Who is afraid of the medical power? About the myth of the medicalization of physical education, and the task of education for health

• Published in: Movement & sport sciences 2013-01 (80), p.5-5
• Main Authors: Defrance, Jacques, El Boujjoufi, Taieb
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2118-5735; 2118-5743

When the relations between physical education and medicine are analyzed with the tools and questions of social and cultural history, a set of interaction and practical collaborations are figured out. A first objection arises when one tries to date the period of this so-called medical domination: the interval of time goes smaller and smaller as the empirical analysis is specified. A second reservation comes from the fact that the medical corporation is not unanimous about the right way to exercise the body in order to get a sanitary profit. The discrepancy between Physical education and health education had been so clear during the first half of the century that, when the question was raised of who would teach hygiene at school, the task was allocated to science teachers. This analysis sheds a new light on the present helplessness of the teachers of physical education confronted with the mission of sanitary education that school authorities wish to entrust them with.