ABSTRACT
By the end of the 1920s the idea that physical education and sport should be diffused not only at school but throughout society was fully accepted by the Fascist authorities, which took on the task of convincing the people to join in these activities and encourage their children to do so too. For example, the provincial head of the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) in Udine stated in a speech delivered in 1929 that:
Sport should be universalised, so that all children of any and every social class can usefully engage in exercise. A healthy and diverting sports training should be given both to children of the workers, who should be sometimes removed from workshops or unhealthy houses, and to the students from wealthy families, who should be removed from their studies. This is also a problem of social morality. 1
One of the obstacles in the way of the regime’s policy for expanding physical education was (as mentioned in previous chapters) the severe shortage of teachers who were both qualified in the subject and committed to the regime’s values. Between 1923 and 1927 the shortlived precursor of the ONB, the Ente Nazionale per l’Educazione Fisica (ENEF), had organised a special university course to train physical education teachers, in Bologna in 1926, and similar initiatives had been undertaken at other universities, but none of these experiments lasted long. 2 The ONB was then given the responsibility of solving the problem under the terms of Law no. 2341, dated 20 November 1927, Article 8 of which directed it to establish one or more Fascist teacher-training schools for physical education, with functions equivalent to those of universities, including the capacity to award degrees. 3