R. Tait Mckenzie’s Medical Work and Early Exercise Therapies for People with Disabilities

Abstract

I showed [McKenzie] a letter I had received from a rising man in our profession who wanted to know what I could tell him about Dr. Luther Gulick.. .. McKenzie's comment was that it was strange that a man who had done so much for us should be forgotten so soon. "I guess," he said, "that this will happen to all of us so far as our work in physical education is concerned. And if it is not entirely forgotten, our endeavors most likely will be misunderstood or misconstrued by persons who will not try to understand the conditions that prompted us to do what we did."-William A. Stecher, colleague of R. Tait McKenzie in the playground movement in Philadelphia (1944) 1

R. Tait McKenzie: Inspirational sculptor and a pioneer advocate of physical activity for people with disabilities

“…Mason (2008) has suggested that McKenzie, like many other physical educators, felt "athletics" was contraindicated as a form of rehabilitation because the competitive element would lead to too much strain and overexertion; similarly he was concerned with women overexerting themselves. Through orthopaedics and treatment of spinal curvatures such as scoliosis with exercise, he advocated exercise both as a preventative treatment and as a form of rehabilitation.…”

“…The use of exercise for those with a physical disability was pioneering and the subject of many of his publications, as was his thinking about urbanisation and structuring the school day so that children had sufficient exercise (Mason, 2008). But these contributions reflect the "discourse" of that era.…”

“…The resulting volume, Exercise in Education and Medicine, was released by Saunders in 1909, with subsequent editions in 1917and 1923(McKenzie, 1923. This was a text designed to cover the whole field (Mason, 2008). Dr. McKenzie the physician brought exercise into medicine" (Day, 1967, p. 9).…”

“…As Arthur Steinhaus recalled, it was a landmark book in which, "Dr. McKenzie the teacher brought exercise into education. Mason (2008) has suggested that these are the first examples of adapted physical education in a major text. This was a text designed to cover the whole field (Mason, 2008).…”

“…Poor posture was considered a physical and moral problem, and correcting faulty posture was a key component in physical education from the 1880s to the mid-twentieth century (Mason, 2008;see Rathbone, 1936). Treatment included massage, water therapy, and exercise.…”