Need to Rant about PE in schools
Replies
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I went to Catholic grade school all the way from kindergarten through the 8th grade. My MOTHER was my principal too (so obviously, I was super popular). The school was really small, and in middle school all the 7th and 8th grade girls would have PE together and the 7th and 8th grade boys would have PE together. While the boys spent 6 weeks learning all about football and weight lifting, guess what us girls got to do, 3x a week?
Jazzercise style aerobics. Fun you say? Oh, I forgot to mention that my mother was ALSO an aerobics instructor on the side. So my mom/principal would come teach us aerobics, 3x a week, for an entire 6 weeks my 7th and 8th grade years of school. Not so bad? Oh and let me add that this was in the late 90s, but my mom apparently hadn't gotten that memo yet and was still rocking her 1988-1992 neon aerobics spandex, complete with leg warmers and a head band. So picture me, the youngest kid in the class, the latest bloomer of all of the girls, a bit socially awkward and beginning to get a little chubby and trying to figure out how to keep my training bra in place, with my Catholic school principal/aerobics instructor/mom jazzercising the day away to the Quad City DJ's "The Train."
And that is why I avoided gym class and refused to do any exercise that wasn't part of a dance class for musical theater for the rest of my life until adulthood.
I realize this story doesn't really discuss the effects of PE class and children needing it more these days, but I felt that it was relevant.0 -
I hated PE, but was a super active kid and got tons of exercise outside of school- swim team, horseback riding, soccer, playing outside, rollerblading, etc. I was not allowed to be inside during daylight hours in the summer, I had to be outside doing chores or playing (sometimes I would hide in the hay barn to read, but that wasn’t all the time.) I was always at a very healthy weight and in good cardiovascular health and it had nothing to do with PE in school. I played water polo and swam on the swim team in high school and had no problem making the JV or Varsity teams. I basically refused to do PE and whenever I was questioned about it I told them I'd rather be learning something. It was a pretty obstinate response, but I meant it. I didn't see school as a place to regulate my health, I saw it as a place to learn and felt I was hardly getting enough of that to constitute getting out and playing some half-arsed sport or run the track in blistering hot weather only to go back and have to sit in a classroom sweaty trying to focus for another couple hours. I was a straight A honors/AP student with F’s, D’s, or C’s in PE (if I had to pass it to pass the grade I would do the minimum required to pass.) I think PE should be completely out of schools or only elective and they should focus more on educating. It's the parents job to make sure your kids are healthy.0
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I don't think it's the schools fault. Schools could have PE every day but if the parents are over feeding them and letting them sit in front of the TV from after school to bedtime the kids are going to still be fat.
EXACTLY. We can sit around and point fingers, or we can stand up and take our kids outside to play. The only thing constant is change.0 -
The day I had to stop PE was a great day. I don't recall any students gaining all this weight the year PE stopped being mandatory.
If anything, PE hindered my weight. If I learned anything during my fitness/weight loss journey, it's that mandatory exercises SUCK. So, does trying to climb rope in front of everybody.0 -
they are taking a lot of the extra activities out of schools due to budget cuts - music, art, PE, etc. it really sucks for the kids because they will really dread going to school if there's no fun stuff to keep them excited!0
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I live in the UK and the schools around here still have mandatory PE lessons at least twice a week for an hour each time. I can't say I would have been disappointed if PE was taken off my timetable though - I'd actually have been thrilled to bits. I HATED P.E. I was not fat, but I was so unfit, and everyone laughed at me. I lacked balance and co-ordination too, and motivation. I was always picked last for any team.
The day that I finished my GCSEs and left mandatory education at the age of 16, I was overjoyed. I decided to stay on an extra 2 years to do my A-Levels, but of course, after age 16 P.E becomes something you only study if you want to get a qualification in it, and there's no such thing as mandatory exercise. I was THRILLED at the idea of no more P.E.
It was then, and only then, that I put on weight, and became technically 'overweight' for the first time in my life. I gained 25lbs over the course of the first year that I was no longer doing P.E. I'm still trying to get that weight back off.0 -
My kids have PE about 2 times a week (well my middle schooler anyway) which I don't mind except the fact that they have to wear special uniforms special shoes and are not allowed to bring their stuff home to get washed! What kind of crap and disguisting may I add is that? The part I really had a problem with is that they told my 12 year old who is 5'4 that she is about 3 lbs over weight and needs to exercise more and eat less..are u kidding me? Like girls especially these days don't have problems with self image anyway now the school is dictating when they should be losing weight? She was devistated and I was pissed!! The schools should have PE but leave it at that and make it not so serious!0
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maybe kids are fat because parents are feeding them too much. just a thought.
(granted, kids need to be more active. but I believe most schools do still have PE often, and there are a ton of activities kids can participate in. parents can also encourage kids to play outside for a bit rather than sitting around the house all day. end of the day, this falls on parents and their choices more than on any other group.)0 -
It's not up to schools to provide PE? Really? what does PE stand for? Physical EDUCATION. Hmmm.... Our modern society has started to devalue very important parts of human development. PE, music, art, language, PLAY (and even home ec and shop; they were FUN!). Physical activity also helps with learning the academic stuff (go do your own research if ya don't believe me). I had PE everyday in elementary school and in high school it varied, but no less than 3X per week. My family did not have the resources or interest in allowing me to participate in team sports or any other extracurricular activities, so thank goodness for PE and all the great PE teachers (who are probably losing their jobs nowadays!).0
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Why are the PE and health courses being removed from
the schools? Some may say it's because there are plenty of sports out there for kids to participate
in.
<-- teacher.
-Physical fitness is not one of the ways our students are tested to determine the effectiveness of our schools.
-We had the budgetary luxury of affording PE teachers in years past, but that is not the case anymore.
-While children spend a great deal of time at school, their physical well-being is still the responsibility of their parents.
Schools have tried for way too long to be everything to everyone. Children are not getting a quality education in the basics because the school's resources now have to be used to teach them everything- many parents feel zero sense of responsibility to teach their child anything, "it's the school's responsibility"
Schools should not be in the business of teaching kids about religion, that's an area that is up to the parents. IMHO, so is physical fitness.
I'll teach your kid Algebra, you teach them what to eat and how often to work out.......and please schedule their workout efforts at a time when it doesn't interfere with their educational pursuits.
*steps off soap box*0 -
I'm so confused. I thought subway was making our kids fat.0
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I think you should blame No Child Left Behind. Actually, we don't do anything in school except teach kids to pass standardized reading and math tests. At my middle school, shop is gone, home ec is gone, French and German are gone, I'd write to every elected official I could. It's only going to get worse.
I KNOW! It's so terrible how teachers are being measured to find out whether their kids can actually READ by THIRD GRADE. That's an outrageous standard. How could anyone be expected to measure up to that!?
It makes me feel ill when I see teachers who are so against NCLB. WHY doesn't a teacher want to be measured? Because they aren't effective at their job.
:mad: 0 -
I agree when i was in High School I was so active I had my normal PE class 4x a week wich was aerobics(45min) and then I elected to take Body Toning 3x a week sometimes the same day I had PE. Not including Cheerleading and Dance team. I was talking to my husband last night and he said when he was in high school There "PE" class was a study hall! I mean WTH seriously. Now I look at my 6 year old who loves sports and loves to run she comes home and says in PE all we did was draw I mean come on!0
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Money.
The education system as funded by the government is simply to ensure that the population is educated enough to read voting material to make better informed decisions at the ballot box.
I do support extra additives such as math, science, PE, and various life classes (teach cooking basics, financial basic, etc).
But, again MONEY.
"I want the government to pay someone every day to teach my kid how to run across a field"... combined with "I don't want to pay the government ANYTHING EVER"
This creates a sad state of affairs.0 -
parents responsibility.0
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not sure what schools your district is, but ours still has PE everyday... its parents that take their kids to doctors to get them wrote out of PE, and girls whining about everything down to TOM. Infact, we have to buy a gym bag, shorts and t-shirt just for gym. We as parents need to set the example, and for years I have been a bad one...
I don't know, when I was in school my endometriosis was so severe I could NOT participate for several days in PE and my asthma caused severe migraines as well if -running- and they didn't encourage walking or anything else to take its place. Rather than working with me and finding ways I could participate and be active, they kicked me out of PE entirely. I think that was stupid. I had valid medical issues, but wasn't diagnosed with Endo until I was 25. It started at age 11. So I don't see "whining about TOM" as invalid in all cases. There are issues that will cause that. I think the schools can work with students more, however, to find a way to be inclusive and push physical activity without making a kid feel humiliated and useless. That's how mine treated me.
Now? 12 years after a hysterectomy, I'm active, and I love to be. I don't use an inhaler for my asthma, though it still bugs at times, and I have figured out what I could have at a young age....Physical activity is awesome. I could have avoided a lot of the fat years by having some simple encouragement and support with flexibility.0 -
I think PARENTS are the problem, not the school. We buy what our kids eat. Kids cannot go buy their own food, they eat what is in the house and what is given to them. If they are fed crap from a young age, they crave crap. The school lunch and breakfast menus are garbage too, but parents can pack their lunch to avoid that!
Our school does not have PE at all which I thought was weird just because at my school growing up, it was daily (I hated it. Haha!) We walk to and from school though (mile each way) and I make them go play outside after school. They also can run around at recess. My husband and I walk/run each night with the dog and sometimes the kids follow us around on their bikes.
I think food is a much bigger problem than physical activity though. So many kids eat processed sugar filled garbage. A neighbor kid came over in the morning the other day and he was eating a cold nitrate filled HOT DOG for breakfast. Another kid comes over a lot with Doritos and a coke. He's 7! I volunteer at the school and he's in my daughter's class and has learning problems and then on top of that his parents feed him crap? Makes my blood boil.0 -
I went to Catholic grade school all the way from kindergarten through the 8th grade. My MOTHER was my principal too (so obviously, I was super popular). The school was really small, and in middle school all the 7th and 8th grade girls would have PE together and the 7th and 8th grade boys would have PE together. While the boys spent 6 weeks learning all about football and weight lifting, guess what us girls got to do, 3x a week?
Jazzercise style aerobics. Fun you say? Oh, I forgot to mention that my mother was ALSO an aerobics instructor on the side. So my mom/principal would come teach us aerobics, 3x a week, for an entire 6 weeks my 7th and 8th grade years of school. Not so bad? Oh and let me add that this was in the late 90s, but my mom apparently hadn't gotten that memo yet and was still rocking her 1988-1992 neon aerobics spandex, complete with leg warmers and a head band. So picture me, the youngest kid in the class, the latest bloomer of all of the girls, a bit socially awkward and beginning to get a little chubby and trying to figure out how to keep my training bra in place, with my Catholic school principal/aerobics instructor/mom jazzercising the day away to the Quad City DJ's "The Train."
And that is why I avoided gym class and refused to do any exercise that wasn't part of a dance class for musical theater for the rest of my life until adulthood.
I realize this story doesn't really discuss the effects of PE class and children needing it more these days, but I felt that it was relevant.
OMG...I just want to hug you right now. Thank you for the complete mental picture and making me feel better about my unfortunate childhood....ROTFLMAO!0 -
I think you should blame No Child Left Behind. Actually, we don't do anything in school except teach kids to pass standardized reading and math tests. At my middle school, shop is gone, home ec is gone, French and German are gone, I'd write to every elected official I could. It's only going to get worse.
I KNOW! It's so terrible how teachers are being measured to find out whether their kids can actually READ by THIRD GRADE. That's an outrageous standard. How could anyone be expected to measure up to that!?
It makes me feel ill when I see teachers who are so against NCLB. WHY doesn't a teacher want to be measured? Because they aren't effective at their job.
:mad:
reading is overrated.
(and you're right. while there should be some room for learning to learn vs. learning to test, there is nothing at all that says you can't accomplish both.)0 -
I think food is a much bigger problem than physical activity though. So many kids eat processed sugar filled garbage. A neighbor kid came over in the morning the other day and he was eating a cold nitrate filled HOT DOG for breakfast. Another kid comes over a lot with Doritos and a coke. He's 7! I volunteer at the school and he's in my daughter's class and has learning problems and then on top of that his parents feed him crap? Makes my blood boil.
I ate two hot dogs for lunch. course, I added a slice of bacon to each. and I'm drinking Coke Zero now. definitely a weird breakfast option, but I'm fairly certain hot dogs =/= learning problems.0 -
Our school has P.E. 5 days a week. Primary grades also take 2 recesses. Intermediate has 1 recess. H.S. students have P.E. for 1 semester in grades 7,8,9, and 10. I would estimate that about 90% of our students participate in extracurricular sports. Our community ed. in conjunction with the school offers many physical activities during the school year and especially in the summer at minimal cost. No one is turned away. I imagine its not this way everywhere. Thank goodness for small town Minnesota!0
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We are lucky my younger kids get PE every day at school the JR hi they have PE for half the year.0
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One more thing. It isn't the school system that takes the kids to 'fast food place whatever' how many times? a week.0
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I hated PE, but was a super active kid and got tons of exercise outside of school- swim team, horseback riding, soccer, playing outside, rollerblading, etc. I was not allowed to be inside during daylight hours in the summer, I had to be outside doing chores or playing (sometimes I would hide in the hay barn to read, but that wasn’t all the time.) I was always at a very healthy weight and in good cardiovascular health and it had nothing to do with PE in school. I played water polo and swam on the swim team in high school and had no problem making the JV or Varsity teams. I basically refused to do PE and whenever I was questioned about it I told them I'd rather be learning something. It was a pretty obstinate response, but I meant it. I didn't see school as a place to regulate my health, I saw it as a place to learn and felt I was hardly getting enough of that to constitute getting out and playing some half-arsed sport or run the track in blistering hot weather only to go back and have to sit in a classroom sweaty trying to focus for another couple hours. I was a straight A honors/AP student with F’s, D’s, or C’s in PE (if I had to pass it to pass the grade I would do the minimum required to pass.) I think PE should be completely out of schools or only elective and they should focus more on educating. It's the parents job to make sure your kids are healthy.
Definitely agree! Hated, hated, hated (did I say hate enough times?) gym class. Thankfully I only had to take it for one year in high school. I had 4 different teachers for that 1 class and my mark would vary wildly from one teacher to the next (depending on their preferences - for example, at first we had the football coach and so I did poorly because I'm not particularly good at team sports but did well with another teacher where the emphasis was more individual). I remember them giving us marks on how many times we could get the basketball in the net in a given number of throws. Given that was the youngest in my class, and also just grow slowly and I come from a family of short people, some of the other students were almost twice my height (well, at least significantly taller) Not surprisingly, they were able to get more balls in the net than me so they got better marks??? Personally, gym classes definitely gave exercising a negative connotation.
However, I certainly enjoyed doing things either at home or during recess. In the winter, both at home and at school, we would build snow forts, go sliding, and skating. In the summer my family went camping and we more or less spent our days biking, swimming, canoeing, and building/fixing things around the campsite.
As for cafeterias, never had enough money to buy anything there anyways... we didn't have a cafeteria in elementary school but there was a lady that made healthy meals.0 -
I think when it comes down to it, fitness (like proper diet) starts at home. If you know your kid doesn't have a PE class or only has it 40 mins a day 2x a wk then it most certainly is an issue if all their free time at home is spent on video games or in front of the tv. It's about balance. You also can't expect school meals to be healthier but not serve any veggies at home and then complain when the kids aren't getting enough fruit and veg in school. There are so many budget crisis issues in schools today that academics has to take priority over PE, music, art, etc. Its sad but true. Unfortunately, the low income families suffer the most because they can't afford music or ballet or art classes. But should they be in PE over math and reading and writing? No. Parents can't expect the schools to take care of it all when they are stretched so tight as it is. And large class sizes make it even worse.
Back when I was in my 20's I worked as a mgr of a fast food restaurant and working with a lot of high school kids and recent graduates really pointed out how these teens had been failed by the education system. They couldn't count back change or do the math in their head. One girl knew Italian food was from Italy, except she thought Italy was a city in France. I had to pull up a world map on the computer to prove to another girl that Egypt is on the continent of Africa. I don't know where she thought it was. And the list goes on and on. Believe me, lack of PE was the least of their problems.
I understand physical fitness is important but blaming schools isn't the answer. Instead, take the kids on family-friendly ACTIVE outings like biking and even playgrounds and walks.0 -
schools?? seriously?
1) If it was PE in schools thats the problem, then you could make the link that PE in schools results in less overweight kids. Here's the problem, there are fat kids in schools with PE.
2) It starts at home. To everyone whos fat, have you heard this before? "Eat all your supper yourName". Congrats, your parents just taught you to ignore biological signals and force feed yourself into obesity.
3) Based upon the above, in 100% of everyone I've every trained, they were hopelessly ignorant about food choices. Hell, even the government mandated stuff like food pyramid is a lesson in promoting yourself to being fat. 2000 calories of carbs a day to meet your food requirements? K, gotcha, sounds healthy...
Obesity starts, and ends, at home with your plate.0 -
I think you should blame No Child Left Behind. Actually, we don't do anything in school except teach kids to pass standardized reading and math tests. At my middle school, shop is gone, home ec is gone, French and German are gone, I'd write to every elected official I could. It's only going to get worse.
I KNOW! It's so terrible how teachers are being measured to find out whether their kids can actually READ by THIRD GRADE. That's an outrageous standard. How could anyone be expected to measure up to that!?
It makes me feel ill when I see teachers who are so against NCLB. WHY doesn't a teacher want to be measured? Because they aren't effective at their job.
Get
:mad:
The problem isn't the testing. The problem is that kids in difficult circumstances are going home to broken families and parents passed out on the couch. They find their own supper, clean their own clothes, take care of their little 5 yr old brother for the night, and don't have any time to do homework or 'read for pleasure?' Then they come to school and fail their classes and tests since this has been going on their whole lives. By the time they're starting high school they have lost any hope of being successful in school. There's no problem with teachers having their kids tested. There IS a problem with the government attaching financial punishment to it. Honestly, I was a middle school teacher for many years in a "successful" school. The majority of my kids did fine. But while I'd try to spend extra time with the ones who struggled, school was the last thing they were worrying about. How do I explain to them that English is important when they're worrying about if there will be any dinner tonight, or if anyone would remember to pick them up after school. Thank God most of my kids had loving, supportive families to go home to, or there would have been no way I could have spent the extra time I did with those who needed it. It burns me up when I hear about a "failing" school district having their funding CUT. What the heck? How are teachers supposed to help these kids with less and less money? If the government really wants improvements, they need to throw some money AT the problem so schools can institute breakfast programs and after-school programs that are free for kids to participate in. Let's put some extra funds into intramural sports teams for these kids with mandatory study time and snacks!0 -
I think food is a much bigger problem than physical activity though. So many kids eat processed sugar filled garbage. A neighbor kid came over in the morning the other day and he was eating a cold nitrate filled HOT DOG for breakfast. Another kid comes over a lot with Doritos and a coke. He's 7! I volunteer at the school and he's in my daughter's class and has learning problems and then on top of that his parents feed him crap? Makes my blood boil.
I ate two hot dogs for lunch. course, I added a slice of bacon to each. and I'm drinking Coke Zero now. definitely a weird breakfast option, but I'm fairly certain hot dogs =/= learning problems.
You are an adult and can make your own choices, kids don't have a choice. Research nitrates and childhood cancers. Poor diets are also linked to impaired learning.0 -
I think you should blame No Child Left Behind. Actually, we don't do anything in school except teach kids to pass standardized reading and math tests. At my middle school, shop is gone, home ec is gone, French and German are gone, I'd write to every elected official I could. It's only going to get worse.
I KNOW! It's so terrible how teachers are being measured to find out whether their kids can actually READ by THIRD GRADE. That's an outrageous standard. How could anyone be expected to measure up to that!?
It makes me feel ill when I see teachers who are so against NCLB. WHY doesn't a teacher want to be measured? Because they aren't effective at their job.
Get
:mad:
The problem isn't the testing. The problem is that kids in difficult circumstances are going home to broken families and parents passed out on the couch. They find their own supper, clean their own clothes, take care of their little 5 yr old brother for the night, and don't have any time to do homework or 'read for pleasure?' Then they come to school and fail their classes and tests since this has been going on their whole lives. By the time they're starting high school they have lost any hope of being successful in school. There's no problem with teachers having their kids tested. There IS a problem with the government attaching financial punishment to it. Honestly, I was a middle school teacher for many years in a "successful" school. The majority of my kids did fine. But while I'd try to spend extra time with the ones who struggled, school was the last thing they were worrying about. How do I explain to them that English is important when they're worrying about if there will be any dinner tonight, or if anyone would remember to pick them up after school. Thank God most of my kids had loving, supportive families to go home to, or there would have been no way I could have spent the extra time I did with those who needed it. It burns me up when I hear about a "failing" school district having their funding CUT. What the heck? How are teachers supposed to help these kids with less and less money? If the government really wants improvements, they need to throw some money AT the problem so schools can institute breakfast programs and after-school programs that are free for kids to participate in. Let's put some extra funds into intramural sports teams for these kids with mandatory study time and snacks!
we've tried throwing money at the problem. That never solved it.
However, despite all the screaming and howling by teachers unions and adversaries of educational progress, NCLB is working. The average age of students reaching proficiency in reading has dropped. So, turns out, putting economic pressure on the schools to perform or else has resulted in more kids reading sooner.0
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