PE Teacher: Should our focus in physical education be on teaching skills or getting students physically active?

PE Philosopher: Yes

I recently listened to America’s PE and sport philosopher-laureate Scott Kretchmar and just as intended it made me think. To the delight of our diminishing but indispensible cadre of PE philosophers, the seemingly frustrating and unresolvable conundrum that physical education teachers face is in fact answerable: Well at least from a philosopher’s world view!

John Massengale, Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, passed away at home on November 27, 2013. John was a good friend to many of us in NAKHE and other professional and academic societies, a mentor to still more, and a leader in kinesiology who helped to develop the profession of physical education into the discipline of kinesiology. He will be missed by all who knew him.

John D. Massengale was born in Pontiac, Michigan in 1939, and grew up in the Detroit area aspiring to be an athlete. After graduating from high school in the late 1950s, John moved to Missouri where played football at Northwest Missouri State University and studied physical education and sociology. This was the beginning of a 50-year academic career that revolved around sport, physical education, coaching, and higher education and which lasted until his retirement in 2008.

John’s first professional duties were as a high school physical educator and coach from 1963 to 1967, first in Kansas City and then in Illinois where he earned his masters degree at Illinois State University. In 1967 John moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he studied for his doctorate while working as an assistant football coach and adjunct instructor of physical education. It was at this point that John demonstrated the ability to balance his professional life as a coach with his academic life, a skill that the developing field of physical education promoted and which many of his contemporaries aspired to, but which few mastered as well as John.

John was proud of the New Mexico doctoral program of that period and spoke fondly of his days there as a student. He often noted that all of the graduates in his cohort at New Mexico either became a department chair or senior academic administrator, or published textbooks in physical education. Led by faculty such as Larry Locke, John’s fellow students at New Mexico included Ron Feingold, Chuck Corbin, and others who would became well-known scholars in our field.

Physical Education recently lost a visionary leader with the passing of Dr. Seymour (Sy) Kleinman (August 21, 1928 – December 21, 2013). Sy was a mentor and friend to many who had an interest in a holistic, movement centered approach to physical education. Dr. Kleinman was my mentor at The Ohio State University and helped shepherd me though my doctoral studies. We had much in common including a background in dance education and performance, and an interest in developing sports performance programs for college athletes. It is primarily because of Sy that I was able to pursue a life and a career in higher education in the Movement Arts and Sciences, and beyond.

Sy, who retired after nearly forty years of service as a professor of educational policy and leadership at Ohio State was a pioneer and leading authority in the field of somatic studies. He was also a passionate advocate for the arts in education and led the Institute for the Advancement of Arts in Education at OSU for several years. I actually served as a graduate assistant for the Institute during my first year at OSU and witnessed first-hand Sy’s passion for helping teachers embrace the importance of the arts in education.

Dr. Kleinman received his Bachelors of Arts and Masters of Arts in physical education from Brooklyn College. He earned his Ph.D. from Ohio State in 1960, followed by a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Finland. From the 1960s to his recent passing he and other faculty moved the College of Education at OSU into a leading center for somatic studies.

His academic output included five books and forty-four articles. He was a visiting lecturer and led groups of students to Denmark five times from 1982 to 1995. He received the Intellectual and Visiting Scholar Award from California State University, San Bernadino in 1996. He also held a chair for two terms in the Philosophy Academy of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.