The origins of Georges Hébert’s Natural Method of Physical and Moral Education

This study aims to resume the founding characteristics of Georges Hébert's "Natural Method" of physical education, observing the author at a historical and cultural level and the relationships with the various authors of the time, studying the works that characterized him and above all analyzing his experimental method. Commander of the French navy, he drew inspiration from the observation of men and women grappling with the challenges of nature and work to codify a method of physical and moral education that was first applied in the military environment to the "École du Bataillon de Lorient and in followed in a sporting environment at the “Collège d'athlètes de Reims”. The considerable success found extended the application of the method also in schools and education, in particular towards women and children, not only in France, Hébert's country of origin, but also in other countries of the world, thus giving rise to a vast international community. . Hébert's method was accredited thanks to the intense activity of literary production to which the author devoted himself and in particular thanks to his most important work: L'Éducation physique, virile et morale par la méthode naturelle. Today we study Georges Hébert, as he was one of the first scholars to classify human movement, defining 10 families of "natural exercises". The reinterpretation that emerges from it finds current elements that I place at the center of the body and movement in the natural environment.