Historical Evolution of sports Historical Evolucion of sports researchpdf | Page 23

Life
 Thomas Arnold was born at East Cowes, Isle of Wight on 13th June 1795.
 He was educated at Winchester and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where
he met his lifelong friend, John Taylor Coleridge. As a brilliant student,
Arnold obtained a first-class degree and was granted a fellowship at Oriel.
 In 1818 Arnold was ordained deacon and settled at Laleham, a village on
the Thames. While a deacon, Arnold formed a small school where he
prepared pupils for university. After nine years at Laleham, Arnold was
invited to became a master at Rugby School.
 Apart from education, he also had a deep sympathy for the poor and in
1831 he started a newspaper that advocated social reform. The
newspaper failed but Arnold continued to write on this subject for the rest
of his life.
 Arnold was also a strong supporter of Catholic Emancipation.
Rugby School and forming of his ideas
 Although a prosperous private school, Rugby was not seen as having the
same status as schools such as Eton or Winchester. After Arnold had been
appointed headmaster in 1828, he successfully regenerated the school.
 Thomas Arnold had a profound and lasting effect on the development of
public school education in England. Arnold introduced mathematics,
modern history and modern languages and instituted the form system and
introduced the prefect system to keep discipline. Although Arnold held
strong views, he made it clear to his students they were not expected to
accept those views, but to examine the evidence and to think for
themselves.
Sport to social control
 This was a time of change, both in society at large and in the English public
schools. Parliament and criminal laws were changing (for example, laws
banning cruelty to animals), transport and communications were
dramatically improving (with the introduction of the penny post and the
railways) and Queen Victoria was crowned in 1837.
 On joining Rugby he grew to be obsessed by what he saw as the
immorality and sinfulness of boys and was determined to reform them,
their attitudes and their school lives.
 Arnold used games as a way of establishing social control, he did NOT
value games as an end in themselves. Games kept the boys out of
trouble in the day and sent them to bed exhausted.
 Arnold also established a more trusting and sympathetic relationship
with the sixth form. His masters gradually adopted roles of mentor and
HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF SPORTS
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