Physical education
The terms physical education, sports education and sports education refer to the teaching and learning of physical exercises and bodily practices whose objective is to The main one is education and health. This has been the decisive reason for the introduction of physical exercises in primary school in the 19th century. Even today, physical education at school has to enable the healthy development of young people, stimulate a healthy life and lay the foundations for a "hygienic conscience".
During the 58th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the UN proclaimed 2006 as the International Year of Sport.
History
Physical education goes back to the origins of man. Initially it responds to survival needs, in terms of obtaining food (chasing, climbing, traction, etc.), housing and clothing are a construction based on physical effort.
At the end of the 20th century, physical education teacher training schools and institutes reached university level. It is considered that the creator of this educational branch as it is known today was Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. During the 19th century, Jahn established the first gymnastics school in Germany. Physical education applied in a systematic way and with objectives has its origins in ancient civilizations, India and China, where the practice was similar to our gymnastics, receiving the name of Kung-Fu, created around the year 270 a. C., with a religious purpose, to cure the body of diseases and weaknesses that prevented it from being a servant of the soul. In Sparta, the combination of a man of action with a wise man was sought, an educational program that was later called Palestra.
As for Rome, physical education was very similar to the Spartan one, since the protagonist was the athlete. Galen was the first person to propose specific exercises for each part of the body and use the pulse as a means to detect the effects of physical exercise. During the Visigothic era, sports such as wrestling, jumping, javelin throwing and fencing were already practiced.
Modern physical education was born at the beginning of the XIX century in Switzerland and Germany with sports such as: jumping, running and wrestling outdoors, swimming, balancing, dancing, fencing, climbing, horse riding and running. Soccer, rugby, cricket and horse sports were born in England. At the end of the XIX century, speed sports such as cycling and motor racing were born, which combine physical skill with mechanical efficiency. Physical education originates through the physical activities that the human being tried to systematize in Antiquity to improve his physical condition for war.
In different times and places the conception of physical education has not always been the same. Taken as a scientific-pedagogical discipline, its focus varies according to the various dominant paradigms in the social field and, naturally, in the pedagogical field. This has been so fluctuating that, in many cases, it has been placed by varying its center from the biological sciences and others from the social sciences.
The importance of physical education
The purposes of education and physical education are similar, among them are the development of the individual and the preparation for a life with responsibilities according to the customs and thoughts of each institution. The formation of habits in physical activity will be of great help to the student, since some investigations have shown that some heart diseases appear during the first two years of age and can extend up to 19 years of age. The seriousness of the matter is that if children and young people who do not improve their habits could surely suffer from high blood pressure or obesity in adulthood.
On the other hand, indications are made about the risk of a sedentary lifestyle, a study was carried out where 5000 young people from the United States were examined where 70% had different diseases in relation to the heart, 7% with high cholesterol levels and a 12% with obesity. It is a great problem that requires urgent attention; Physical activity reduces the occurrence of chronic diseases, weight gain, diseases caused by stress, among others.
Young people spend most of their time in educational settings where they practice a lot of physical activity, that's where they begin to put their skills into practice.
Physical education, in addition to promoting knowledge and theory, must also promote the integral growth of students, for this it must give greater importance to education in values that dignify students as people.
Importance of exercise and physical development in all school ages
Physical activity generates many benefits to maintain a healthy life, such as regulating body weight, avoiding obesity, preventing degenerative and cardiovascular diseases.
Physical education, therefore, provides great potential for the school population to change bad habits for healthy habits, also strengthening values on health, rights and obligations. If young people adopt healthy lifestyle habits, it will bring benefits in the motor and cognitive skills, also for personal relationships and with others, obtaining physical and psychological well-being.
As educational entities strengthen physical education programs, they are also strengthening values that contribute to the integral development of each person, in this way physical activity would take a place of great importance within the school field.
Educational Media
Physical education achieves its formative goals using determined means or forms of work. Some of them are educational sports, motor games, sports initiation, etc.
- Motor game: From a cultural anthropological approach the game is understood as a free action or occupation, which develops within certain temporal and spatial limits, according to absolutely mandatory rules, although freely accepted, action that has its end in itself and is accompanied by a feeling of tension and joy and the consciousness of “being otherwise” than in ordinary life. In physical education the motor game is understood as a playful activity (from Latin ludus, fun or entertainment), aimed at obtaining a motor purpose in a certain driving situation. In this way, we find various types of games: natural games, rules games, modified games, cooperative games, etc. It should be noted that the game is not only an educational medium that allows the attainment of the purposes of physical education, but also contains in itself all the wealth and educational value of an end to physical education.
- Sports initiation: It is a process of learning a sport taking into account, first of all, the person who learns, as well as the objectives to be achieved, the structure of the sport and the methodology used. The approach of intelligent motorism is part of the teaching of the strategy, to then move to the technique. In sporting initiation, the notions of a sport are acquired. In carrying out the sporting initiation, for example, the development of strategic thinking, the integration of corporeity, among other educational competencies to develop.
- The sporting game at school: The casting element of the sports game are the rules. It therefore maintains an organization that all participants must know, and therefore will adjust their behaviors. For this reason players not only need to appropriate the rules of play that allow to play it but it is essential that they know the standard behaviors expected by any player in the same game situation, to act within the framework of what is allowed, favoring teammates.
Physical education and health
One of the main general purposes of physical education is to achieve in those who practice it, acquire an active and healthy lifestyle. The World Health Organization (WHO), in the Ottawa Charter (1986), considers healthy lifestyles as important components of intervention to promote health in the framework of daily life, in educational centers, work and for recreation. It claims that everyone cares for themselves and others, the ability to make decisions, control their own lives and ensure that society offers everyone the chance to enjoy a good state of health. To promote health, physical education has the following fundamental purposes: to offer a solid foundation for the practice of physical activity throughout life, to develop and promote the health and well-being of students, to offer a space for leisure and coexistence and help prevent and reduce health problems that may occur in the future.