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 Centre d'Estudis Olímpics UAB olympicstudies.uab.es |
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Lectures on the Olympics |
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| Olympic education (2004) |
| Norbert Müller |
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| 5. Olympism as part of the school curriculum |
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| Among Coubertin's copious body of writings is an essay entitled "L'Olympisme à l'école. Il faut l'encourager!" (1934). In it, Coubertin expresses his preoccupations at the end of his life. It is of little use to schools today to offer Coubertin's interpretation of Olympism as an educational subject without practical examples. In particular, his much-quoted philosophical retrospective of 1935 entitled "The philosophical Principles of modern Olympism" can only be understood by picturing this value structure of Olympic education as the end product of a process that continued over many years. If we are to answer the question of what Olympism can mean in educational terms and what an "Olympic education" can contain, we must seek a starting point, once again, in Coubertin, since nothing has been done since his time to revise its content. The IOC Charter adopted Coubertin's principles to that effect. This makes sense, since otherwise there was a danger of exaggerated adaptation of those principles to the spirit of the age. In the case of the Olympic Movement, too, there is the danger that external forms will completely overwhelm issues of content. On the other hand, in the attempt to implement the Olympic ideal in school curricula, there are no circumventing topical issues and problems of the Olympic Games, since they are familiar to the pupils. So the Olympic ideal as Coubertin's educational vision must be retained, but it must also be continuously reviewed and revised. The topicality of "Olympic education" in schools on the beginning of the 21st century Under this heading we can group the following six features of an "Olympic education", all of which can be traced back to Coubertin's philosophical legacy: 1. The concept of harmonious development of the whole human being; 2. The idea of striving for human perfection through high performance, in which scientific and artistic achievement must take equal rank with sporting performance; 3. Sporting activity voluntarily linked to ethical principles such as fair play and equality of opportunity, and the determination to fulfil those obligations; also included is the ideal of amateurism, which has been almost totally abandoned in international sport today; 4. The concept of peace and goodwill between nations, reflected by respect and tolerance in relations between individuals; 5. The promotion of moves towards emancipation in and through sport. These educational conclusions, derived from Coubertin's writings, appear at first sight somewhat theoretical and problematical for a practical programme in schools. They will be discussed in more detail below (Müller, 1996b; Grupe, 1997) |
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Bibliography Coubertin, P. (1934): L'Olympisme à l'école. Il faut l'encourager!, La Revue sportive illustrée, 30 (2), p. 28. Coubertin, P. (1935): “The Philosophical foundation of modern Olympism”, en Müller, N. (ed.) (2000): Olympism: selected writings of Pierre de Coubertin. Lausanne : IOC, p. 580-583. Grupe, O. (1997): “Olympismus und olympische Erziehung-Abschied von einer großen Idee?”, en Evangelische Akademie Bad Boll (ed.): 100 Jahre Olympische Spiele: moderner Sport zwischen Pädagogik und Profit. Protokolldienst 3/97. Bad Boll, p. 52-65. International Olympic Committee (2000): Olympic Charter. Lausanne : IOC.On-line version 2003 Müller, N. (1996b): “Der Olympismus als Bestandteil schulischer Erziehung”, en NOK für Deutschland (ed.): Mach mit bei der Schülerolympiade: Uunterrichtsvorschläge für die Klassen 1-6. Frankfurt : NOK, p. 8-10. Related links - |
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| Centre d'Estudis Olímpics > Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Edifici N · 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona · Spain Phone +34 93 581 1992 - Fax +34 93 581 2139 |
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