PHYSICAL CULTURAL AND SPORTS WORK IN SCHOOLS OF THE USSR OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 1940S-1980S

Abstract

The article describes physical education and sports work in schools of the Ukrainian SSR in the second half of the 1940s – 1980s. It is proven that it was an important component of the educational process. It was designed to form a conscious attitude to one’s own health, to physical education classes, to a responsible attitude towards others. Pupils and teachers at school were engaged in morning exercises, lessons, extracurricular planned and unscheduled activities: competitions, tournaments, contests. The work emphasizes that in the process of involvement in this activity, рupils not only fulfilled the program requirements of the subject, expanding and deepening their knowledge and skills, but also were participants in the mass movement of physical education and sports work in the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR. They represented their own schools in competitions of various scales: local, district, regional, republican, all-Union and international. One of the main figures was the teacher, who taught, developed, corrected, demonstrated. He had a certain professional training: secondary specialized, higher education; worked at his main place of work and was a part-time worker. The primary school needed the most physical education teachers. This was due to the specifics of working with this age category. The need to teach physical education was emphasized not by primary school teachers, who were also their class teachers, but by physical education teachers who had the appropriate training. The teachers were devoted to their work. As a rule, they got into schools through the personnel distribution system that existed in the USSR. The schools had different potential: material and technical, personnel. Often, teachers improved it with their own efforts: they painted, whitewashed, repaired, created. On such a positive example, the next generation of young athletes and teachers was raised. The article also points out the shortcomings of physical education and sports work, which were caused by the lack of sports equipment, gyms, and playgrounds for classes, shifting responsibility for this to teachers, school administration, and local authorities. The personnel issue also needed to be resolved. In general, schoolchildren were happy to join this activity: it was active and diverse. The protest state implemented its own narratives about their role in present and future life through the younger generation. By involving schoolchildren, it exercised control over their leisure time, the formation and development of consciousness, and the management of their actions.