Physical Education in 1947 and 2004

Adrienne Shaw

In reading the personal letters of Mary Browning a recurring theme was an obsession with weight. In one letter this concern was mentioned in conjunction with a discussion of her “Body Mechanics” class. My first assumption was that there was an institutional focus on turning Mount Holyoke women’s bodies into feminine ideals. Wanting to situate myself and my generation in opposition to such a regulatory system, I at first wanted to prove some sort of enlightened change in standards and emphases between the 1950s and 2000s. The more I dug into the research however, and in light of the theories of Halbwachs, I realized that this hypothesis was not one I could prove. Yes, the types of classes offered have changed but the idea of creating a sound body to house the intellectual mind has remained a focus of the physical education department. By investigating enrollments, offerings, and requirements I think I shall see that not much has really changed between 1947 and 2004 in the specific terms of physical education’s focus.

Reading Mary’s first letter I noticed that the physical activity of Hazing Day was something she saw as quite a work out.[1] Looking at historical maps of the college,[2] I noted that the distance between Cowles and Skinner Hall was quite a way to run and “swoop, spin, nose dive, etc.” I was still curious, however, as to the typical level of physical activity of Mount Holyoke women of the 1950s. This interest increased when several letters mentioned a weight concern on Mary’s part, as well as a Body Mechanics class which seemed focus on bodily appearance. What was physical education like in the 1950s, and how is it different now?

In my mind while reviewing the archive data on physical education at Mount Holyoke is a statement made by Lewis Coser in his introduction to Maurice Halbwachs on Collective Memory: “Halbwachs was without doubt the first sociologist who stressed that our conceptions of the past are affected by the mental images we employ to solve present problems, so that collective memory is essentially a reconstruction of the past in light of the present.”[3] Is my focus on Mary’s body image colored by the rise in awareness of eating disorders in my lifetime? Perhaps I see the Body Mechanics class in a less than favorable light due to an association between posture and grace classes and elitist, sexist cultures. Moreover, if social traditions are, as Halbwachs asserts, “collective traditions or recollections, but they are also ideas or conventions that result from a knowledge of the present,”[4] perhaps current ideas about physical fitness and women’s bodies are not so disconnected from the past. It seems to me that ideas about physical education in 2004 are only outgrowths and evolutions of those from the 1950s, ideas that are redeveloped in light of current language and knowledge.

Comparing the Physical Education sections of the 1947/48 and 2003/04 course catalogues I found that not much has changed in the past 56 years. According to the 1947/48 Bulletin, “Emphasis is placed on the acquiring of physical fitness, good carriage, sense of rhythm, and skill in sports as means of recreation.”[5] Similarly the 2003-2004 Bulletin states that it:

“aims to develop in the student awareness and an intelligent understanding of the need for and effects of physical activity. The instructional program offers opportunities for the student to acquire lifetime sport and movement skills that will enhance her overall quality of life, both now and in the future.”[6]

Both descriptions note an emphasis on acquiring physical fitness and use of sports as part of a healthy lifestyle. One notable difference, however, is that the incoming class of 1947 had to undergo a physical examinations to determine which Phys. Ed. classes they should take. Such tests do not happen in 2004. Moreover, Freshman and Sophomores were required to take “three periods of physical education each week,”[7] while modern requirements state that one must only complete 6 credits worth of physical education over the course of one’s four years at Mount Holyoke. Observing these differences I am drawn to conclude that in 1947/48 an effort was made to bring students up to a certain level of fitness prior to letting them explore their own activities while modern students are free to explore as they wish.

In terms of what there was for Mount Holyoke women to explore there has certainly been a change. During the spring semester of 2004, 20 different activities were offered at various levels, not including ten varsity sports that could be used for Phys. Ed. credit as well as six club sports teams.[8] Total enrollment in just the physical education classes was 916, or 42.6% of the student body. The most popular activities were Horseback Riding (103), Tennis (100), Weight Training for Fitness (96), and Yoga (83).[9] These numbers cannot account for the numbers of students participating in varsity or club sports, and some may be enrolled in more than one class.

In Mary’s first year, 1947/48, the statistics and activities were quite different. I have combined Winter and Spring semesters in this case because of the overlap they have with our current Spring term. Between the two semesters 23 activities were offered, three of which were classes on teaching, one on officiating, and one on leadership.[10] According to the 1947/48 Physical Education yearly report, classes in teaching were offered because of an “interest in summer camp jobs,” on the part of students.[11] Unlike 2004, students in Mary’s day were required to take certain classes and all sophomores and freshman had to take a class each semester. In Winter, for example, freshmen were required to take either Body Mechanics or Modern Dance (unless exempted) while sophomores chose from a range of activities. However, during Spring semester freshman and sophomores could each chose from the same list of activities. Juniors and seniors also elected to take physical education classes, and this was probably due to a lack of other organized sports. The highest enrollments for Winter and Spring 1947/48 are: Conferences (209), Canoe (171- in 2004 it is a mere 10), Basketball (158), and Badminton (111)[12]. Body Mechanics had the highest enrollment for freshmen during the term it was offered, most likely because it was required. What is particularly interesting is that in the 1947/48 school year enrollment at Mount Holyoke was 1196[13] and enrollment for Winter semester Phys. Ed. classes was 1122, or 93.8% of the students, and Spring semester is was 1205 (double enrollments may explain this figure.)[14]

Of particular interest to our class was the issue of the Body Mechanics classes. In Mary’s letter dated February 2, 1948 she talks about how her instructor for Body Mechanics is “very good at helping the girls get good posture and good figures.”[15] This was part of a discussion of girdles and having good posture to look thinner. The class of 2004 balked at such language focused on weight and figures, but I wonder if we were being too critical. I know that my coach used to joke about telling her Junior High girls that swim suit season was coming as incentive to work out. Perhaps the instructor was simply using the girls’ anxiety about weight as encouragement to improve their posture (which is important for general physical health).

The Body Mechanics class was not simply a posture and grace class. "The body mechanics course consisted of two periods a week of gymnastics devoted to the development of strength, endurance, and flexibility, and a third recreational period which included such activities as social and folk dancing, apparatus work, and tumbling."[16] This is not very different from the types of classes offered today. Take, for example, the fact that weight training and yoga are two of the most popular classes, promoting “strength, endurance and flexibility.”

I would assert that in terms of a focus on the body the evidence only really shows a change in terms of what types of exercises were done. In both 1947 and 2004 many offerings focused on recreational activity, and those classes that do focus on the body focus on flexibility and strength. Our class sighed at the idea of Mary’s class learning “a rolling combination which is supposed to remove an inch and a half from the hip line if you do the exercise conscientiously for two weeks.”[17] But is a woman bench-pressing 100 lbs really more empowered than one rolling around on the floor trying to lose an inch? Are they both not simply trying to achieve what is considered to be an ideal body for their era?

The general focus of Physical Education requirements both now and in 1947 is best summed up by a student’s comment on mhc.chat, an email based discussion board: “Yes, they are inconvenient but they were originally designed to make sure that Mount Holyoke women would not sit in their rooms all day and night long doing work. They are supposed to stimulate activity.”[18] However, it would be an entire paper in itself to examine the relationship between students and their physical education requirements. In this paper I only focus on hard facts regarding requirements and enrollment, that is to say the institutional side of it all, to gain an idea of what the college thought it was encouraging. In these terms expectations of students have not changed in essence, only in semantics. I contend that individual students are not expected to achieve the same level of ability now as they were in 1947. It is possible that this is because of focus on varsity athletes, which did not exist in Mary’s day, verses a focus on individual students. Broadly speaking, however, yes there was a focus on the body in 1947, one which still exists today.

Spring 2004

Riding: 9+13+5+17+26+7+11+3+2+7+3= 103
Swim: 26+14=40
Volleyball: 10+3=13
Fencing: 17+6=23
Golf: 25+13=38
Squash: 44+11=55
Yoga: 61+22=83
Tennis: 63+29+8=100
Scuba diving: 6
Self Defense: 7
Tai Chi: 32
Ballroom Dance: 53
Fitness For Life: 18
Weight Training for Fitness: 96
Walking: 27
Soccer: 18
Canoe: 10
Badminton: 24
Raquetball: 14
Emergency/CPR Training: 8

Total: 916
Total enrollment: 2200

Winter and Spring 1948

Riding: 10+10+9+35+69=133
Volleyball: 35
Fencing: 61+14+16=91
Golf: 120
Tennis: 99+45=145
Modern Dance: 71+18+27=116
Canoe: 106+65=171
Badminton: 63+48= 111
Life Saving: 40+26=66
Body Mechanics/Rhythms: 123
Special: 32+9=41
Basketball: 45+113=158
Basketball officials: 12
Winter Sports: 113
Recreation Leadership: 55
Skating: 38
Skiing: 140
Conferences: 95+114=209
Archery: 26
Archery Teachers: 12
Canoe teachers: 56
Softball: 70
Tennis teachers: 14

Total: Winter: 1122
Total: Spring: 1205
Total Enrollment: 1196

[1] Mary Browning Nelson Letters, Mary to her mother, ca. November 9, 1947, Archives and Special Collections, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA.

[2]Peter Carini and Meghna Chakrabarti. A Historic Map of the Mount Holyoke College Campus. 1997. Retrieved February 18, 2004 <http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/library/arch/map/>

[3] Lewis A. Coser, [1925] 1992. Maurice Halbwachs on Collective Memory, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

[4] Ibid, 188.

[5] Mount Holyoke College Bulletin 1947-1948. Bulletin Series 41, No. 4. January 1948. South Hadley, MA

[6] Mount Holyoke College Bulletin 2003-2004. Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA.

[7] Bulletin 1947/48 Phys. Ed..

[8] See attached list for details.

[9] These totals include all levels from beginner to advanced for those activities that have such distinctions. “Enrollments in Physical Education and Athletics Spring 2004” as of February 17, 2004. <http://www.mtholyoke.edu/cgi/people/pdobosh/senrolls.cgi?dept=PE>

[10] See attached list for details.

[11] Physical Education Dept. Report 1947/48, pg. 3, Archives and Special Collections, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA.

[12] Ibid, 2.

[13] Mapping Project #1: Enrollment at Mount Holyoke College. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/etownsle/soc224/groupprojects/enrollment1.html

[14] Phys. Ed Report, 1947/48 pg. 2-3.

[15] Mary Browning Nelson Letters, Mary to her mother and daddy, ca. February 2, 1948, Archives and Speical Collections, Mount Holyoke College, South Haldey, MA.

[16] Physical Education Dept. Report 1943/44, pg. 2, Archives and Special Collections, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA.

[17] Mary Browning Nelson Letters, Mary to her mother, December 1, 1947, Archives and Special Collections, Mount Holyoke College, South Haldey, MA.

[18] Tiffany Dembowski, “Re: SOFTBALL TEAM,” Newsgroups: mhc.chat, Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 13:57:06 –0500.

Bibliography

Carini, Peter and Meghna Chakrabarti. A Historic Map of the Mount Holyoke College Campus. 1997. Retrieved February 18, 2004 <http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/library/arch/map/>

Coser, Lewis A. [1925] 1992. Maurice Halbwachs on Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Dembowski, Tiffany. “Re: SOFTBALL TEAM,” Newsgroups: mhc.chat, Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 13:57:06 –0500.

“Enrollments in Physical Education and Athletics Spring 2004” as of February 17, 2004. <http://www.mtholyoke.edu/cgi/people/pdobosh/senrolls.cgi?dept=PE>

Mount Holyoke College Bulletin 1947-1948. Bulletin Series 41, No. 4. January 1948. South Hadley, MA

Mount Holyoke College Bulletin 2003-2004. Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA

Simon, Jenny, Grace Schulz, Abby Blachly, Lillie Bookman, Cheri Sobolik. Mapping Project #1: Enrollment at Mount Holyoke College. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/etownsle/soc224/groupprojects/enrollment1.html

South Hadley, Massachusetts. Archives and Special Collections, Mount Holyoke College. Physical Education Dept. Reports 1941/42-1949/1950.

-- Mary Browning Nelson Letters.