A Guide to the History of Physical Education

THE "NEW GYMNASTICS" OF DIO LEWIS.

In the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century four different systems of physical training had been brought forward for trial in the United States-the drill and discipline of the military academy, the Jahn gymnastics, manual labor on the farm or in the shop, and "calisthenics" for girls and women. The claims of each were pressed by enthusiastic advocates, and there was no lack of imitators of the educational institutions in which each had first become incorporated; but for various reasons not one of the four was generally adopted or won for itself more than temporary foothold. From 1835 until 1860, though educators were increasingly alive to the importance of physical training,[222] no one appeared with anything that seemed more likely to meet the conditions and needs of the time. Then came Dio Lewis, with his "new gymnastics for men, women, and children," something definite and practical. His contagious enthusiasm created a wave of popular interest that spread to all parts of the country, and the "Normal Institute of Physical Education" which he opened in Boston in the summer of 1861 was the first attempt in America to prepare teachers of a subject whose right to a place in the school curriculum had long been conceded.