What is “Phys Ed” anyway?: Rousseau, Penmanship, Playgrounds and other Educational Exertions

If you’ve attended school in the U.S. in the past 50 years, physical education probably has an oversized influence on how you think about the school day—for better or for worse. As we are constantly reminded by popular culture, physical education has been a rite of passage for school children for generations. Today’s episode turns to Enlightenment philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau to explore how eighteenth-century thinking about children’s bodies still resonates with how we think children should learn.  We  then explore other iterations of physical education, including the contortions of handwriting class and the heady dangers of adventure playgrounds. To find related materials and a reading list please visit our website: https://thechildrenstablepodcast.com/