On Tilting at Windmills While Facing Armageddon

Abstract

Since the 1960s, numerous articles, special features, symposia, and conferences have raised perceptive and often troubling questions about the present condition and future directions of the field. In the 1980s, the debates reached a crescendo with issues about specialization, fragmentation, professional versus academic, and what should comprise the academic core. Any profession should periodically evaluate itself; it is now time, however, to marshall our efforts and concentrate on what our collective strengths are—or should be. It is suggested herein that useful lessons might be gleaned from an overview of American medicine at the turn of the century and recent discussions concerning medical education. Medicine combines both clinical and academic/scientific studies and draws upon knowledge ranging from the molecular to the macro levels. American medicine and medical education struggled through uncertainties 100 years ago that are not unlike those that physical education has been involved in for the last 3 decades. To achieve first-class academic and professional respectability, however, more physical education faculty must become producers (rather than consumers) of scholarly and scientific knowledge. Moreover, our professional organization must devote greater attention to fostering research, the foundation upon which the respectability of a profession rests.

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