Posted on 01/17/2005 2:18:31 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - As American children grow fatter and more out of shape, physical education classes are being found wanting. Experts say there's little accountability for P.E. teachers in most schools. They say the classes are often poorly run, and students don't spend much time in them anyway.
Lisa Lewis, a health professor, heard her two sons talk about how bad their high school P.E. class was, so she went to see for herself.
"It's been terrible," she said. The teacher was a basketball coach, and "that's basically all they did - play basketball between 40 and 50 kids." Many students, especially those who weren't athletic, just stood on the sidelines of the disorganized game.
Nearly one-fifth of all high school P.E. teachers don't have a major and certification in physical education, according to the most recent numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Often the instructor is a coach more interested in winning games than in producing healthy students, experts say.
"That stigma that a coach cares more about the team than his physical education class does exist," said George Graham, professor of kinesiology at Penn State University.
"When a teacher or coach is doing that, it's really up to the principal to get in there and say, 'We want to win ball games, but the kids in P.E. deserve a good education too.'"
The lack of respect for P.E. also appears in the number of students required to take it.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in 2003, only 28 percent of high school students nationwide attended a daily P.E. class, but 38 percent watched television for three hours or more each school night.
While 71 percent of the nation's freshmen were in P.E. at least one day a week - hardly enough to be effective, experts say - those numbers drop to 40 percent by the students' senior year.
But participation varies widely by state. In Tennessee, for instance, only 18 percent of seniors were enrolled in a P.E. class, while New York has better than 90 percent participation.
The National Association for Sport and Physical Education says Illinois is the only state that requires daily physical education K-12, while Alabama requires it for K-8.
In California, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, New York, South Carolina and Vermont, accountability standards are being developed for health and physical education programs.
"Unless we hold physical education teachers accountable for the fitness of the student ... there's no way to evaluate who is good or who is bad because we're more concerned with math and reading," Lewis said. "There needs to be some sort of minimal national fitness standard - that would be a very easy thing to establish."
Some schools have done just that - like the Victor Central School District just outside Rochester in Victor, N.Y.
Superintendent Timothy J. McElheran said his teachers are held to specific goals and judged like any math or science teacher would be.
"It's no longer the coach with the whistle around his neck," he said. "Our physical education teachers are highly trained professionals."
Victor's nationally recognized program includes rock-climbing, kayaking, cross-country skiing, archery and aerobic dance as options for students.
"They take what they're doing very seriously," he said.
But not all do, and a new federal education law doesn't give schools much incentive.
"The thought in some schools is, 'If we eliminate P.E., then they will have more time to do better educationally,' but there's nothing to suggest that's the case," Graham said.
"Kids - just like adults at work - need breaks and they need time on their own."
Lewis has seen the poor state of physical education not only in her sons' school, but also at Middle Tennessee State University where she works. The school recently dropped requirements for health and P.E. from the core curriculum.
MTSU general education director Bill Badley said the P.E. requirement went from four hours to zero when the school decided to add classes to the core curriculum while lowering the total number of classes needed to graduate.
Lewis wasn't able to stop the changes at MTSU, but she was able to make a difference at her sons' school.
"I went to the class and actually helped the physical educator," Lewis said. "The non-athletes, they're the ones who need it most."
NASPE president Dolly Lambdin said the cuts in secondary schools and colleges intensify the problem that begins at a young age.
"Whatever belief we teach (children) in elementary school, middle school and high school, those beliefs will carry over in college," she said. "We can't continue the model (that) we have to fix things later. It doesn't work on your car and it doesn't work on your body. Physical maintenance is the key."
Well, they took away dodge ball, what do you expect?
P.E. is a joke. The town I live in hired a morbidly obese woman to teach P.E. to elementary school kids. She introduced them to the sport of "cup stacking" (you compete to stack plastic cups faster/higher). I am not making this up!
Hey....you don't have to convince me....I was a prison dodgeball freak in elementary school.
As a retired coach and P.E. teacher, I know the problems spoken about here. Don't be too quick to judge the teacher/coach....the administration is where the buck stops!
Unfortunately, some teachers are slackers, not just P.E. teachers. A principal who tolerates poor teachers is just as bad as the teachers.
The first 25 years I taught were wonderful and I was able to offer my students a varied curriculum of physical activities. A new principal who wanted co-ed classes and wouldn't enforce disciplinary standards, made me ready to retire way before I had planned!
What is left is anything that is trendy and costs a hell of a lot of money. Kayaking? Cross Country Skiing? How about Polo and Sky Diving?, after all, it's for the children. Kids used to run, jump, play, on their own. Now everything has to be organized and supervised. The greatest threat to education is educational experts and government programs.
Back when I was a kid, our elementary school had this amazing wooden playground set. Over the years, because of fears that they'd get sued by parents of kids falling off of it or getting splinters, they tore the thing down and replaced it with a tiny plastic playschool playground. I also recall being able to play indoor hockey, floor scooters, scoopball, whiffleball, obstacle courses etc.
Can't find much of that nowadays.
sure you can...Kids are playing all of those games on the ps2 nowadays...come on "gramps" get with the program ;) </kidding about the gramps part>
I did varsity soccer in HS. Everyday the PE kids would have to do 2 laps around the track, so half a mile. They had to do this before class ended or the failed pe. People actually failed PE. I know it's shocking how can someone not finish (didn't even have to run, just had to finish) a half mile in an hour...Oh but wait it get's better. my HS had block scedualing. We went to 4 classes for just under 2 hours a day. So those PE kids couldn't finish it an hour and a half. Killed me espially when i got to watch them mosey around the track while i was too busy puking my guts up in the texas 99 degree heat. Sigh i miss those days :)
Sex.
I used to be a teacher, too (science), so I know about the administration and slackers.
However, what I said about this particular P.E. teacher is not a too-quick judgement; it's a fact. She's grossly obese, and is not teaching any worthwhile physical skills other than those that could be picked up in a typing class.
I went to a samll private school, we had PE at least once per week.. Dodge Ball, floor hockey basketball, softball you name it. In High school they even taught square dancing(yu can work up a sweat). No wonder kids are fat. The problem is that everyone wants grades grades grades that PE, music Art and other classes that help broaden minds and work bodies have been shunted aside.
Working out.
Working out is not a sport. Walking from one weight station to another, 20 minutes on the threadmill, 10 minutes on the rowing machine is not the kind of thing anyone does for fun. But millions of adults do it, and stay in shape.
Lol, you just reminded me with that PS2 bit about something I saw on the news a few days ago. Apparently some school has installed something that looks a lot like a Dance Dance Revolution machine in the gym. So this is what we're coming to :)...
It's the parents' fault, as usual.
I have a pathetic PE Program at my High School. Since about December, the teacher have deemed it too cold to hold class nearly every day, so we just sit around and talk.
You would rather run laps outside on the track in the blistering cold like I had to do during high school :)?
Back in my day, the coach made told us to go run the 440 and the first two back were the "captains" and they could choose the teams for the basketball game. Usually the last we saw of him till the next day.
On the middle school level, the kids have no recess and P/E every third day. Intramural sports are largely absent for 6th graders so that they can concentrate on their academic subjects. In grades 7 and up, it's so competitive that most kids don't qualify. Argghhhh!!!!
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