Do you have school age kids

My son is happy to get to try roller skating in PE, I remember when we "played" games jumping jack race, scooter races, crab walking races and things like that. I do the same thing with my kids at home. What happened to having fun running and playing?

When I was in elementary and middle school, we had PE and learned every sport.
I remember when my son was in middle school, he only had to take PE for a portion of the year and then nothing in high school.
Now that my girls are in elementary school, they have PE 2 days one week and 3 days the next week, and so on. They don't do much, mostly activities that don't involve them to physically exert themselves.
I am for more physical work in physical education. This whole healthy movement has not included picking up the pace for PE.

when I was at primary school (about 7/8 years ago now), we didn't even have "PE" we had "Gym time". Which meant we had use of the gym hall. Which sometimes we used for real exercise, games, circuits etc etc....but often was used for drama, rehearsing for plays etc etc.

We had "gym time" once a week...

I hated gym as a kid. I was a little chubby and not athletic at all so it was never fun for me. Even in high school when I was thin, I still hated it. I think I could have done better by knowing more about a healthy diet, because even if we were required to do real exercise, I would have found a way around it!

I definitely feel that my kids don't get enough Education in Physical Education. It's more like sample a variety of activities at whatever degree of participation they want to put into it. I would like to see more activity that requires actual activity (moving around) and some education; teach them about healthy choices, how to properly exercise and work out, the importance of being in shape and being healthy.

I work at a school for kids with pretty serious behavioral/emotional challenges...like end of the road kids, and we most definitely have have them exercise A LOT ! Our kids do running/walking a twice a week for 30-45 minutes and then the other two days they play sports (basketball, baseball, football, etc.) for an hour or so ...which actually we use more as a social experience/sensory outlet, but it's also a good way for them to exercise and let off steam. I know it's not like this in public schools though!

My son's elementary school is very fitness oriented, thankfully. They play the classics like kickball, dodgeball, and soccer, but also do jump rope training and that kind of thing. Sometimes gym is dedicated to teaching the kids about their bodies, such as how their heart works and why it is important to take care of it.

Be thankful your child's school still has it! Schools in record numbers are dropping elective classes like gym for budget purposes.

May be where you are. Our school meets the standards for the state. They actually do exercises for part of the gym class (only once a week for an hour for elementary aged kids) and then play a game the second half. I know it made all the kids mad when the standards changed and they had to start doing actual exercises. They thought it was because of the new teacher and didn't like her. Our kids also have to change out starting in 4th grade. My high school boys were required to have 2 credits of gym to graduate and then a health class which was 1/2 credit.


They also are outside for recess unless it is raining or 10F or lower with windchill, if they can't be outside then they are in the gym for recess.

My son is in middle school (6th grade) in Illinois and the class is doing the P90X workout! I coudln't believe it when he told me that. They have gym 7/8 of the school year, with the other 1/8 being a session of Health. Their gym teacher has made them run a mile, climb a wall, do circuit training, etc. My son is very action-oriented but complains it is too hard....

Mines in HIgh school & they're doing old school weight training & aerobics. squats & lunges even..

I know my daughter spends a set amount of time running during each PE class. Her puts together fast beat songs to keep the kids going. I think they focus on being pretty active during PE. That makes me happy. They did do the parachute thing yesterday that doesn't require much other than standing. I remember being distracted by the pretty colors.

I just wanted to say that I think if kids are going to have to take a gym class then they should be doing "real" exercise. Why put something like cup stacking during the physical fitness part of the day? I would like to see kids do more physical activities. Why not have them do a real workout geared towards their age group...or play real sports that burn calories? Lets teach them young about how to stay fit and active.

Any thoughts??

In most states, PE standards include fine motor skills. That would be where the cup stacking comes in. Physical Education is about more than exercise.

Honestly, coming from someone who had to do PE for her whole life in school (I just graduated college), it is kind of a joke to the kids (at least all the kids I knew). I still agree that it should be part of the required curriculum because if kids don't have healthy parents they need to learn about health/physical activity somewhere, but basically everything I learned I learned from my parents setting a healthy examples (my mom is an aerobics nut and my dad does triathalons). I love working out and taking care of myself, but I despised PE from kindergarten until my senior year of high school. I even took an extra "advanced health" course to get out of PE my senior year. Especially when you're a girl in high school you don't want to do a workout at 11 am when you have to be in school until 3 pm. Plus, in junior high, my memories of PE consisted of our morbidly obese gym teachers riding around in golf carts yelling at us to run faster and have a healthy happy heart. It's really all about taking the time as a parent to set a healthy example for your kids rather than relying on PE. I agree with you that it would be awesome if kids could get a real workout in, but that's really not the reality especially for older kids. My workouts came after school when I ran cross country.