Which of the following individuals is credited with starting physical education classes in the US?

• A. Charles Beck
• B. Maria Montessori
• C. John Dewey
• D. Friedrich Jahn

Answer: (A)

Starting organized physical education in the United States is credited to Charles Beck, who brought German gymnastics to American schools and established the first structured PE classes at the Round Hill School in Massachusetts. He introduced a systematic set of exercises and apparatus-based activities that taught fitness, coordination, and discipline, creating a model that other schools soon adopted.

Friedrich Jahn laid the groundwork for gymnastics in Germany and inspired Beck’s approach, but Jahn himself didn’t start PE classes in the United States. The other figures contributed to education in different ways—Maria Montessori to early childhood education and self-directed learning, and John Dewey to progressive, experiential education—rather than to the origin of PE in the U.S.