Publication at Faculty of Physical Education and Sport |
2018
Abstract
This paper draws upon Coubertin's unfinished memoir The Unfinished Symphony and develops further the ideas on education and Olympism that he began to write in 1936, one year before his death. Coubertin uses the metaphor of 'symphony' to stand for the projects that humans create and develop in their societies, one of which is his Olympism, i.e. education that is carried out predominantly through competitive sport.
Coubertin emphasises that he understands Olympism as a subproject of a greater project of education for the new era (educational "symphony"). However, at the end of his life he still felt that his major project, promoting a new kind of education, was still far from finished.