Metz primary schools outdoors games (1919-1932)

ABSTRACT The city of Metz organized outdoor games for students between 1919 and 1932. This should be considered as an innovative experiment. Created under the Reichsland’s regime in 1903, this organization did not stop its activities after World War 1, when Metz returned to the French homeland in 1918. Volunteer teachers kept on proposing sporting or physical activities to young students, aged 6-13, who were willing to participate outside classtime. The primary goal aimed to promote schoolchildren health in a less strict educational environment and at the same time to keep them away from streets temptations. Each sex could take part into these outdoor games and no one could be excluded, based on his or her religious affiliation. Activities took place in various venues, but always outdoor. They were often traditional games or child’s plays, but sometimes pupils were teached physical education or sports. Some of them were brought to walks or river baths. From 1919 to 1932, several hundreds of schoolgirls and schoolboys from Metz benefited from these specific forms of physical education, aiming both sanitary and moral improvement. Outdoor environment was less rigorous than compulsory school and teachers could use more active teaching and less traditional methods.