Stricter Mandatory School Physical Education

[United Marxist Nations]

Mandatory? No thank you. But schools should definitely offer intensive physical education classes to students who are willing to take it up. Physical education in the United States is a joke these days.

Things like this should be offered in schools again.

Now that I think about it, the first two sentences are closer to what I would rather implement than Risottia's.

[Utceforp]

Do you honestly think that being forced to do some pointless exercise in a gym is going to change that? It already doesn't work now!

Thats why PE curriculum needs to change. Use weights rotate muscles worked kick ball day will become an event once a six weeks.

Also grade children on their lfiting ability. You should be in the top 10% of you lifting ability to finish high school with a 4.0

That is completely unfair. Intelligent but naturally non-athletic kids would be extremely disadvantaged for an idiotic reason.

[The Great Warrior Rivers]

Do you believe that your region should have stricter and more lengthy PE within the school system?

In my area schools generally have a total of 1.5 hours of PE per week but I would welcome this being increased to 5 hours per week (i.e. one hour per day) with classes taking place at the end of the academic day. I'd like to see a strengthening of regulation against sick notes from parents with any request to be free from PE requiring a doctors note if more than one week off is surpassed. Ideally these classes would be supported by removal of vending machines from schools and provision of only healthy options in the school canteens.

Your opinions?

All schools need at least an hour a day to promote well-being. It's their jobs. They should also promote longer recesses for young children especially to make them learn the habit of healthy and fun exercise.

[Reploid Productions]

In an ideal world, physical education would teach good exercise habits, nutritional/health habits, and NOT grade students simply for their physical abilities, which can and often are handicapped for reasons they have little/no control over, but rather for their participation and learning of the relevant course material. Workouts would be tailored to better accommodate the widely varied levels of ability and interests in students to maximize the benefits that can be derived from exercise.

Unfortunately, in my experience with the good old LAUSD, our physical education was worse than useless. Until I was finally able to escape mandatory PE in high school, my PE experience was largely taught by a couple of highly unpleasant instructors best described as "boot camp rejects." Instruction amounted to "we play this sport for 2 weeks, then switch to something else." Little time or effort was spent on things like "BTW, these are the rules for this activity," or on things such as sportsmanship. None was spent on safe/healthy workout habits, none spent on nutrition. Bullying was extremely common from other students AND the instructors toward those who were less physically able, with little consideration given for the revolutionary notion that some people are bad at one thing and really good at another. Frankly, the staggering incompetence of those teachers probably has a lot to do with the development of long-term injuries (particularly knee problems and some old wrist injuries) that I now have problems with.

For instance, we had a weekly run in my middle school PE classes. 4 laps around the field was roughly one mile (note: said field was a TERRIBLE running surface, with tree roots, squirrel holes, uneven terrain and areas that were frequently muddy presenting a wide variety of injurious tripping hazards.) These runs were not graded on effort, or for completing the run. 4 laps was a fail. 5 was a D. 6 a C, and so on and so forth. I am not, and never have been particularly good at distance running owing to chronic allergy issues; I never scored better than a D on any of those weekly runs (and quite often ended up going to the nurse's office due to the freshly cut grass triggering the aforementioned allergies and setting off coughing fits bad enough I could barely breathe.) I caught a lot of shit from the class jocks and my teachers for it; those same jocks and teachers I always surprised the hell out of every year during the laughably mis-named Health Week activities when I would smoke everybody in the class on the 50 and 100 yard sprints (and usually placed highly on the 400.)

So, in short, I would be all for more effective physical education. But I am firmly against more of the same uneducated, competitive garbage that the Los Angeles school system tried to pass off as PE when I was in school. I mean hell, I took several semesters of aquatic aerobics in college and loved it; I got my exercise, it was low-impact (good for the previously mentioned bad knees,) and was actually enjoyable. Giving students better choices for any sort of mandatory exercise would go an incredibly long way toward getting them moving, instead of trying to shoehorn everyone into the same asinine and useless/harmful routine that they aren't interested in.

[Dazchan]

I haven't taught PE for the last couple of years, as I'm in a learning support role at the moment, but back in the day PE cost virtually nothing. The equipment we had was good quality and built to last - we bought new balls every other year (they tend to get lost), and replaced everything else as needed. It was one of the smallest budgets in the school.

Yeah, I don't really remember gym class having too much equipment that seemed to need replaced all the time. I mean, they had some complicated gymnastics stuff, but that probably just needed some start up money and then very little maintenance after that.

In the provided syllabus, gymnastics is a single outcome for each stage level, and it's not a very in-depth one. I've seen schools get away with just mats and a springboard.

[Dakini]

Mandatory? No thank you. But schools should definitely offer intensive physical education classes to students who are willing to take it up. Physical education in the United States is a joke these days.

Things like this should be offered in schools again.

1. Where are the girls?
2. Why are they not wearing shirts?
3. Why are they doing some entirely pointless exercises?
4. Why are they totally skipping leg day?

[Dakini]

Yeah, I don't really remember gym class having too much equipment that seemed to need replaced all the time. I mean, they had some complicated gymnastics stuff, but that probably just needed some start up money and then very little maintenance after that.

In the provided syllabus, gymnastics is a single outcome for each stage level, and it's not a very in-depth one. I've seen schools get away with just mats and a springboard.

Fair enough. I remember at least one of my elementary schools had some sort of setup that had monkey bars and could have rings attached to it and some other junk that folded into the wall. They also had mats, a spring board, a balance beam, a horse (I think that's what it was called... this thing that you jump onto from the springboard) and I dunno, some other stuff.

[Dazchan]

In the provided syllabus, gymnastics is a single outcome for each stage level, and it's not a very in-depth one. I've seen schools get away with just mats and a springboard.

Fair enough. I remember at least one of my elementary schools had some sort of setup that had monkey bars and could have rings attached to it and some other junk that folded into the wall. They also had mats, a spring board, a balance beam, a horse (I think that's what it was called... this thing that you jump onto from the springboard) and I dunno, some other stuff.

The school I'm at currently outsources the gymnastics portion, so our kids get to use all sorts of equipment (provided by the professional coaches). Our syllabus is written with the recognition that not every school/school community can go to that expense.

We're in different countries, so I suppose it could be different elsewhere.

[Lunalia]

I'm not sure if my school handled PE the same as you, but in my school... a large amount of the PE course was tied up in handling mandates to "tie course subjects to other subjects." We had to sit and take written tests every other week. When we played team games, the least popular members of the team were never given the opportunity to play. I wasn't good at many sports, but in soccer, I was actually capable of making the ball go where I wanted it to, but since I wasn't very popular, I was always made to be the goalkeeper. Standing in front of the goal waiting for a chance to make a save while baking in the sun with no sunscreen does nothing for one's physical fitness. In the "let's play baseball" unit, there were so many people in the class that we had time for everyone to swing the bat once... and then class was over.

With that in mind, I think that if it were possible to divide PE into smaller time blocks, but to have fewer students in each time block, so that you don't end up with far too many people in the class to reasonably play whatever game they're supposed to be playing, that students would get more exercise than the current system, involving shoving thirty to forty students onto a field and saying go at it.

edit: I remember the one time I was actually able to play a game... during the volleyball unit, I ended up serving, and my team mates realized I was good, so they made sure to be in my team again the next day. Then I was hit in the back of the head with a ball from the team that was playing behind us, and the rest of the day was a dizzy blur...

[Macedom]

Mandatory? No thank you. But schools should definitely offer intensive physical education classes to students who are willing to take it up. Physical education in the United States is a joke these days.

Things like this should be offered in schools again.

1. Where are the girls?
2. Why are they not wearing shirts?
3. Why are they doing some entirely pointless exercises?
4. Why are they totally skipping leg day?

the video is from the 1960's where do you think the girls are?

[Dakini]

1. Where are the girls?
2. Why are they not wearing shirts?
3. Why are they doing some entirely pointless exercises?
4. Why are they totally skipping leg day?

the video is from the 1960's where do you think the girls are?

You're aware that girls normally went to high school in the 1960s, right?

[Dakini]

I'm not sure if my school handled PE the same as you, but in my school... a large amount of the PE course was tied up in handling mandates to "tie course subjects to other subjects." We had to sit and take written tests every other week. When we played team games, the least popular members of the team were never given the opportunity to play. I wasn't good at many sports, but in soccer, I was actually capable of making the ball go where I wanted it to, but since I wasn't very popular, I was always made to be the goalkeeper. Standing in front of the goal waiting for a chance to make a save while baking in the sun with no sunscreen does nothing for one's physical fitness. In the "let's play baseball" unit, there were so many people in the class that we had time for everyone to swing the bat once... and then class was over.

With that in mind, I think that if it were possible to divide PE into smaller time blocks, but to have fewer students in each time block, so that you don't end up with far too many people in the class to reasonably play whatever game they're supposed to be playing, that students would get more exercise than the current system, involving shoving thirty to forty students onto a field and saying go at it.

edit: I remember the one time I was actually able to play a game... during the volleyball unit, I ended up serving, and my team mates realized I was good, so they made sure to be in my team again the next day. Then I was hit in the back of the head with a ball from the team that was playing behind us, and the rest of the day was a dizzy blur...

The only gym class I had that involved taking written tests was in grade 9. The tests weren't every other week, but we had some classroom units (e.g. about nutrition, sex ed, body image etc) and before we moved to a new sport, we would review the rules and have a test on them.

We also didn't exactly get to pick our own teams... we had some number of squads which were basically determined by dividing the class list alphabetically and teams were created by combining squads together and the teacher made sure that we rotated positions and all that.

I don't remember too well how we made teams in gym class before then. I think usually it was done by dividing everyone pretty evenly (either by giving us numbers or drawing an imaginary line through the class and splitting teams that way) because picking teams is generally going to be terrible.

[Nazi Flower Power]

I kind of agree with this. School's function is academics.

Children can't learn if they're unhealthy and obese.

Why not? I've met plenty of fat people that are educated.

[Imperializt Russia]

Children can't learn if they're unhealthy and obese.

Doesn't seem like PE is putting any dent in obesity figures. A better diet would work much better, I guess.

You mean that brief part of a child's calorific intake for a day, if the school provides it at all?

If children are receiving poor nutrition and no exercise at home, scrapping PE will not solve this. Like, at all.

[Insaeldor]

I like the idea of the school system taking more intrest in Physucal Education. Given that I went to the say high school and middle all four years and three elementary schools I can't say I have a whole lot of working knowledge of how most of places do it but from my own personal experiance.

•Do not take away recess as punishment. It's compley idiotic in that your going to take hyperactive elementary school kids a force them to sit around with no outlet for acting bad. Sure you can do other forums of punishment as long as it's condoned by parents and the state but let's have them ru off and be kids so they can probably sit down with little issue afterwards.

•For Elementary school kids I don't think giving them both P.E. And Recess at the same time is all that smart and does seem like a waste. I Would have to say recess for the warmer ending summer months and maybe even into early fall then have a P.E. Class for winter and early spring and then being back recess for the remainder of the year.

•For High School something I think my school did really well was to allow choice. You have a plethora of P.E. Credit classes from classes which focused almost solely on Cardio or Weightlifting for the more individualistic not really competitive people to team sports and other such classes for the ones that wanted more competition. They were all worth the same credits and you could take them as many times as you wanted so long as you had the elective classes to spare or needed the credits.

•Do not make JROTC worth a Gym credit thats bullshit. Mainly because I grew up next to a military base so out JROTC program got a lot of perks like that which really just acted as ways they could get kids into the class as per what one of the teachers of that class said himself. I don't know much about how other schools dos this class but basically you sat in a room learning various military code things and the like and then once a week you had an activity day which for my school meant ether basketball in the gym or dodgeball and once a year all JROTC students did a big field day. Not really worth the credit honestly.

•Do a better job at integrating the special needs kids in the Gym classes another thing I felt my school did well in. Basically they would take the special needs kids into one of the less competive team oriented classes and have them take part in the activities. It was a great chance for this kids to interact with others in a fairly constructive way. Although I'd say put them in classes with more mature 11th and 12th graders because they honestly have the maturity levels to handle special needs kids where as the younger bunch arent all that mature and will most likely be counter productive.

Those are all I can think up of now since it's just after 4:20 A.M. Where I'm at so maybe more will come to me. But I do have to say P.E. As well as other extremely constructive school programs are getting shafted here and you need these sorts of programs to keep kids from go crazy over the routine of school I know I would have lost my mind if I didn't have my weightlifting class in the middle of my school day. Not only that but it has several academic benefits for students to call it a waste is damn near ignorant or all scientific fact.

[The Conez Imperium]

If its possible institute a Saturday sport competition between school districts and subsequent training sessions.

[Teemant]

I don't think this would be a good idea.

To fight obesity more emphasiz should be based on eating because that's where the extra calories are coming.

[Xmara]

My school only requires 2 years of PE, but you have PE 7.5 hours a week. Honestly, 3 hours a week would have sounded like a miracle to me, because I hated PE. I wasn't athletic, I was self-conscious about my body, and seeing kids that were 300lbs run faster than me made it even more embarrassing.

Not to mention that in my freshman year, I had a gym teacher who humiliated me by sharing my grade aloud (I had a C) and by announcing to everyone I was only allowed to ask one question a day (I asked a lot of questions because I was inquisitive and I didn't fully understand the rules of all the games).

Frankly I would like them to cut down a bit on PE, but that could be just because of my negative experience.

[Teemant]

Doesn't seem like PE is putting any dent in obesity figures. A better diet would work much better, I guess.

You mean that brief part of a child's calorific intake for a day, if the school provides it at all?

If children are receiving poor nutrition and no exercise at home, scrapping PE will not solve this. Like, at all.

What's the point of doing 5 hours physical education classes per week when (for example) a student goes home and drinks 2 liters of cola and eats bag of chips during the evening. Then these physical education classes have no point at all.

[Salandriagado]

Why would you have water in a vending machine? Just have a damn tap.

What's bad about non-sparkling mineral water? Usually is healthier than water from tap, and for sure it's not worse - and I also wrote "milk" and "orange juice".

I have no problem with selling people those in schools. Water is something that the school should be providing for free, without exception. The thing about bottled water being healthier is mostly or entirely bollocks.

[Teemant]

What's bad about non-sparkling mineral water? Usually is healthier than water from tap, and for sure it's not worse - and I also wrote "milk" and "orange juice".

I have no problem with selling people those in schools. Water is something that the school should be providing for free, without exception. The thing about bottled water being healthier is mostly or entirely bollocks.

Tap water is free. Because some people want to drink bottled water doesn't mean that school must start providing bottled water for everyone.

[Salandriagado]

But what happens when an entire generation of children grow to be obese? Do you want the U.S. to fit a stereotype?

Do you honestly think that being forced to do some pointless exercise in a gym is going to change that? It already doesn't work now!

The solution to that is "make PE better" not "scrap the lot".

[Teemant]

Do you honestly think that being forced to do some pointless exercise in a gym is going to change that? It already doesn't work now!

The solution to that is "make PE better" not "scrap the lot".

No amount of PE helps fight obesity if children eat too much.

[Salandriagado]

I have no problem with selling people those in schools. Water is something that the school should be providing for free, without exception. The thing about bottled water being healthier is mostly or entirely bollocks.

Tap water is free. Because some people want to drink bottled water doesn't mean that school must start providing bottled water for everyone.

The solution to that is "make PE better" not "scrap the lot".

No amount of PE helps fight obesity if children eat too much.

Do you want to read my post again, and try replying to what I said this time?

[Kannap]

Do you believe that your region should have stricter and more lengthy PE within the school system?

In my area schools generally have a total of 1.5 hours of PE per week but I would welcome this being increased to 5 hours per week (i.e. one hour per day) with classes taking place at the end of the academic day. I'd like to see a strengthening of regulation against sick notes from parents with any request to be free from PE requiring a doctors note if more than one week off is surpassed. Ideally these classes would be supported by removal of vending machines from schools and provision of only healthy options in the school canteens.

Your opinions?

At my school, class periods are one and a half hours in length, that includes Physical Education courses. However, I don't think students are actually getting their physical education benefits. I think most might even be allowed to just sit there and do nothing and still manage to pass by simply showing up and dressing into gym clothes.

I think more activities that count as participation grades should be counted as well. Or a mile run that must be done within ten minutes to pass the class, unless there is a valid reason that a person could not run a mile in ten minutes. You could easily have them run half a mile a day in class and they'll be in shape to run a mile in under ten minutes by the end of the class eighteen weeks later.

So, to summarize:
1.5 hours per day
Require students actually participate rather than get passing grades for sitting around doing nothing.