ABSTRACT
During the nineteenth century, while systems of gymnastics were being developed into programmes of physical education in Germany and Scandinavia, English Public Schools evolved their own peculiar physical education which was no less comprehensive and just as highly organized as its continental counterparts. It took the form of games and sports and, by the end of the century, these activities occupied a higher place of honour and absorbed more time and energy in Public Schools than gymnastics ever did in Swedish or German schools. Yet games and sports were rarely thought of as physical education. It was not that the physical effects upon those that played games were negligible; the opposite was in fact true; but games were valued more highly both by boys and masters for the qualities of character that they brought out, and the courage, team spirit and sportsmanship which they demanded than for the mere physical effects which they had. Physical prowess came to be admired, on occasion some critics thought too much admired, but the real justification for the Public School system was sought in character training. In 1864 the Royal Commission on Public Schools under the chairmanship of the Earl of Clarendon expressed this view in its Report. ‘The bodily training which gives health and activity to the frame is imparted at English schools, not by gymnastic exercises which are employed for that and on the continent-exercises which are undoubtedly very valuable and which we should be glad to see introduced more widely in England-but by athletic games which, whilst they serve this purpose well, serve other purposes besides… the cricket and football fields … are not merely places of exercise or amusement; they help to form some of the most valuable social qualities and manly virtues, and they hold, like the classroom and the boarding house, a distinct and important place in Public School education.’[1]
