Student Athletes
CNN has an interesting article about physical education and school sports.
When I was in middle school, I had PE every day. When I was in high school, I had PE every other day (alternating schedules) during two of my eight semesters. I pretty much hated every minute of it, save for dodgeball. In college, I had to take one term (three months) of health/physical education, and had one hour of lab every week.
Basically, I think that PE should probably be eliminated from school curriculum, or fairly drastically altered. It doesn't take much effort to make a PE class a legitimate endeavour. Running, calisthenics, maybe a game of something every third day would be all you'd really need. The way they did it when I was in school, we'd have sections on a particular game, be it basketball, or softball, or tennis. I also seem to remember a weight lifting unit with one teacher. Basically, it was a big waste of my time, and I think it was a big waste of a lot of other people's time, too.
What does PE accomplish in people's lives? Well, we can see from statistics about fat kids that it's sure not keeping people healthy, and we can see from statistics about fat adults that it's not working to promote lifelong habits. Sounds like a lousy investment to me.
Will it change? Very doubtful.
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- 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.
Physical education 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 -- even as American children grow fatter and more out of shape.
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.
When I was in middle school, I had PE every day. When I was in high school, I had PE every other day (alternating schedules) during two of my eight semesters. I pretty much hated every minute of it, save for dodgeball. In college, I had to take one term (three months) of health/physical education, and had one hour of lab every week.
Basically, I think that PE should probably be eliminated from school curriculum, or fairly drastically altered. It doesn't take much effort to make a PE class a legitimate endeavour. Running, calisthenics, maybe a game of something every third day would be all you'd really need. The way they did it when I was in school, we'd have sections on a particular game, be it basketball, or softball, or tennis. I also seem to remember a weight lifting unit with one teacher. Basically, it was a big waste of my time, and I think it was a big waste of a lot of other people's time, too.
What does PE accomplish in people's lives? Well, we can see from statistics about fat kids that it's sure not keeping people healthy, and we can see from statistics about fat adults that it's not working to promote lifelong habits. Sounds like a lousy investment to me.
Will it change? Very doubtful.
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