Tribune. Recent interventions by Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer praising the merits of school sport in sporting successes at the Tokyo Olympics have provoked strong reactions from athletes. Some, like the basketball player Evan Fournier, affirming that they owed nothing to school, and others on the contrary, like Martin Fourcade, defending the school in the sports support it had provided them. It therefore seems important today to take stock of the aims of sport at school.
What is so different between badminton practiced in physical education and sports (PSE) and that of the Olympic Games? The distinction seems important, however. How many students have heard people say “I am not a sports teacher, I am a PE teacher”?
Current issues
Sports culture is deeply rooted among PE teachers, most of whom come from sports and training. Each one having joined the Sciences and techniques of physical and sporting activities (Staps) sector for the love of sport, they have been trained in a multitude of activities making them versatile athletes and teachers capable of adapting their teaching. to respond to local issues. “Sports teachers” they are, just as much as “PE teachers”. Because what matters is what they provide their students with on a daily basis through the use of physical, sports and artistic activities, Olympic or not.
Physical and sports education is not about training champions. It responds to current issues (health, ecology, etc.) while providing memorable, collective and common experiences for millions of students that allow them to understand why a referee whistles a fault, to be impressed when faced with a gymnastic figure, or to understand the collective value of victory even when it is an individual sport.
If there is one thing that EPS can boast about, it may not be the formation of a sports elite, but of all those lucid and cultured practitioners and supporters ready to support their nation. Each one has had a unique experience in these activities.
It is astonishing to learn that the objective “ 30 minutes of daily physical activity in elementary school »Is a novelty, while the primary school programs provide for three hours of PSE per week, or forty-five minutes per day. Even more ambitious than the new targets set.
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