 337. One must turn to the Proceedings of the first, second, and third “Annual Playground Congresses,” the volumes of The Playground, and other publications of the Association for the full story of its achievements.

Although there had been legislation favoring statewide physical education prior to the outbreak of the Great War (e.g., North Dakota, 1899; Ohio, 1904; Idaho, 1913), it was without doubt the same military motive which has operated in the case of European countries, or that realization of the fundamental values of physical fitness which always comes with the approach of war, that led twenty-five of our states, in the years 1915-1921, to enact laws requiring or permitting the introduction of physical education into their schools. The list is as follows: In 1915—Illinois; 1916—New York; 1917—California, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island; 1918—Delaware, Maryland; 1919—Alabama, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington; 1920—Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Virginia; 1921—Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, West Virginia. These laws differ considerably in their statement of the educational aims in view and the means to be employed in attaining them, in the ages or school grades affected, and the time requirements, and in the provision made for a central authority, supervision, the training of teachers, and financial support to make the legislation effective.⁠[288] Some of the state authorities have already published manuals of physical training.⁠[289]

Three examples, quoted from Bulletin 40, 1918, of the United States Bureau of Education, will serve to illustrate the general character and range of the State laws already adopted. The Illinois law (approved June 26, 1915) “provides for physical training in all of the public schools and in all of the normal schools of the State. Apparently, no special provision has been made in that State for the operation of the law; no appropriation for the development of a program or the publication of a syllabus; and no resources for the employment of State supervisors, inspectors, or other administrators of physical education....

“The New York law, approved May 15, 1916, and amended at the legislative session of 1918, provides that: ‘All male and female pupils, above the age of eight years, in all elementary and secondary schools of the State, shall receive, as a part of the prescribed courses of instruction therein, such physical training under the direction of the commissioner of education as the regents, after conference with the military training commission, may determine, during periods which shall average at least twenty minutes each day....’ The administration of this law in the State of New York is a function of the regents of the University of the State of New York, that is, of the State department of education. A bureau of physical training has been established as a subdivision of the State military training commission. The State inspector of physical training, the chief officer of this bureau, is required, in accordance with the law, to observe and inspect the work and methods described under the provisions of the education law relating to instruction in physical training. The State law in New York also provides that all public schools in the State employing special teachers of physical training, qualified and duly licensed under the regulations of the regents, may receive financial support from the State to the extent of half the salary of each teacher so employed, provided that half the salary does not exceed $600....” In the State Plan and Syllabus for Physical Training that subject “is interpreted as covering: ‘(1) Individual health examination and personal health instruction (medical inspection); (2) instruction concerning the care of the body and concerning the important facts of hygiene (recitations in hygiene); and (3) physical exercise as a health habit, including gymnastics, elementary marching and organized supervised play, recreation, and athletics.’ For the direction and supervision of the State program there is a force of inspectors, consisting of a State inspector of physical training and nine assistant inspectors....

“On May 26, 1917, an act providing for physical education became a law in the State of California. This law provides that the school authorities in the public schools of the State, elementary and secondary, shall prescribe suitable courses of physical education for all pupils, except such as may be excused from such training on account of physical disability. The California law makes it a duty of the superintendent of schools in every county and city, and of every board of education, board of school trustees, and high-school board, to enforce the courses of physical education prescribed by the proper authority, and to require that such physical education be given in the schools under their jurisdiction or control. In the elementary schools the time requirement in California shall ‘average twenty minutes in each school day,’ and in the secondary schools ‘at least two hours each week while that school is in session.’ This law requires that, if the number of pupils in a given school system is sufficient, there shall be employed a competent supervisor or such special teachers of physical education as may be necessary. The enactment further specifies that the State board of education shall require a course in physical training in all the normal schools of the State and provides that the State board of education shall prescribe a course in physical education for such schools and shall make the completion of such course a requirement for graduation. Under this law, it is the duty of the State board of education: ‘(1) To adopt such rules and regulations as it may deem necessary and proper to secure the establishment of courses in physical education in the elementary and secondary schools in accordance with the provisions of this act; (2) to appoint a State supervisor of physical education; (3) to compile, or cause to be compiled or printed, a manual in physical education for distribution to teachers in the public schools of the State.’ The sum of $10,000 was appropriated for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the California law....”

Attempts are now being made to secure federal aid to physical education in the various states, through laws passed by the Congress of the United States. A commission on the reorganization of secondary education, appointed by the National Education Association, has also recently approved a report on Physical Education in Secondary Schools, which is published by the Bureau of Education as 1917 Bulletin No. 50.