Most California students fail physical fitness exam

SF Gate ^ | 11/6/03

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Only one-quarter of students tested in a fitness exam met the state's standards, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell announced Thursday.

Students in grades five, seven and nine were tested using the "Fitnessgram," an assessment formula that measures students' aerobic capacity, body composition, muscular strength, endurance and flexibility.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

This thread should generate some great FReeper jokes with Arnie as the new governor.

[Astronaut]

Big surprise. The current generation of kids are a bunch of lazy fatasses who do nothing but play video games, watch MTV, and stuff their faces with junk food. Parents need to turn off the TV and encourage their kids to exercise.

Sports on XBox or Nintendo don't count.

[dakine]

Bring back dodge-ball, and Evel Kneivel bicycle jumps...

[bonesmccoy]

Thanks for posting this announcement... it's important that public policy makers should review this fact.

Our kids are not healthy.

[AdamSelene235]

... it's important that public policy makers should review this fact. Our kids are not healthy.

Maybe locking them up in socialist indoctrination facilities and drugging them into submission with psychotropics is a less than optimal child rearing strategy.

[hunter112]

O'Connell cited recent studies linking physical fitness with academic achievement.

"Simply put, students who are physically fit do better in school," he said.

Following this guy's steroid-influenced, jock-logic, Stephen Hawking must be an idiot.

[bonesmccoy]

what the heck are you talking 'bout?

[bonesmccoy]

so, is it appropriate to have more than 50% of the kids obese and unable to do a single chin up?

[hunter112]

No, but to say, in effect, if you can't do a chin-up, you must be stupid, is not right either. You want to call the physically challenged marshmallows, fine, but don't insult their intelligence. Those are two separate facets of people. It's as bad (and inaccurate) as calling all jocks stupid.

[bonesmccoy]

Actually, I've been looking for documentation of this... and working on it... if you find any such articles, please post them.

[Carry_Okie]

As I understand it, these requirements are pursuant to SB 1868 (Torlakson) passed in 1998. Guess what? I can't find a copy of these standards published online.

Surprise, surprise, a typical bureaucratic trap. Set up a standard, don't tell anybody, and then pop the enforcers. When people fail, call the mediots for an insta-scandal.

Now we've gotta have another program to fix the problem.

[The Scorpion King]

Governor Ah-nold will fix that!

[bonesmccoy]

No, the standards are published...
That's how all the teachers are able to conduct the same tests...

[hunter112]

Sorry, I just have anecdotal evidence. I was one of the kids who was not the most athletic in school. The jocks used to give me and a couple of other friends a tough time. But, one out of every four weeks was "Health class", in the PE curriculum. The jocks would bury their heads in their desk, and hope that the teacher wouldn't call on them.

At the time, I was planning on going to medical school (didn't make it, but what the hey), and back then, I even referred to myself as a pre-pre-med student. I read every human biology book I could get my hands on, and when mine was the only hand being raised to answer questions, the gym teacher had to call on me a disproportionate number of times. After one overexplained answer, I finished with the question. "Uh, Mr. O'Neil, did you want the answer to include hydrolysis in the body?" with total sincerity. He just put his face in his hands, and said, "Hunter, I don't know who should be teaching this class, you or me." I answered, "Oh, definitely you, sir!". The jocks stopped picking on me after that.

[AdamSelene235]

what the heck are you talking 'bout?

Dammit Jim, I'm an ideologue not a policy maker.

[mountaineer]

to say, in effect, if you can't do a chin-up, you must be stupid, is not right either

I don't think O'Connell was talking about the Stephen Hawkings of this world, nor was he making a blanket statement that non-jocks necessarily are stupid. My guess is that he was referring to the type of kids Astronaut referred to above, the fat, lazy overeating underachievers who exercise neither their minds nor their bodies, and spend most of their time playing video games, hanging out at the mall or watching TV.

[bonesmccoy]

gotcha

[bonesmccoy]

that's correct... the inner cities of California are replete with evidence of poor nutrition in our kids.

[A.J.Armitage]

Thanks for posting this announcement... it's important that public policy makers should review this fact.

No, it's important that they ignore it and do nothing. Will they? No, they'll jump on a crusade to "make our kids healthier".

Government just makes things worse.