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THE NECESSITY OF SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION
The new, inner content of physical education and the increased
interest for this cultural phenomenon lead to scientific consideration
of physical education. The conditions for it, the scientific ability of physical
education, exists already. Today there are sufficient scientifically
recognized investigations on hand. Increasingly human motion, the
exploration of the human body's experience of movement, assterts itself
successfully as a subject of research. No other science concerned
with man wants to and is able to look at the cultural phenomenon of
physical education from a single point of view. We may speak of an
independent science of physical education. Valuable scientific papers
about the method of research are already at hand, Certainly, we stand
only at the threshold of scientific effort. Like other sciences of man, the
science of physical education will need a good while until it finds general
acknowledgement. What is certain is that we need a scientifically based
instruction for a further development of physical education. Only this
guarantees a generally valid interpretation and a significant organization
of physical education. Scientific reflection will protect physical
education from error, over-estimation, excesses, and will supervise the
organization in proper proportion, thereby making it effective. Science
will promote the international in it and thus awaken the inert power of
underdeveloped nations and deepen the spiritual capacity of physical
education. From a scientific observation we may also expect a synthesis
of theory and practice. A scientifically based physical education will
silence the voices still heard today, against physical exercises and sport,
and thereby pave the way for the broad public.
SCIENCE OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION - TASK OF THE PHYSICAL
EDUCATION TEACHERS
We can state some attempts at a scientific observation of physical
education in its history. There have always been various points of
view which lead to sientific reflection. But only in our time has a serious
scientific examination become possible. The leading physical education
teachers of the present have the task of providing the basis for an internationally
acknowledged science of physical education. Today we have
spiritually and scientifically highly qualified physical education teachers,
who are capable of creating professionally and personally a work
which can no more be overlooked. The time has arrived not only for us,
but for the whole international scene. Valuable assistance is rendered
by scholars of the sciences of man, physical education interpreters with
contemporary appeal, who illuminate the values inherent in physical
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