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Countries around the world have varied in the attention given to Gym or Physical Education (PE). Often this was primarily a secondary school class. Often schools thought recess provided the necessaet recess. We have, however, note gym classes in primary schools as well. Britain, British Dominions, Japan, and the United States have had important PE programs. Many European countries (France and Germany) have given little attention to PE. Schools often had very strict requirements about gym uniforms, often referred to as gym clothes. Many schools in recent years have relaxed those requirements. This is not a topic we have developed in great detail. We have some infornation from different countries.
South African children wear gym uniforms for physical education which was a required subject. The boys gym uniform is basically a "T"-shirt and shorts. I'm not sure what early girls gym uniforms were like, but now are essentially the samr as the boys. We also note the children wearing a variety of sports (games) uniforms. Here the sports and sports uniforms are virtually identical to those in England. Important sports include cricket, football (soccer). hockey, netball (for the girls), and rugby. A variety of individual sports like tennis are also played. The colors of the sports uniform of course vary from school to school, but the basic design is quite similar. One major difference is that it is more common for boys to go barefoot in gym classess. This is less common for sports as there are specialized footwear that are worn for most sports. Boys performing barefoot would be at a disadvantage. We do see children competing barefoot in atletics (track and field). Some schools also play rugby barefoot. Private schools tend to give more attention to sports than state schools, in large measure because of the costs involved.
We note boys doing calesthetics in the early 20th century. They look to be wearing their own clothes rather than gym uniforms (figure 1). We are not sure when gym uniforms were fitst worn. We think that they were being commonly worn in high schools by the 1920s. Gym or Physical Education (PE) used to be an important part of the school program, especially at the secondary level. Primary (elementary) schools did not always have PE classes and did not have special gym clothes or uniforms. This was different in secondary clothes. PE was a class and grades were given. There were uniforms and most schools were strict about wearing the proper gym clothes. This changed in the 1970s when school dress codes and gym uniform requirements were significantly relaxed. The PE program was also deemphasized at many schools. A HBC reader has provided us some information about his gym experinces: Gym uniforms in California during the 1960s-70s.
The most destinctive clothes worn at are of course for gym. We are not sure about gym trends befire Workd War II. After the War we see children doing gym in T-shirts and shorts. The boys and girls wore the same uniform. There were differences between primary and secondary schools. Some Japanese primary children appear to do gym in their school uniforms or the clothes they wear to school. Many primary and all secondar schools seem to have gym uniforms. White shorts are a popular choice. We also note white shirts and dark, usually dark blue shorts. The T-shirts often have colored trim and/or the school nane or logo. Other schools have more destinctive shorts, sometimes with stripes. Most children did gym in sneakers, but a few primary schools have the children do gym in bare feet. Many primary children wear sneakers to school. I think they wear the same sneakers for gym, but am not positive about it. Many primary schools have blue short pants like the ones here as part of the school uniform. At secondary school, the students normally wear dark shoes and have white sneakers for gym. A reader writes, "My guess would be that since this is Japan, the blue shorts the boys in the image here are wearing are for gym only; otherwise the shorts could get dirty from sports and that would be very unlikely the school authorities would encourage them to wear dirty clothes or to worry about that issue when they would want the children to do their best."
We have only limited information on activities at Belgan schools. As far as we can tell they are essentially the same as other neigboring European countries. We do not yet know enough about the school curriculum to assess school activities. We know of no destinctive Belgan school activities. Classroom scenes appear similar to those in other neigboring countries. We note Belgian school gym classess. European schools generally did not give as much attention to gym classesses as American schools, at least in secondary schools. We do not yet have much information on Belgian schools. We note a primary school gym class from an Antwerp school in 1955. The gym outfit was just shorts.
Much of what became Czechoslobakia after Worrld war I spent several centuries under either Austrian or Hungarian control. As a result, Czech schools were heaviky influenced by German education standards and methods. The schools were highly academic with few extra-curricular activities. There were gym classes, but only limited school sports. Sports were pursued in clubs by older boys and adults. One popular youth group was Sokol which was aind of comined patriotic organization and athletic sports club.
The British call gym uniforms Physical Education (PE) kits. Americans may recall the phrase "kit bag" in the song "Pack of your troubles in your old kit bag," here referring to a duffle bag for an army uniform. An English reader tells us, "At all the schools I attended the pe kit was white t shirt, white nylon shorts, no underwear in the junior schools then at senior school we had to wear an athletic supporter for pe and football and a cricket jock and a box for cricket. All sports were followed by showers. I enjoyed pe and cricket but wasn't keen on football, as we were coverd in mud and sometimes played in the rain." Other reader report different practices, especially in their primary (junior) schools. Often boys in primary schools just wore their ordinary school shorts. A reader has provided us an account of gym in his primary school. Another reader tells us about his school PE kits in the 1950s ahd 60s. Many schools had regulation black plimsols (tennis shoes) for gym. There were also a range of sports or games uniforms. These varied depending on the particular sport. The major sports played in England are cricket, football (soccer, hockey, and rugby. Cricket uniforms were destinctive because they were white. Hockey uniforms varied. Rugby uniforms are more colorful. Many other sports are played, but this varied from school to school.
France is notable for a highly academic school program. We are unsure about gym (phsical education) programs, nbut French schools generally do not have major sports programs. French children interested in sports generally pursue them through a club program outside of schools. Some schools apparently did have gym classes and wore gym uniforms. We note a group of boys participating in a Breton youth festival that seemn to be wearing their gym uniforms. Thge gym shorts look like the standard gym shorts American boys wore at the time, elasticised waist trunks.
Germany like France had highly academic schools. Extra-curicular activities were limited. There were gym classes and some limited sports. We know virtually nothing about the 19th century. We have some insight into the 20tyh century and images from the phoographic record. I am not sure just how attention was devoited to gym/physical education in Germn schools. I assume most gymnassiums (secondary schools) of any size had gyms for physical educations classes. Before World war II, most German secondary schools were single gender schools. I am not sure if there was aiufference in the gym rogram at these schools. One might think thst the boys' gymnasims gave more attention to gym than the girls' schools, but we have no asctual dat on this. Nor do we hsave much informnastion on the actual program. We tink activitives like gymnastics were given more attention than sports. Children really interested in sports like football would join sports clubs. Girls commonly wore middy blouses and bloomer with long stockings in the early 20th century. Biys wore knee pants and long stockings. After World War I we see the children gradually wearing less restriuctive gasments.
Greece like most other coutries generally has more informal gym programs in elementary thn primaru schools. The primary children generally do not have gym unifirms and gym activities aremore play than exrcizing and sprts. Secondary students have more fcused gym uniforms conducted with specialized facilities and changes into gym uniforms. The programs are less focused on sports than American gym programs. We do not yet have a lot of information on gym uniforms. There was considerable variation over time. We know nothing about the 19th century, but have some information on the 20th centuty. Boy wear short pants, often with out shirts. Girls might wear their school smocks. There is also some preparation fot gymastic demonstrations for the public. This is one gym activity that primary children do prepare for formlly. Many elementary schools since the 1950s have had gymnastic demonstrations at the last day of the school year. Students performed a variety of exercises and group games in front of an audience, that included their parents, in the school yard, auditorium or the main square in some villages. We note that many children in the early photograpphs look very thin, almost skinny. We suspect that because Greece was still a poor country, devestated by World War II and the Civil War and just beginning the post-War economic expansion, that many children still had inadequate diets. Students were dressed in blue short sport shorts, white t-shirt with light PE sneakers and white ankle socks. In small villages with less wealthy students it was students often performed barefoot with a white sleveless undergarment instead of the t-shirt. A good example is the 1964 image attached to figure 1. It shows a gymnastics demostration in a small, poor village. Note that the boys perform barefoot. Note that all the boys have the close cropped hair cuts and that they all look rather skinny. The text that went with the picture described the village as a very poor one and the fact that the boys performed the demonstrations an important event for the village's history. Sleeveless tank-top like undershirts became less common in the 1970s. The gymnastic demonstrations reached their peak during the 1970s where some schools introduced special blue shorts and white t-shirts with the logo of the school printed on. Since the 1980s these demonstrations take place only in some private schools.
We have not been able to find much information about Dutch physical education (PE) We do know that there are PE programs in both primary and secondary schools. Swimming is part of the program in most sdchools. Some schools include ice skating. Dutch sdchools do not have school uniforms, but some schools have a t-shirt for PE.
The history of physical education in Russia is an interesting topic. There has since the creation of the modern Russian state by Ivan the Terrible been torn between joining the liberal West and the the cotinuing strenth od their authocratic traditions. And this historic conflict has manifested itself in many aspects of Rusdsian life, including gym classes. In the West gym and sport gradually becme seen as a valuable activity in its own right and sport which developed primarily in Europe became an emensely popular activity. Important Russian authors like Vissarion Belinsky (1811-48) saw that physical activity was important in the development of mental capabilities. The Russians were not enamored with the sports that developed in the West and social thinkers like Belinsky promoted Russian folk games. Subsequent social theorists like Nikolai Chernyshevasky (1829-89) and Nikolai Vobrolyubov (1836-61) endorsed and expanded on Belinsky's ideas. These influences can be find in many Russian authors like Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). One author researching Soviet sport writes, "The concern of such thinkersfor the health andf physical development of Russian childrenled to the formulation of theories about harmonmious and balanced development of the physical and mental apects of human life that were to be taken up more fully in Soviet times." [Riordan, p.44.] The Russian Revolution (1917) is commonly seen as asharp break with the Russian past. It was in many ways, but there were also many traditional trends which continued to influence Soviet society. Russian thought on physical education was influential outside of Russia. The Sokol gymnastics movement endorsed these ideas as was a way of expressing nationalist sentiment in Germanic/Austrian empires. And after the Revolution, these Russiuan traditional ideas influenced the Soiviet attitude toward physical education and sport. Western sports were seen as bourgeois and Soviet educators promoted Eussian folk ganes as well as 'production gymnastics and mass physical fitness displays--a popular artifact of most totalitarian systems. (Today such displays are still seen n North Korea.) Affter World War II with Stalin's xenephobia at its peak there was a camopsaign to purge any Western termns from Soviet sport. Then as the Cold War heated up, Soviet attitude toweard sport shifted. The Olympic Games were seen as an area of competition. And this meant the Soviet Union had to promote the samne Western sports that they once vilified. Physical fitness became virtually a state religion. Millions of citizens take part in an elaborate system of athletic instruction and awards and the system now focused oin Western sports. The interesting aspect of this effort concerning Soviet children. While official propaganda clained that the Soiviet Union was to uplift the down-trodden masses, physical education did not emerge as a mass effort to bring the jous of sport to the average child. Rather the emphasis was on finding those few gifted individuals and provide them with coaching and trainng so that they could comete on the internationl level. The Soviet sports machine produced an athletic elite of awesome proportions which regularly demonstrated their prowess at the Olympic Games. The dark side of this was the drugs administered to the athletes, including quite young girls. Sovie gym classes ater Workld war II tended to focus on Olympic sports such as gymnastics.
We note a gymnastics team at a secondary school in 1961. The white boxer trunks they wear were also commonly used for gym uniforms.
We do not yet have much information on Spanish school sctivities. Our Spanish archive is still quite limited. One activity was gym. We do note a gym class in 1913, we think at a primary school. It was identified as Tercer Grau or thirde grade. Grau doesn't sound like Spanish to us, perhaps it was Catalan. It seems to be a drill or exercise. We believe that was fairly common at the time. We know what the Spanish called this, or at least the Catalans--Gimàsia Sueca. That means Swedish gymnastics. Why it was called Sedish gymnastics we do not know. Perhaps there is an association with the Swiss and military precission. (The Swisswere no longer very military oriented, but this was didderent earlier. The Pope is, for example, protected by the famous Swiss Guards.) As a primary school at the time facilities would have been very limited. Thus exercises like this or drill would have been most of the gym program.
We also have some information on Swedish gym uniforms.
We do not have much information on Swiss gym uniforms. We believe that as with German and French schools, gym and physical education was not a major part of the curriculum. Many Swiss schools did not have gym or substantial physical education facilities. The larger city secondary schools probably did have gyms, but wee doubt if the primary schools did. We have no information at this time about gym clothes and uniforms. W One concern associated with gym and spoorts is getting children outside in the fresh air and sunshine. We notice a rural school moving childten to open air classes in the 1920s. And the olde boys seem to be wearing rimper pants as a gym uniform. Germans in part compensated for weak gym and sports programs at school by sports clubs, but these clubs seem geberally more limited in Switzerland. We note some voluntary PE activities after school, but are unsure about the time line for this activity. [Pühse and Gerber] Just what was offered varied both among Cantons and individual schools. There was some concern among sports clubs with the voluntary after schoolm PE. This has declined with the adoption of the Youth and Sport (JS) program. And budget problems have caused cut backs in after school PE. The JS program provides Swiss children acces to qualified coaches in more than 60 sports. There was a tradition of sports camps in Switzerland, but in recent year this activity has been cut back because of school budgetary constraints.
A reader tells us, "The sports wear at my current school were the colours of the national flag. This year they have introduced houses. Red, yellow, green and blue are the colours. Each house has an ornithalolgical name. great for team games. The comong year the Primary Dept will be working towards Sports day in PE classes."
We do not yet have much information on PE in Australia. We note the track team at Tenison Woods College which have uniforms that were probably similar to the school's PE uniforms.
New Zealand schools have an innovative sports program. Sports re very popular in New Zealand and because of the climate can be pursued year round. Most schools have a strong sports program. The philosophy is, however, different from that of America and Britain. The New Zealand emphasis is on participation rather than providing opportunities for especially skilled atheletes. Thus a secondary school in New Zealand is likely to have several teams in any given sport, especially the popular sports like rugby. These teams engage in both inter-scholastic competitions as well as intermural competitions.
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