In 1934 as he celebrated the 40^th anniversary of the founding of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin was still focused on the role of education in building a better world—and sport, of course, was central to his educational reforms.  In his “Message to American Youth,” he linked the expansive perspective that education could produce in the young—“intellectual aviation”—with the idea of personal peace and peace between nations.  From the beginning of his Olympic quest, the Baron emphasized that contact between young people from all nations was essential for international understanding and peace across every border.  In this paraphrase and the passage below, he was arguing against too much specialization in secondary education, believing all students should be exposed to a full curricula while young to prepare them for specialization at the university level.  Such wide exposure—to all the nations and cultures of the world—was the essence of his hope for the Olympic Games as well.

“Secondary education in all countries should be a period of intellectual aviation destined to fly over the domain of knowledge so that each one may have at least the chance to perceive the vast panorama before landing on the particular points where he will make his productive effort. The relation between that question and peace between nations, and between individuals, is a close one. Too many people are as yet unwilling to recognize this.”