By Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Librarian
In 2020, four of the top five New Year’s resolutions among Americans were health-related. In 2019 health-related resolutions made the top three. One can’t flip through a magazine without consuming several tidbits of advice surrounding diets, “superpower” foods, homeopathic treatments and relaxation techniques, like yoga stretches. Such articles tend to increase in January issues when everyone (after the holidays) has decided to put more energy into their health.
Females in a gym class practice jumping on a trampoline. Taken from Tiffin, Ohio a Good Place to Teach-a Good Place to Live on the Seneca County Digital Library.
The Victorian era ushered in, like so many other innovations, the importance of keeping the human body in shape and the mind engaged. From the 1870s to well into the 1940s America embraced these novel ideas. Health “crazes” continue today and healthy-minded individuals continue to evolve with the ideas surrounding the proper way to take care of oneself, both physically and mentally.
Tiffinites and residents of Seneca County were no strangers to these trends, either. One such “craze” that infiltrated both Tiffin and the United States was calisthenics, or “systematic rhythmic bodily exercises performed usually without apparatus” as per its Merriam-Webster dictionary definition. At the Junior Home, summer school students performed 15 minutes of calisthenics per day. By the 1890s, calisthenics and its cousin, gymnastics, were part of the course of study. Students were expected to practice 3-5 minutes of calisthenics for 4 times each day. Calisthenics was incorporated into the Tiffin University’s basketball team’s practices by the 1930s, and into the 1940s the track team at Columbian used calisthenics as part of its conditioning.
While gymnastics movements seem to have been embraced by the local community – as early as 1867 the Tiffin Schools designated singing and gymnastics as daily exercises at school – not all Victorians looked keenly on the sport. In fact, at one time there were many who thought gymnastics was dangerous, particularly for females. “Calisthenics and gymnastics must not be confounded,” writes one British author. “In America they are a recognized portion of the education. With us, it remains an open question whether the violent exertions entailed by gymnastics are really suited to or safe for women, to whom undue strain is attended with so much danger.” The author goes on to state that, furthermore, if females absolutely must use dumb-bells, it’s highly suggested they only use 1-pound weights or “not exceeding two pounds at most.” Said a society before gymnastics became one of the premiere events of the summer Olympic ceremonies, which also includes female weightlifting where females easily lift twice their body weights!
What should be noted is that while Victorians saw the benefits of being strong and toned, instead of reaching athletic prowess as 21st century Americans do, they were focused more on how these gentle exercises could improvement the gracefulness of their movements. The British author argued that non-strenuous exercising “increased general vigour and cheerfulness.” Often, students in Tiffin were expected to sing during their exercises, particularly in the 1890s as evidenced by the Annual reports of the Tiffin Schools during that decade.
It was also during that time that Heidelberg built its first gym. Columbian’s and Bettsville’s followed in the 1920s, and the American Boy Council petitioned to have a gymnasium built in 1930 for the Junior Home, to comply with requirements of the Ohio Board of Education. Calvert’s boys basketball team first played in its original gym in 1954.
By mid-20th century, opinions on exercise and health-mindedness were quickly evolving. In the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy’s administration created a physical fitness aptitude test widely distributed in gym classes throughout the country. The director of the Council on Youth Fitness during Kennedy’s administration was a University of Oklahoma football coach.
The Calvertana 1963 lists this assessment, along with learning the fundamentals of tumbling, basketball, volleyball, softball, touch football, golf, tennis, track, wrestling and weight lifting as part of its core program.
There are several activities offered under the “Physical” section of the Ranger Handbook on the Seneca County Digital Library (Boy Rangers was a similar program to Boy Scouts for males in Seneca County in the 1930s-1990s) with the President’s Physical Fitness Program being one of them. Boy Rangers could also earn their physical requirements quota by showing knowledge in calisthenics, gardening, tetherball, badminton, ice or roller skating, isometrics, handball, bicycling, ping-pong, hunting, boxing and more.
The requirements for Ohio students have only gotten more detailed and fine-tuned in modern times. In December 2007 Ohio’s State Board of Education adopted federal standards for what children are expected to learn in gym class, which include but are not limited to, how to gallop, skip, dribble/kick/throw/catch/roll a ball, jump rope, perform a sequence of dance routines, and recognize offense versus defense at the elementary level. By middle school, children are expected to be able to send an object to a target, know how to assess heart rate, identify proper warm-up and cool-down activities and how to track calories, to name a few.
Works cited:
Annual Report of the Board of Education of the City of Tiffin, Ohio August 31, 1893. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/35374/rec/1
Course of Study and Manual for the Tiffin Public Schools for the Year 1889-90. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/36289/rec/1
Hefferman, Conor. “JFK’s Fitness Programme (1961-1962).” April 3, 2018.
https://physicalculturestudy.com/2018/04/03/jfks-fitness-programme-1961-1962/
Jr OUAM National Home (Tiffin, OH). https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/68/rec/1
Ohio Department of Education. Physical Education Evaluation 2016 to Present.
http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Physical-Education
Ranger Hand Book. Tiffin Boy Rangers, Inc.
https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/33018/rec/1
Seventh Annual Catalogue of the Tiffin Union Schools for the Year 1867-1868.
https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/37265/rec/1
TYSTENAC 1937-1938. Tiffin University.
https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/46146/rec/1
Victorian London Publications. “Calisthenics for Ladies.” Etiquette and Household Advice
Manuals. Vol. 4. 1880. https://www.victorianlondon.org/cassells/cassells-13.htm
Yearbook Jr. O.U.A.M.Maroon and White 1930. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/27420/rec/1
Yearbook Columbian Blue and Gold 1944. Tiffin Columbian High School. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/3588/rec/1
Yearbook Columbian Blue and Gold 1947. Tiffin Columbian High School. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/7480/rec/1
Yearbook Calvertana 1954. Calvert High School. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/5952/rec/1
Yearbook Calvertana 1963. Calvert High School. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/6536/rec/