A Guide to the History of Physical Education

THE PLAYGROUND MOVEMENT IN AMERICA. STATEWIDE PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

The playground movement, which we have already traced in Germany (pp. 132-145) and Denmark (pp. 194-197), was slow in gathering headway in the United States. Minister von Gossler's playground order was issued in Prussia October 27, 1882, and the German "Central Committee for the Promotion of Games" was organized in Berlin May 21, 1891. The Danish minister Bardenfleth sent out his games circular August 31, 1896, and a group of men and women met in Copenhagen April 11, 1897, to form a "National Committee for Promoting Group Games among School Children. " In this country certain Boston children had access to a sand pile, under supervision, as far back as the summer of 1885, and a public outdoor gymnasium was opened in that city August 27, 1889; but not more than 10 cities are known to have established playgrounds before 1900, and 26 others in the years 1900-1905, _i.e._, up to the founding of the Playground Association of America, at Washington, D. C., in April of 1906. In the four years following (1906-1909) 83 cities were added to the list, and by the end of 1916 a total of 480 had been reached, according to a report in _The Playground_ for March, 1917.