[LUM#20] The Unthought Body at School

[LUM Magazine, Podcast] - Published on December 5, 2023 in Science and Society

The role of the body in school—whether in motion or at rest—is a major issue for researchers in the field of education. What role should physical education and sports play in school curricula? And beyond that, how should the body be considered within a holistic approach to education? Fabien Groeninger, a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on Didactics, Education, and Training¹, tackles these questions head-on.

“Long live physical education! ” This was the tweet posted on August 7, 2021, by the Minister of National Education, Youth, and Sports to congratulate the medalists at the Tokyo Olympics. “The success of our teams illustrates the quality of physical education in our schools,” added Jean-Michel Blanquer, addressing the basketball, handball, and volleyball players who had just won their titles.

Is the success of these athletes really due to those famous physical education and sports classes taught in middle and high school? In any case, that’s not always the view of these champions, who were quick to share their thoughts. “It wasn’t the two measly hours of PE per week in my middle school schedule that sparked my desire to play basketball,” said basketball player Evan Fourrier in an op-ed later published in the Huffington Post.

Hours That Stand Still

These two measly hours for high school students even represent “a decline in the number of hours allocated to physical education in secondary school, ” adds Fabien Groeninger, a researcher and associate professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Montpellier. And for younger children, 30 minutes of physical education per day has been the standard since late 2020 and the post-COVID era. Fabien Groeninger considers this requirement paradoxical, “because it means that some children could remain inactive for several hours a day,” says the specialist in the history of physical education in schools, who is concerned about these periods of inactivity.

Sitting still at school is precisely one of the social constraints specific to the school system that the researcher highlights. “It is an obedient, tamed, and standardized body that the French school system has shaped through the classroom setting, where children sit all day, ” explains Fabien Groeninger.

Those were days when sports still struggled to find a place for themselves, even though physical education had long been part of the school curriculum—albeit in a form very different from today’s practices. “The Third Republic assigned it civic, patriotic, health-related, and economic objectives, ” the researcher points out. Gymnastics and marksmanship for boys, with the aim of training soldiers, and “basketball” for girls—an activity supposed to “strengthen their stomachs and prepare them for motherhood.”

Reaffirm its legitimacy

The athletic aspect, however, was not taken into account until much later, and it wasn’t until 1962 that the discipline was officially recognized—though it struggled to gain acceptance. In fact, physical education teachers, who initially reported to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, were not incorporated into the National Education System until 1981.

“Physical education remains a subject that must constantly reaffirm its legitimacy in the face of so-called intellectual disciplines, and teachers sometimes suffer from a form of unconscious condescension on the part of the rest of the teaching staff, all too often finding themselves reduced to the role of school activity leader. ” And when it comes to allocating teaching hours, it is all too common for the PE teacher to be shortchanged so that the math or history-geography teacher can be given more… For the researcher, this discipline-based structure —‘where each subject pulls the blanket over itself’— limits a holistic view, leading to divisions of which PE is one of the primary victims.

Holistic Education

Moreover, beyond the athletic aspect, the broader question of the body’s role in learning remains unresolved. “The mind-body dualism characterizes the French school system through the dichotomy between cognitive learning and physical, manual, and emotional learning. This hierarchy of body and mind reflects a lack of understanding of children’s learning mechanisms, motivation, and interests , ” explains Fabien Groeninger, who laments that the body is overlooked in schools.

However, research in the field of educational science has demonstrated the importance of taking the body into account not only for well-being at school but also for motivation. These mechanisms have also been highlighted by child psychology and have been incorporated into progressive education since the late 19th century through the concept of “integral education ,” in which “the various facets of the human being are taken into account without compartmentalizing cognitive, physical, and psychological development, ” the researcher explains.

While many initiatives along these lines are beginning to emerge, they still too often depend on the goodwill of teachers, even though in Finland, for example, there are large-scale projects aimed at integrating physical activity into the school day without limiting it to a single activity. The Finnish Schools on the Move program, for instance, includes regularly scheduled recesses to ensure that children do not remain seated for more than two hours, while relaxation exercises help students focus on all their schoolwork. More than 90% of Finnish schools participate in the program on a voluntary basis.This is an inspiring initiative as we approach the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, which are sure to bring the issue of sports back into the spotlight. “The body cannot be reduced to mere components of a curriculum: it is an inherent part of any comprehensive reflection on our education, ” concludes Fabien Groeninger.

1. Lirdef (UM, UPVM)
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Keywords: Education, LUM#20, LumLu, LUM Magazine, Research, Science, Company, Sports