From orthopedy to the efficiency of the bodies: Gymnastics and the demands of “modern life” (Minas Gerais, 1906-1930)

Abstract

This article addresses the insertion of gymanastics (physical education) in preschool programs, in Minas Gerais during the three first decades of the 20th century, discussing the representations of such subject. During such time, there would have been a reconfiguration of its leading factor: whether or not gymnastics was seen as orthopedics practices of children‘s physical correction, the 1920s seems to have imposed new demands to it related to the necessity of organizing the teaching practices. It is, then, that efficiency poses itself as the driving force of such subject. From orthopedics to efficiency, physical education would come in synch with modern life.