The Boston Normal School of Gymnastics: An unheralded legacy

In the late nineteenth century, issues such as professionalization, the advancement of women, and the appropriate training of teachers faced our,field. The Boston Normal School of Gymnastics (BNSG) was instrumental in addressing these issues, and perhaps addressed most thoroughly, the training of teachers. This paper examines the legacy of the BNSG on today's physical education teacher preparation (PETE) programs. Many have documented the influence of the BNSG as one of the first successful physical education teacher training institutions. However, what has not been examined are the particular philosophies of the administrators and teachers at the BNSG that still persevere in colleges and universities today. The BNSG was instrumental in the professionalization of the field and in the advancement of women in physical education. The argument is made that perhaps the BNSG's greatest cotribution was in the development of many philosophies and basic pedagogical concepts such as combining theory and practice, teaching with progressions, and using experts to train future teachers, and these philosophies and concepts that guide today's PETE programs were the same used in the BNSG over a century ago.