“Memorial Day, which is observed on the last Monday of May, commemorates the men and women who died while in the military service.” -USA.gov
1942-Victory Corps-Cover
This is my second post in the series to honor Memorial Day 2018. In my first post, “PE @ War: ALL IN FOR VICTORY,” I explained how while no one of right mind would want a war, it is important to discuss how physical education changed and how the second world war created the last sense of “total unity” in American society including the major conservation and rationing efforts for goods like rubber, steel, textiles, and more.
1944 Voit Athletic “Morale” Ad
DEMANDS OF WAR
Survival demands action with a certain sense of urgency–even in California! The realistic possibility of losing WWII was eminent in the 1940s. America went into the fight with far less mental and physical fitness than WWI putting us at an immediate deficit. In order to preserve national security, California schools leaped into rapid action to “recalibrate the curriculum” in support of the war effort. I will highlight some basics on how “PE” changed, but let’s start with the overall curriculum beyond PE.
1942-Integration of War Effort-Los Angeles
Being a native Californian, I was astonished at what the schools used to do in the 1940s due to the demands of war. California has a long reputation as a liberal state with many anti-establishment protest movements; nonetheless, California was quite unified throughout its school system in support of the war. Everyone seemed to be doing their part. Regions prominent in engineering like Southern California saw a great emphasis upon mathematics as well as other areas. The Central California schools put an emphasis upon improving and supplying better food production since they were based in agriculture. Most schools put real emphasis upon manual or “industrial” arts as well–the mechanical side of the war effort in which so many women and non-military men would graduate and support.
1942-Integration of War Effort-Pasadena
One of my rare artifacts of physical education is “Integration of the War Effort and of the Long-Term Program in California Secondary Schools” published by the California Society of Secondary Education in 1942. It’s a stunning collaboration of school superintendents, teachers, political leaders, and community to unify for the war effort in California high schools. While there was a great emphasis upon engineering, mechanical arts, and food science, there was also a major emphasis upon physical education as displayed by the Pasadena Schools table below. Note that PE was the ONLY required course from 7th through 14th grade. NO other course held the weight of PE because even for civilians not in military action, it was considered the “duty” of all citizens to be physically fit in order to support the war effort at home; therefore, PE was required for eight years straight in Pasadena.
Valparaiso High School Indiana
Class of 1943
But how did the actual curriculum or design of PE change during WWII? In short, PE got hard out of neccessity. There is a quick evaporation of soft fitness during wars. Survival takes precedent over fun…at least to some degree. While sports were not eliminated, the push went into physical fitness and not so much on the sports and games. However, it must be noted that in high schools and even in military, sports and games were still used to escape the grim realities of the war efforts. On the girls side of PE, there was some criticism of the “commando” efforts that went into the girls PE because it was considered too excessive. Nonetheless, my point is that PE went hard core…quickly…and in some schools–girls included.
1942-Victory Corps-Activities for Girls
Beyond high school PE sports, there was quite an emphasis put upon the “combative aggression” in sports to create the fighting spirit. Military programs like the US Navy V-5 went so far as to look at American football as warrior training where they encouraged increased violence and aggressiveness. We’ll look closer at the USN V-5 in my next Memorial Day 2018 post. Interestingly, sports and games are found throughout military training manuals, because even with warriors, it is important to preserve the spirit through play and recreation in order to prevent complete burnout. In many ways, the same elements of PE are there in both peace and war, but how each area is emphasized changed. There was quite a bit more emphasis upon “mass” calisthenics using body weight and obstacle course apparatus along with more emphasis upon “survival” training.
1942-Victory Corps-Military Obstacle Courses
Mass Calisthenics is a fascinating area of PE history to explore. Many think this is exclusively a “military” training method, but in reality, this is just how you have to train large groups of people when they need to get fit and fast. However, if we look at PE @ War, there is NO TIME for convoluted and complex fitness equipment during war training, and in times of peace, it’s just not efficient to bypass the lessons of calisthenics for general physical preparation. The methods and equipment need to be solid and dependable during PE @ WAR. “Mass” calisthenics remains as the best way to condition large groups of people in peace or in war. People are taught how to line up and count repetition on cadence count. They move together as a group and efficiently which creates a “one for all and all for one” group action where no one gets left behind…America could use a lot of this today. Why wait for a war to engage in appropriate action to improve social and physical conditions?!!! I could write a whole book just on mass calisthenics alone because it is so important to the history of PE and for us to understand and keep using today. While PE in non-conflict times has the luxury of including more games and art of movement skills, there is still a place for children to learn mass calisthenics for both mind and body development…even in times of peace and security.
1942-Victory Corps-Activities for Boys
WWII PE was legendary for obstacle courses! When I look at all the equipment designs from WWII for outdoor training courses, I cannot help but think how productive they were for both mental and physical training. They provided opportunity for confidence building, teamwork, risk taking, and yes…at times they could have even been fun at the lower intensity levels. High school PE obstacle courses were highly popular with the youth. These obstacle courses were typically hand-built by the people, groups, or communities using them. The military referred to this building of apparatus as “Labor Engineering.” You could not buy an obstacle course on Amazon in the 1940s! You made them! There are very detailed plans in the manuals with measurements, placement recommendations, procedure protocols, and more. We know what was used, how it was made, and why it worked.
1942-Victory Corps-Apparatus
Survival training taught people how to stay alive. Survival training has always been part of classical PE. What exactly is survival training? What kind of movements might you need in a survival situation? You need to be able to: run, jump, push, pull, crawl, roll, hang, swim, etc. These are the basics of human movement, and if you can do them, you have a better chance for survival in combat or a natural disaster or an accident scene.
1944-AAPHERD Program
On the body weight side of survival, many of the calisthenic drills involved quick and rapid movements as well as “level changes” taking one from standing to ground and back up again…sort of like training in order to duck a blow or bullet. The obstacle courses were full of survival skills like running, jumping, leaping, climbing, hanging, and even water hazards. There was a lot of zigging and zagging and change of direction going on with PE @ WAR training whether using obstacle apparatus or body weight. As fun as cup stacking might be for kids today–in a real survival situation…well…you might want to reconsider how you spend your time training and WHY because if you can’t use PE outside of the gym for a survival situation, then why are you doing it? 🙂
PE @ WAR was very practical. Win or perish.
When American PE went to war–our schools answered the call for survival training in order to protect and preserve national security.
In my next post on PE @ WAR post for Memorial Day 2018, I will discuss military PE and how it was structured and why…we’ll also examine PE @ home with civilians and how it changed during war times, so stay tuned!
To learn more about the values of the “Classical PE” I recommend and teach, see our documentary film “The Motivation Factor.” I was the PE historian and archivist for the film. If you want the real stuff-watch our film.
–Ron Jones, MS, Historical Kinesiologist, Physical Educator
