Should students be able to opt out of P.E. in middle/high school?
It appears that in our middle school kids can pretty much opt out of P.E. by just not choosing it as an elective.
Now they could accidentally get P.E. if all their first options are already filled but there appears to be plenty of other things she could fill in with before getting to P.E.
I’m not sure what happens at the high school level here.
I remember taking P.E. all through middle school and high school (and hating it.) That’s where I learned aerobics. We used to have to design an aerobic routine and then perform it for the teacher. I also remember being told by the male P.E. teacher that I had the worst running form he had ever seen. So that was lovely for an awkward sixth-grader to be told in front of all the other students. That teacher really knew how to support his student’s self esteem. That experience made me never want to run again and to this day I hate running. So maybe it’s OK for Rose to skip out on that type of physical education.
She is on the swim team and gets serious exercise in those workouts.
Does your school allow middle school students/high school students to never take P.E.? Do you think that is good? Would you rather them be in another academic elective or do they all need some sort of physical activity during the school day?
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67 comments Add your comment
gadem
September 25th, 2012
3:46 pm
OMG…these kids are so soft and pampered. PE is good exercise….I mean what do you propose? Sitting in a classroom and play X-box all day. I mean they do that at home.
Mayhem
September 25th, 2012
3:52 pm
Government schools, via the First Lady, have changed school lunches (government).
Fast food restaurants are posting nutrition information (government).
No recess in schools (government)
Moms are arrested for letting their kids play outside (parent).
Do you see a trend here?
Theresa Walsh Giarrusso
September 25th, 2012
4:09 pm
There were two male PE teachers if I remember correctly but Jarvis did pick the right one. It was on the right side of trickum in the parking lot and we were running races and I was really trying to win and then walked back and got nailed with that comment in front of everyone. So that was nice.
PE was required in college at Georgia. I took tennis and swimming. I lost 10 pounds in that swimming class in college. you showed up and swam several days a week for an hour. I still like to swim to go and swim for an hour.
I have given up on tennis for the most part because my sweet spouse is quite good and likes to place balls so I am running like a crazy person the whole time. That’s no fun. Also remember from UGA tennis class, a kid having an epileptic seizure on the tennis court. It was one of the scariest things I have ever seen.
One more PE memory – I used to see Mrs. Deal at the Y in Gwinnett. She looked great. Totally in shape. Stopped to tell her that while she was changing clothes in the locker room. Yes my timing was a little bit awkward.
Theresa Walsh Giarrusso
September 25th, 2012
4:10 pm
please ignore bad typing — should say — still like to go and swim for an hour.
non committal mind reader
September 25th, 2012
5:19 pm
Unless PE has an ulterior life-goal, then students should be allowed to drop out. As long as P.E. is run by football/baseball/basketball coaches, student should be able to drop out.
Here is my reasoning:
For the most part, physical activity after graduating H.S. is no longer a “team” type of event. I can honestly say that I have not played football, baseball, kick ball, or any other “team” sport that requires more than 3 people per side since H.S. I dare say that the VAST majority of folks haven’t either. But running, cycling, tennis, swimming, hiking, etc, are the types of sports that adults can do through out life. THESE are the types of sports that should be pushed at the middle school, high school level. THESE are the types of sports that will carry into adulthood, and can be done for an hour after work each day.
The focus should be life-long fitness, and the sports that can be done in solitary or in small groups.
I did NOT take P.E in high school. In college, I did extensive backpacking. At about age 26, I started Mountain biking/road biking, and have gone on to put in about 4000 miles per year for 20 years (yes, that is 80,000 mile on a bicycle), most of was solitary. I even won a 10th place in a SORBA MTB race (out of 100), and a 1st place at a USCF time trial. I can only imagine how my cycling might have been had I started in middle/high school. But our MS/HS P.E. had Dodge ball/flag football/softball/etc. Typical “team sports” that mean nothing towards physical fitness later in life. Today, I am 51, 6′, 167lbs. The football “stars” of my high school are all fat (I am not joking) because they stopped physical activity the day after they graduated.
I have also put in a lot of SCUBA diving, hiking, shooting/hunting, etc, through the years.
Concerned
September 25th, 2012
6:38 pm
There is a great deal of research being done about how exercise enhances learning. I would love for you to read Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey and Eric Hagerman . After reading about the studies in this book, we’ll all be insisting that our children are in PE everday! The gist of the book is that learning and retention increase greatly with daily exercise.
KJ
September 25th, 2012
7:16 pm
Coaches need to be held accountable for their bullying. If a math teacher held up an F in front of the class and told the student they were the dumbest they ever taught, they’d probably be fired on the spot. But for some reason coaches get away with this stuff all the time.
That said, less PE is definitely NOT the answer, considering the alarming rise in obesity in this country.
The Dixie Diarist
September 25th, 2012
8:01 pm
PE IS PHUN!
Every Friday morning all the kids in the middle school go the gym at 9 o’ clock and play for an hour. Most of the time they play dodge ball. Regular teachers and substitute teachers don’t have to go over there with them.
Prissy, the middle school teacher who fiddles with her hair all the time, told me the teachers get a nice break.
I went into my classroom and read the newspaper with my feet up on the desk and wished I could have smoked a cigar, too, but you could figure the answer on that. A substitute teacher in the middle school smoking a cigar while he reads the newspaper. People all over the world would want in on my gig.
I was substitute teaching in a science classroom for a teacher named Vito. I was extremely tempted to neaten up, a lot, Vito’s desk but I didn’t. Instead I just gazed at the top of his desk with my hands suspended in the air above his desk and went … Damn.
Vito had left me a note that laid out what the kids were supposed to work on that day and the note also mentioned the dodge ball thing and said they’re pretty amped up when they come back.
I figured what amped them up is that most of them were conjuring up scenes since the moment they woke up that morning of how good they were going to whack some of their middle school pals with a dodge ball a few times in the chops.
They’re pretty damn amped up when they come back.
It’s real quiet in the middle school for a long time while the teachers are doing different stuff in their rooms like surfing cyberspace and then the front door bonks open and fifty middle school kids run in like a dam busted.
Forty-nine of the kids were red faced and sweating with their hair matted down with sweat.
I asked a kid if he whacked anybody good.
Yeah!
I asked another kid if he whacked anybody.
Yeah! Jimmy. In the face!
Sally was already sitting in a seat in the great room real quiet and proper looking. She was not red faced or sweating and her long, brown hair was just as pretty as it was before she went to not play dodge ball. She’s petite, with freckles. She wears the school uniform blue and green plaid skirt instead of the school uniform khaki slacks.
I asked Sally did she whack anybody.
She said she doesn’t playdodge ball.
I said why.
She said she prefers not to play dodge ball and looked at me as if I should have already known that about her.
http://www.adixiediary.com
Douglas County FMS
September 25th, 2012
8:35 pm
In Douglas County, at the middle school level, they can opt out .Years ago they had to take P.E. at least a certain amount of time per year, now they can sign up for band and chorus at the same time and never take a P.E. class the entire time they are in middle school. Some children intentionally do this because they do not want to take P.E., unfortunately they are the ones that need it the most. In today’s world of video games, t.v., and computers that children sit at for hours of time if they are not supervised, they desperately need to be taking P.E. daily. Look around at the next band or chorus concert and check out the weight of some of the band and chorus members.
BrainGym
September 25th, 2012
10:09 pm
“Neither of them will gain anything from PE…it’s just a waste of time” Hmmmm, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, of course. However, being a teacher myself, I deal with facts-and try to acquire as many as possible-in order to make a well informed decision. Therefore, it is safe for me to say, with 100% accuracy,(as research has clearly shown), that my following statement is in fact…A FACT! “Students who are PHYSICALLY active…are MORE SUCCESSFUL in school.” I wonder if the many researchers conducting the numerous studies also felt that their efforts were….”just a waste of time.” Hmmmmm??
Penguinmom
September 25th, 2012
10:59 pm
the graduation requirements in GA still say you need 1/2 credit of PE. Lots of things can be used to cover that, sports participation, band, etc. My son is currently going to the gym with his dad twice a week for weight-lifting and we plan on doing some golf and/or tennis lessons later in the year to supplement to cover his 1/2 credit on his transcript. (we homeschool so aren’t taking a straight ‘PE’ class).
PE in middle school is awkward just like almost everything else in middle school. It just happens to be a little more awkward because it is specifically focused on how you move and your body shape, which are both uncomfortable topics for most middle schoolers.
Our kids need the exercise though, so, if parents are going to provide it outside of school time (whatever small amount of time that is), doesn’t it make sense to have at least some exercise going on in school?
BrainGym
September 26th, 2012
12:21 am
@ non committal mind reader: I applaud you for being a very well rounded, active person. You obviously have the means to engage in a wide variety of fitness related activities. I am a PE teacher and, in my experience, have had 90+ students(along with 2 additional PE teachers) in the gym at one time. Teaching large group/team type activities is both necessary and essential. Remember the ole saying…There Is No “I” In Team…Well, here’s a new one…”TEAM”…which stands for: Together-Everyone-Achieves-More. Emphasizing teamwork and co-operation is key to learning, as I can’t think of anyone who has gone through life without needing a helping hand from time to time. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in this day and age I’m not familiar with schools that come equipped with a mountain for hiking, a pool for swimming, a lake for scuba diving, bicycles for cycling and a range for shooting! Unless you’re willing to install and furnish the necessary equipment, your ultra “ideal” activities for PE are ultimately unrealistic!
BrainGym
September 26th, 2012
1:02 am
@ Tiffany: The PE curriculum, by no means, is constructed with the intent to humiliate or do more harm than good. It is established with the focus of students developing a sound mind in a sound body. The curriculum does not consist of lessons that pit students against one another. On and off the playing field, character counts! Those who feel that they are being humiliated maybe need to survey the scene a little bit better. Students who display poor character typically demonstrate poor sportsmanship!
Jo Bailey
September 26th, 2012
7:25 am
Firstly let me apologize to anyone who has had a negative experience in physical education. This is not the way physical education should be taught and, thankfully, things have changed significantly. I am a physical education teacher and I teach high quality physical education to my students. The focus is not on skills or being the best an an activity but on developing lifelong physical activity knowledge and habits. My students learn the physiology of their bodies, about the health related components of fitness, how and why they should work to improve these. They understand training principles, types of training, set individualized goals to work on, and learn to respect themselves and value themselves as performers and for the strengths they have. Developing self-esteem and self-confidence is a huge part of physical education. Students get to choose from a wide variety of activity options and are often given options as to how they meet activity requirements. Students learn about energy balance, nutrient dense foods, empty calories, and how to track intake/ output so they have the knowledge they need to maintain a healthy weight. My students learn how to manage stress, fatigue, and anxiety with physical activity.
If your child is not receiving such a program, or some of the horror stories listed here are still occurring, you need to go to your school board and tell them you want high quality physical education. Your children deserve it and need it – study after study have demonstrated that young people who develop physical activity habits during adolescence are far more likely to be physically active, and more and more studies show that physical activity and academic achievement are positively correlated – the fitter you are, the stronger the connection between the neurons in the brain – short term & long term memory and information recall are all better in fitter students.
I know I want my children to be taught this way – you should too.
Soccermom
September 26th, 2012
10:01 am
@Jo Bailey – You sound like the kind of PE teacher all of our schools need!
SEE
September 26th, 2012
2:09 pm
My sons take band and chorus so they will not have to take PE. They are the same ones that are in marching band and Civil Air Patrol, so they get their exercise; however, I signed them up for chorus because P.E. has become a “catch-all” category into which middle schools shove kids for connections. My son was knocked down and dragged behind the bleachers where he was stomped on to make him let go of…a quarter. That’s right…mugged for a quarter in gym. The camera caught it all and it went on for a good five minutes. Where was the PE teacher? Who knows…from what I could tell on the video, the entire gym was mobbed with kids. If you want to make PE a class of 30 kids, fine. But to put 60+ middle schoolers in a gym with 1 teacher is asking for trouble.
Kat
September 27th, 2012
7:49 am
I assume that all PE teachers were once the ones who were ridiculed and embarrassed in middle/high school over poor performance and are now taking it out on others.