Phys. Ed. Is Not Dead Yet

By Mary Carmichael | NEWSWEEK

Apr 14, 2008 Issue

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Posted By: browneyedgirl83 @ 04/23/2008 9:34:47 AM

Comment: It was jerks like skinnyminnyz who gloried only in "beating" the non-athletic kids in gym that made it such a chore. Feeble-minded jocks who view any physical activity as a war-like effort to beat someone else and are incapable of self-motivating and pitting themselves against their own time (novel thought) made the experience of gym class a trial. However, as much as I despised the class, I do think it is necessary. If nothing else, it teaches children to work together, sometimes with people of varying abilities and strengths. If only the "good-old-boy" mentality the coaches and gym teaches have towards the jocks could be eliminated, some of the less-athletically inclined students might not feel like such a "fish out of water.
Posted By: browneyedgirl83 @ 04/23/2008 9:34:30 AM

Comment: It was jerks like skinnyminnyz who gloried only in "beating" the non-athletic kids in gym that made it such a chore. Feeble-minded jocks who view any physical activity as a war-like effort to beat someone else and are incapable of self-motivating and pitting themselves against their own time (novel thought) made the experience of gym class a trial. However, as much as I despised the class, I do think it is necessary. If nothing else, it teaches children to work together, sometimes with people of varying abilities and strengths. If only the "good-old-boy" mentality the coaches and gym teaches have towards the jocks could be eliminated, some of the less-athletically inclined students might not feel like such a "fish out of water.
Posted By: skinnyminny2 @ 04/13/2008 7:55:24 PM

Comment: PE in our school was a joke. As a serious athlete, it was a complete waste of my time and athletes especially should be exempt from the boredom and lack of challenge. And only 50 minutes is not nearly enough time to learn/do anything...it takes 15-20 minues just to warm the muscles before you can perform well and then your time is practically gone. Having all kinds of skill levels was a serious challenge, too, and not much got accomplished because so many people were on different pages (some couldn't even find the book). It was fun lapping people in long distance races, though!
I don't think PE classes should be axed, yet I don't see them as necessary, either (kinda conflicting,I know). Maybe if it gets a few kids interested in a sport or discovers some hidden talent it's a good thing. I agree with the comment earlier to maybe make it an elective.
Posted By: BFiske @ 04/12/2008 6:15:45 PM

Comment: Where has all the money gone to pay for those"extras" in our schools? The orchestra is cut. So is the choir. There isn't enough time for phys. ed. Do they still have a shop class? Kids just don't seem to be getting the well-rounded educational experience that they deserve. The cause, not enough money to pay for teachers, choir and band directors, etc. I think the school day needs to be altered and the staffing changed. If we could dream a perfect school day for kids, we would get the educational part of the day out of the way while they were fresh. In my plan, that would be from 8-12. Then we'd have lunch and some monitored free time from 12-1. After that, the fun stuff...gym, choir, band, sports team practice, student government meetings, play rehearsals. In other words, non-academic things. Obviously the first question is: how can we afford to provide those things. The answer I believe is in our retirement community. People retire earlier now. There is a lot of talent out there who would love the opportunity to be of service to the community. There are musicians, artists, thespians, athletes and a myriad others who live in most communities. Getting them involved in the teaching of our kids shouldn't be that difficult. Also, if kids were in a supervised environment in the afternoon, they would get their homework done (afternoon study hall) and not be turned loose to a "latch key" or child care environment. If the day was tailored right, kids could be at school from 8-5. The cost to the community is the same as the "extras" are provided by senior (mostly) volunteers.So if we worry about the health of our kids, giving them the opportunity for exercise, as well as other activities, in a controlled environment seems to me to address not only the physical concerns, but the educational ones as well.
Posted By: revolution114 @ 04/10/2008 12:14:14 PM

Comment: Forcing students to take a gym or 'PE' class is completely pointless.How does playing dodgeball or kickball prepare you for real life?If anything PE should be an elective meaning that you are not forced to take it.I also feel that gym teachers are a total drain on the schools budget.In my district the gym teachers make $70,000 + a year and the best part about it is that they are simply overpaid babysitters.
Posted By: Numero10 @ 04/09/2008 2:45:05 PM

Comment: Get rid of team sports from Phys Ed classes? You've got to be kidding me. Organized team activities are extremely beneficial to children- especially in today's ego-centric society that favors machine to machine contact over face to face. Team sports and activities can teach children valuable interpersonal lessons, not to mention how to assess the needs of a group, establish a goal and achieve that as a whole. Phys Ed is vastly different from what you may remember as a child. Many Phys Ed teachers are also educated in psychology and health/exercise science and are taking more pride in their lessons than just the standard "roll call" to waste 10 minutes. It seems to me that Congress should be embracing classes that force children to interact with each other rather than allowing them to continue hiding behind their computer screens and handhelds.
Posted By: JoeMcV @ 04/08/2008 10:00:10 AM

Comment: School is to prepare people for their whole life. We should be looking at the lasting effect of PE classes, not just what happens in school. I have seen no effort to make these classes a life long benefit.
Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 3:05:53 PM

Comment: School is the one place we should dump trillions into for the next ten years! like cancer maybe a few hundred trillion thrown at it will produce a teacher or two, at the least they will be able to say "take a pill" that's what trillions of dollars bought you! Because a couple million trillion only got us chemo but still no cure,mmm well spent-not! Better to pay teachers what they are worth, and give our kids every class they can absorbe into there minds, and maybe with trillions of dollars we can get some smart kids to replace congress. A teacher able to make ends meet and have change would be a terrible solution to educate our kids hu-B.S. LET THEM TEACH EVERY THING THEY CAN THINK OF AS LONG AS A CHILD LEARNS IT WE WILL BE DOING THE RIGHT THING AND THAT INCLUDES R.O.T.C. AND P.E. BOTH NESSARY CLASSES TO [OFFER TO KIDS WHO WANT TO TAKE]
SALTYDOG
YOU MEAN HEALTH CLASS
- Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 15:11:19
  
  Comment: I HOPE YOU UNDERSTOOD THE SARCASM! TEACHERS SHOULD MAKE WHAT MOST CEOs DO! NOT WHAT MCDONALDS PAYS, WHICH IS THERE PAY TODAY!!!
  - Posted By: summer4077 @ 04/07/2008 15:29:52
    
    Comment: Um, no, teachers should not make the amount of CEOs. Teachers are churning out kids that fall far behind every other developed nation in test scores, iq, and achievement. So until they start making the grade themselves--they shouldn't get raises. Do you get a raise when you exhibit poor job performance? Certainly not.
    That said...there are some amazing teachers out there and yes, they deserve a raise. But that's not the point of this article.
    - Posted By: ihatethecold @ 04/08/2008 00:56:39
      
      Comment: This is also due to Bush's No Child left Behind Act. If one student is excelling and one is far behind, the student excelling takes the fall because the teacher needs to make sure all of the student get the concept. Granted some students are just bad students. Everything starts at home. If the parents of these students put more effort into helping their child learn, they wouldn't need this act and maybe, just maybe these scores will go up.
    - Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 16:04:52
      
      Comment: DO YOU HAVE A JOB ON AN ASSEMBLY LINE [ WITHOUT PARTS] CAN YOU BUILD A BETTER PART WITH THE SAME OR LESS PARTS-NO ON ALL COUNTS!!! JUST LIKE TEACHING, WE WILL NOT ALLOW THEM TO TEACH WHAT THEY CAN, JUST WHAT WE WANT!
    - Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 16:02:26
      
      Comment: you truly believe teachers don't have to follow rules and school regs which keeps pur kids dumb??? Teachers teach what they are TOLD to teach, and how much to teach! Yes school admin keeps our kids dumb, not teachers! My mother WAS a teacher, now dead, but at 8000 a year with [even in the 60-70] no supplies! My son started school in NM, and we were told day one the school has a paper shortage, and to send paper with child, other son was REQUIRED to carry a 45lb pack all day cause lockers were not on school property. Teachers get the shaft!!! While like the REST OF THIS GREEDY COUNTRY, THE ADMIN GETS THE BUCKS, NOT THE TEACHER, OR STUDENT! WELCOME TO THE S.O.P. OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 12 YEARS FOR AN 8TH GRADE EDUCATION AND 4 YEARS OF PATIENTS, THAT'S WHAT EMPLOYERS WANT, PATIENTS! WHO CAN GET SCREWED DAILY AND STAY! THE POINT IS WHAT THE ADMIN OFFERS STUDENTS, BY WHAT THEY CAN AFFORD, AFTER THAY GET PAID! SO NO EXTRA IN THE TILL, THAT'S THE POINT! HOW BADLY HAVE WE FORSAKEN OUR OWN CHILDREN IS THE QUESTIONS ANSWER! IF THE SCHOOL IS IN A RICH DISTRICT THAT'S WHERE ALL THE PASSING GRADE COMES IN TO THE AVG. THE REST JUST GET THE SHAFT! ONE SCHOOL HAS A ROBOTICS COURCE, AND LAB TO GO WITH IT, ONE DON'T UNDERSTANAD THE MEANING, AND THEY ARE BLOCKS APART??? WE HAVE [ NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER ] HAD A SINGLE FEELING FOR OUR CHILDREN AS LONG AS THERE EDUCATION DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH OUR WAY OF LIFE??? WE HAVE WATCHED THE WORLD TEACH THERE CHILDREN MUCH BETTER THAN WE DO, BUT HEY GUESS WHAT WE NEVER LEARNED TO IMPLIMENT IT!?? AS WE WANT THEM STUPID? SO THEY CAN'T SEE THE LEFT HAND, CAUSE THERE WATCHING THE RIGHT! AMERICAN POLITICS! THE CHOICE IS OURS TO MAKE, AND WE HAVE KNOWN THIS FOR FAR TO LONG, BUT SEE HOW MUCH WE CARE!! AS NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE,NOT A DAMN THING!
Posted By: Carolina Kelly @ 04/07/2008 3:03:11 PM

Comment: One of the most embarrassing situations in dealing with PE class was changing and showering in front of your peers, overweight or underdeveloped or whatever. That was bad enough, trying to deal with a changing body, but in today's day and age with cell phone cameras, I can just imagine the absolute horror if someone were to take of picture of you in the locker room and post it on the internet. I think it's the parents' job to keep their kids active, and the school's job to get the junk food out of the school environment.
- Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 16:09:42
  
  Comment: i THINK IT'S TIME ALL SCHOOLS WERE CONNECTION FREE BY KILLING THE SIGNAL, BUT FOR SCHOOL EQUIP ONLY! I DO UNDERSTAND YOUR CONCERN, TOTALY, AND UNTILL THIS CAN BE DELT WITH, THE POSSIBILITY ALWAYS EXSISTED WHEN A CAMERA SPITS OUT THE PICT IN SECONDS ALSO, SO IT'S NOT NEW, JUST THE TECH WE NEED TO DEAL WITH TODAY. TIME TO SHUT THEM [ ALL ] OFF DURING SCHOOL HRS! HOW TO ME IS UNKNOWN. IT'S NOT AN EASY QUESTION OR CONCERN EITHER.
Posted By: WorkingClassHero420 @ 04/07/2008 2:38:40 PM

Comment: I think P.E. is very important. Going in to my Senior year of high school I weighed 230 lbs. By the end of it I was a 160. Why the 60 lb loss? I had to make up all the gym classes I failed in prior years to graduate high school. I had been over weight for my entire life. If I had never of lost this weight and kept it off I can't imagine how much I would weigh now. I praise my gym teacher for what she did to me.
Posted By: cookiecndy @ 04/07/2008 2:36:20 PM

Comment: I think more individualized classes in junior high-high school would create more teaching jobs and benefit students. For example, when taking a foreign language, one has several choices of which to take, for example Spanish , French or German. So the same should be for phys. ed..... Yoga, biking, running, weight training, pilates, and certain team or individual sports, etc. all should be offered as choice of classes.
Posted By: Saltydog_0 @ 04/07/2008 2:35:15 PM

Comment: If we get rid of PE teachers, who's gonna teach history?
Posted By: ihatethecold @ 04/07/2008 2:29:34 PM

Comment: As a current physical education major at my university, I can accurately say that these are the types of activities which we are now taught to teach. Win-win concept of games that doesn't single any one person out. Not just activities that utilize aerobic exercise, but ones that stimulate your mind as well. Currently in certain high schools they have what is n=known as Project Adventure, which takes teams of kids and have them perform certain tasks that require you to think about how to accomplish it. No one child has an advantage. From dance classes, to gymnastics, to weight training; these are the actiites which we are trained to teach.
Posted By: T Miller @ 04/07/2008 12:52:05 PM

Comment: In my junior year of high school, after years of obesity and being picked last for team sports, I worked up the courage to ask my gym teacher if I could run around the track for the aerobic exercise.
His response? "No, because if I let you do that I have to let everyone do that."
I'll never forget his words for the rest of my life. It was not until I enter college, and could choose an activity for exercise, that I changed my sedentary life.
Posted By: P3FE @ 04/07/2008 12:37:20 PM

Comment: Why do the school systems automatically and universally default to the sole custodian of our childrens' health and fitness status? Wake up parents!
- Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 15:08:14
  
  Comment: WAKE UP???? SCHOOL IS THE BEST BABY SITTER BESIDE LACH KEY KIDS WHO GROW UP [ ALONE ]
Posted By: wking @ 04/07/2008 11:57:54 AM

Comment: P.E. or "gym class" is often remembered for goofy-looking one-piece outfits, tennis shoes and socks, games that served more to embarrass and humiliate awkward and non-sports-playing kids than to teach them valuable lessons about fair play, honesty, teamwork, cooperation, and playing by the rules, and whether kids were picked first, picked last, or left out altogether. As your article reminds us, it, and the fewer available recess periods for kids, is a safe, contained way for students to get exercise, blow off steam, and learn the kind of discipline their more jock-oriented classmates learn on a school's sports fields.
If the P.E. classes come back, because of concerns over childhood obesity and inactivity, perhaps another way of having P.E. (or starting it) is to think about other forms of physical exercise that will accomplish some of the same goals, but with a lot less embarrassment and humiliation: one possibility is a yoga class geared towards young kids. Yoga focuses one's attention on stretching muscles and increasing flexibilitly, and can teach kids about goal-setting and being disciplined. From the yoga classes I took years ago, the focus is on understanding your body's limits, and not on trying to do those positions your body can't, and you won't, do. There's no competition in these classes, either, which should bring out the shy students who find playing kickball or dodgeball scary. Maybe schools thinking about restarting P.E. should begin by either having a survey circulated, or having students come to a "trial run" of several exercises, to see which one they'd like to have in their schools.
Wendy King,
New Orleans LA
"P.E." is (or was) also a valid college major.
Posted By: Amalfia @ 04/07/2008 11:44:52 AM

Comment: As one of those kids who "needed" PE. I can definitely say I'm happy for those kids who are seeing it die. A lot more can be gained for those who "need" PE by education. Kids just plain have no idea how many calories, fat, salt, sugar, bad carbs etc. are in foods they like to eat and they have little idea on how it affects their body. For example, in this article kids are swapping soda for juice. In a lot of cases a glass of juice can be just as bad or worse than a can of soda. I became much healthier when I decided to educate myself on what was in food and how much I could eat. Those taco salads I was eating to be healthy turned out to be worse than 2 big macs. Also, PE for many kids just reinforces that they hate exercise, as many of the activities are things no non-jock would ever do, such as running a mile in under 15 minutes, chin-ups, organized sports, etc. I STILL hate running, but I enjoy other activities like the elliptical machines, dance clubs, video games that encourage movement such as Wii Sports and Dance Dance Revolution, walking around the mall, or just walking my neighborhood on a nice day with friends as a social activity. Schools should be encouraging physical education for life, not education that's mandatory. Let the kids find things they like to do and they're much more likely to keep it up for life than something they're forced to do, probably aren't any good at, find uncomfortable or personally degrading, until they get out of school. Let me put it this way: If you're terrible at math, but teachers keep putting you in the classes with the little einstiens, even though you keep failing, are you going to like math any more after school or are you going to resent math as the enemy that made you look stupid and never worked for you?

Also, most kids get up for school earlier than most adults need to be up for work. I personally wake up 2 hours later than I had to for high school, and go to bed about the same time. How many adults want to run around that much in the morning, especially considering kids generally aren't doping up on caffeine to jumpstart the day?

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Phys. Ed. Is Not Dead Yet

Discuss

Posted By: browneyedgirl83 @ 04/23/2008 9:34:47 AM

Posted By: browneyedgirl83 @ 04/23/2008 9:34:30 AM

Posted By: skinnyminny2 @ 04/13/2008 7:55:24 PM

Posted By: BFiske @ 04/12/2008 6:15:45 PM

Posted By: revolution114 @ 04/10/2008 12:14:14 PM

Posted By: Numero10 @ 04/09/2008 2:45:05 PM

Posted By: JoeMcV @ 04/08/2008 10:00:10 AM

Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 3:05:53 PM

Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 15:11:19

Posted By: summer4077 @ 04/07/2008 15:29:52

Posted By: ihatethecold @ 04/08/2008 00:56:39

Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 16:04:52

Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 16:02:26

Posted By: Carolina Kelly @ 04/07/2008 3:03:11 PM

Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 16:09:42

Posted By: WorkingClassHero420 @ 04/07/2008 2:38:40 PM

Posted By: cookiecndy @ 04/07/2008 2:36:20 PM

Posted By: Saltydog_0 @ 04/07/2008 2:35:15 PM

Posted By: ihatethecold @ 04/07/2008 2:29:34 PM

Posted By: T Miller @ 04/07/2008 12:52:05 PM

Posted By: P3FE @ 04/07/2008 12:37:20 PM

Posted By: pinkpanther87413 @ 04/07/2008 15:08:14

Posted By: wking @ 04/07/2008 11:57:54 AM

Posted By: Amalfia @ 04/07/2008 11:44:52 AM

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