Abstract
The field of physical activity (and related) health) education (“poor, old ‘PE’”) needs to assert its "will to win" more vigorously then ever before. Scholarly and scientific investigation of the past 60 years since Sputnik was launched in 1957 has identified a wide variety of findings proving that a quality program can provide highly important benefits to the growing child and youth. Societal developments, including other curricular demands, have undoubtedly created uneasiness within the overall field of education. In North America the time and attention devoted to the relatively few involved in external highly competitive sport for the few has been a negative factor. At the same time intramural athletics for the large majority of children and youth has not been available to the extent it should be. There is now doubt as to the field’s ability to achieve high status within education. Therefore, we must pledge ourselves to make still greater efforts to become vibrant and stirring through absolute dedication and commitment in our professional endeavors. Ours is a high calling since we seek to improve the quality of life for all people on earth through the finest type of human motor performance in exercise, sport, and related expressive movement.
Highlights
After 72 active years in the field of physical activity education and educational sport, “PE” if you must, my energy is beginning to wane
I thought that the field of physical education might have achieved what I have long believed be its rightful place both within education and in the society at large
It's further discouraging because we are told that health-care costs in the United States, for example, increased 100 per cent in the decade between 1994 and 2004. (The figures for the rest of the world are not available.) The U.S.A.’s costs in 2013 exceed two trillion dollars annually!! What's really discouraging, is knowing that these costs could be cut in half if people put into practice what we have been trying to teach all these years in school health and physical education programs! This, my colleagues, is a major challenge that the world faces, that formal education faces, and that the field of health and physical education faces from here on out
Summary
After 72 active years in the field of physical activity education and educational sport, “PE” if you must, my energy is beginning to wane. As part of an effort to close what was becoming a debilitating, fractionating rift within the field, we developed a taxonomical table to explain the proposed areas of scholarly study and research using our nomenclature (physical activity education terms only) along with the accompanying disciplinary and professional aspects.
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