Article - Hebertist Palestra: Physical Education for Women, Leisure and Natural Lifestyle

Abstract

Education and leisure are at times considered contradictory, at times complementary concepts. Pedagogues who pioneered new education methods in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, such as Maria Montessori or Célestin Freinet, embraced the two. This is also the case for the Palestra, a training centre created in 1918 by the French naval commander Georges Hébert (1875-1957) (DELAPLACE, 2005; PHILIPPE-MEDEN, 2015). The Palestra is considered the “flagship” of what was called “Méthode naturelle d’éducation physique, virile et morale”, a natural method that combined training of physical capacities, courage and morality (HÉBERT, 1941), developed by Georges Hébert between 1903 and 1904 at the battalion of marine fusiliers of Lorient. This method was the reference for ministerial directions on physical education in France in 1923, 1941 and in 1959 (TENÈZE, PACQUELIN, ANDRIEU, 2018). However, as the Palestra was situated among mundane holiday resorts on the coast in Normandy, which was dotted with casinos and theaters, this institution for the Hebertist natural method has hardly been studied (PHILIPPE-MEDEN, 2014), which may lead to approximation issues and misunderstandings. Based on a descriptive analysis of the Palestra, we will show how a holistic, innovative pedagogy was developed combining physical education, leisure and a natural lifestyle and how it will contribute to a radical change not only in body exercise techniques for women, but also the imagery of women between the two world wars in France.