Something I thought about last night - school PE:

Fitness Education in school is really poor.  In grade school there were some programs that were introduced infrequently to encourage fitness.  Usually student teachers would come and lead jogging, exercising for a quarter and then leave.  By 4th grade we had directed sports with some calisthenics before and after. By 7th grade it was "for real" PE with uniforms, real sports and real workouts. 

However, there was never instruction on how to do these activities.  We were made to do cold stretches and then really fast runs at the start of the class.  Then we had to play competitive sports regardless if we understood the game or rules.  There were the fitness tests that we were never prepped for but were yelled at when we failed (not a single pull up, not enough push ups, etc).  We were given bizarre advice for competitive sports, by coaches and teachers!

This doomed the klutzes and the fatties to feeling ashamed and not liking exercise or sports.  It also doomed the athletes to chronic injuries and surgeries even before college.  And no one questioned this ever. 

The "learn to run" and "couch to 5k" would be such a great program for public schools.  Why is it so extreme in schools?  What's wrong with teaching basic fitness? 

I think that many of us have had a similar "gym" experience back in the day.  I teach physical education to high school students and I've made a point of doing it differently.  I wasn't super athletic - I was a chubby kid with only 1 sport that I could actually play.  Most of the time, I was praying that I wouldn't get hit in the head/face with a ball.

I teach my kids a variety of sports, yoga, circuit training and we even have a "learn to run program" in my class at the start of the year.  Kids still hate running, but by the end of the year, they can run for 20 minutes straight and they're so proud of how far they've come!

Rest assured - some teachers were in your class and want the next generation to have more self esteem in gym class.   I want all kids (klutzie, chubby, athletic, academic) to do their best and earn a grade based on their effort. 

Hope it makes you feel a bit better!

That helps.  I wonder how widespread that is, though?  Where we live, PE in grade school is elective and so my son's school has no PE instructors.  He's lucky if he gets one PE class (taught by his 2nd grade teacher) a week. 

Thanks for the reply!

EEK!  That's aweful!!!!  Where I live, PE is mandatory until Grade 11.    Does your local community center offer an open gym for kids his age to run around and play with different sport equipment?  That would at least give him a chance to be active with other kids.  I'm so sorry to hear that healthy, active kids isn't top priority in his school.  I think many people feel that since it's not academic, it doesn't have as high a value as other subject areas.  Such a shame - the habits our kids learn today, stick with them.  I know that at my school, we're really trying to promote life-long physical fitness (trying to get kids into the habit of being active).  Hopefully the rest of the schools jump on board too!

Unfortunately, here the schools can make whatever they want a priority and then say they don't have money for anything else.  One school he went to had 2 PE coaches (which meant directed sports during recess and regular PE) but no special ed teacher.  His current school features a music program (that is funded through grants, fundraisers, etc).  the academics aren't really a priority here either.  It's very dismal.  We're probably going to pull him out and homeschool.

Keeping on the fitness topic.  I did homeschool him last year for a quarter and PE was catching a bus to the park and playing catch or  a tennis-type of game.  Just basic movement and coordination. 

Our city rec dept. has fitness classes for children, I don't believe any open gyms though.  We're contemplating martial arts. 

Summer is easy we just swim about 3x a week. 

Man I was lucky. In WI they have good public schools that are well funded. Not only did we have extensive gym course but our art, agriculture, and music programs were awesome.

I just hated climbing that stupid rope, but square dancing was awesome!!!!

Did anyone else have track and field day?  It was like a mini-olympics....super fun.  I even won the girls discus throw!!!

"We were made to do cold stretches and then really fast runs at the start of the class.  Then we had to play competitive sports regardless if we understood the game or rules.  There were the fitness tests that we were never prepped for but were yelled at when we failed (not a single pull up, not enough push ups, etc)." - mrsdagle

my gym class was exactly like that. PE should be more about fitness and health rather than running around just doing sports. we did volleyball, basketball, soccer, rugby, and the fitness test. sometimes there were different sports in place of one or two i mentioned, but those were the main ones. 5 days a week. at my school it was only mandatory until grade 9. it was so dumb that they never "trained" or prepared us for the fitness test, it was "either you can do it or you can't". if they instead had us work on our fitness by doing things other than sports (and then maybe have a day every week where we did do sports, as a 'break' sort of thing). the health segment of the class where we did school work on health wasn't that bad for elementary school, but theres always room for improvement.

i hhaaaaated the beep test. i was very unfit in the 9th grade and failed that hardcore. anyone else have to take the beep test?

(the beep test is this....they have a CD or tape and play it. on that CD/tape all it does is beep. you start on one side of the gym, when it beeps, run to the other side before it beeps again, and run back again before it beeps again, and run back and so on and the beeps just keep getting faster and faster.)

Lol, we didn't have CDs when I was in high school.  No beep test.  But I do remember doing running  with whistling, where you have to run to varying lines in the gym. 

I don't yet know what my daughter's school offers as far as PE since she's only in kindergarten which is less than a half day grade.  BUT what I do know is her school completely discourages kids playing in the playground before or after school.  It discourages it to the point where they sent home a "contract" which basically read that "I, <student's name> am aware of the playground rules and regulations...".  Each student was required to sign and return it to school.  In my daughter's case I had to sign it for her as proof that I and inturn she knew about the rules.  No ball playing, no running around, no tag, nothing.  The rule is to stand in the designated spot for your classroom in an orderly fashion.  The after school rule is to exit the building in an orderly fashion and leave the school premises immediately...again, no playing of any sorts.  WTH!?!?  

As an only child, school is the one place she has contact with her peers.  Any exercise she gets is anything I push onto her, enroll her for special classes at the Y or with playdates.  Playdates are few and far between since I only know 2 other people with kids her age. 

It is very aggravating.

We were made to do cold stretches and then really fast runs at the start of the class.

AMEN!!! :)  Looking back, gym class in school was a big reason why I always thought I didn't like to exercise.

Up until two years ago, I was the definition of couch potato.  I never exercised and hated even the thought of a day trip or something where I'd have to do a lot of walking.  Thankfully, I am no longer this way, and now I consider myself a runner.  To me, this means it's something I do regularly and constantly push myself to do better, keep proper form, etc.  I take it seriously.

Rewinding back 20 or so years: in school, I hated Hated HATED when they made us run.  And is it any wonder why?  They never taught us proper form, how to breathe correctly, how to find your own pace...and all I remember about those forced runs in gym was being in terrible pain because I didn't have decent shoes and my form was non-existent, and also feeling ready to pass out because I couldn't breathe.  And all the while, I was being yelled at to "pick it up pick it up you're too slow!!"  (Well, yeah, I was also very overweight, so of course I wasn't going to run a mile in any sort of record time!) 

Thankfully, those days are long behind me, and I can run 3.5 miles in 30 minutes.

"BUT what I do know is her school completely discourages kids playing in the playground before or after school"

Okay, that one wins the dumb school award.  That seems to be a new trend to make the kids line up outside before entering school.  But our schools allow them to play.  But they keep telling parents, "don't drop your kids off before 7:30am"!!

But yeah, tetherball, tag and crack the whip (aka smear the queer) are gone. 

 

We can all "thank" Kennet Cooper for the misguided notions of what fitness even is that underlies most of what PE was in our day.

  Kenneth Cooper thought fitness could be reduced to the single dimension of your VOmax and be measured only based on how far you could run in 12 minutes.
 
 It's been close to 40 years and we've only now begun to dispel the fallacies behind Cooper's reasoning - for some strange reason Cooper's harebrained ideas became ingrained into mainstream consciousness when it should have been left on history's scrap heap along with hippie culture, mood rings, tie-dye clothes and other sixties fads without roots in reality.

 Fitness is not that one-dimensional - the question you've gotta ask yourself is "fit for what"? Cooper thought that all you needed was to be fit for one sort of middle-distance running, but both a sprinter and a marathoner would flunk Cooper's test - so even Cooper's misguided notion that aerobic fitness was of special importance can't properly be tested with the method he chose.

 But that's what PE teachers in our day was taught - and it seems that this sort of misguided thinking that there's only one kind of fitness or at least only one kind of fitness worth bothering with is still rampant in the field.

 Witness the beep test, which is just another version of the same old Cooper test with the same single-dimensional thinking about fitness - and the same failure to consider that running is a learned skill that JustLaura experienced.

 If fitness was that simple, Lance Armstrong would have won the New York Marathon he participated in, not wound up taking 868th place like he did.

 Cooper did some ground-breaking work; but his misguided notions of what fitness consists of is far too one-dimensional to account for all the varied ways you can be fit for life.

 I think that PE ougth to be more about teaching the joy of motion and letting kids try all the different ways there are to be fit, instead of being squeezed into the narrow channel of Cooper's tunnel vision. Or mine - my perspective also has limitations. But PE should be about fun, and discovering the joy of being physical, not about conforming to any one vision of what fitness dimensions are important to someone else.

I am actually a student right now at Oklahoma State University and I will graduate this Dec with a degree in Physical Education. Our entire curriculum is based on teaching kids how to move and how to be movers for a lifetime. They now teach ( here anyway) that in elementary , you focus on basic skills and not so much sports. You may learn catching and throwing and maybe play a modified frisbee or softball game. I really do think that we have a new generation of P.E. teachers that seriously have the passion to create active adults and not scare kids out of P.E. and hinder their chances of being a life long mover by forcing them to play sports that they don't know how to play. At least I will base my class on making kids life long movers...not sports stars.

"Fitness is not that one-dimensional - the question you've gotta ask yourself is "fit for what"?"

You wrote this "(fit for what") in another thread that I read some days ago and it really made me think about how I look at exercise and lifestyle in general.  Perhaps, it is what made me reflect on school and past gym classes. 

 

Original Post by valsgoal:

BUT what I do know is her school completely discourages kids playing in the playground before or after school.  It discourages it to the point where they sent home a "contract" which basically read that "I, am aware of the playground rules and regulations...".  Each student was required to sign and return it to school.  In my daughter's case I had to sign it for her as proof that I and inturn she knew about the rules.  No ball playing, no running around, no tag, nothing.  

Valsgoal - I can't believe a school would be so narrow minded as to enforce this type of behavior.  I understand that in today's day and age, there are significant problems with discipline in the school system, but how are kids supposed to be kids if they're not allowed to play tag? 

I went to a kindergarten where playing tag was the highlight of my day.  I still remember running around between each "base" and screaming when I was being chased.  I never liked to just run, but I loved playing tag!!

I don't know if you work or have other obligations that would prevent this, but have you thought of trying to get involved to change the system at the school?  You might consider talking to the school board about changing the rules.  This would be especially effective if you could get a group of parents together to volunteer time a few days a week before and after school to monitor the playground and assist the teachers during those times.  Even joining the PTA (assuming there is one) could help bring about some change. 

I don't have kids yet, but my parents got involved in a similar way when I was in elementary school and it seemed to make a difference.  My mom taught before and after school spanish to kids whose parents had to drop them off early or pick them up late, and ultimately my dad got elected to the school board.  It's a big commitment and can take a lot of time, but if it not only helps your daughter but every other child in the school, it could really be a great investment.

Mhaskel, I work and can't take her to nor pick her up from school.  All PTA meetings are held at 9am during the week.  Any meetings for the school in general are either at 9am or 2pm.  I am at work during both these times and I work an hour from the area.  It really is crazy though and I wish I could be more visibly active.  I don't know if those rules were put in place to avoid safety problems, lawsuits, obligations or what.  I really hope that at least when she hits the full time grades that she will be exposed to a regular gym schedule.  I do not believe the kids are ever allowed outside during any gym times though. 

When I was a kid we only got PE once a week and it was usually a sport.  Once or twice a year we'd climb ladders and do relay races.  I was never good at any of this but I still cherished the once a week gym time regardless.  When I hit HS, gym was mandatory.  We also had the obligatory 1 mile race - first thing, as soon as class started.  Your passing grade was dependant on completing 1 mile in 12 minutes.  The rest of the time you just did whatever sport was on the agenda that quarter...baseball, softball (if you were female), basketball, volleyball, etc.  If the quarter happened to be swimming, you'd have to swim a lap in a certain time frame but I can't remember what that was. 

Valsgoal - that really sucks!!  I find it strange that the meetings are during working hours, but I guess that's just the way the school works.  I hope your daughter does get a regular gym program in another year or two - at least it will be something - but it sounds like otherwise you're as much on top of things as you can be by enrolling her in classes, etc.  Keep it up! 

Did anyone else have to take a health class in combination with the PE class?  In both middle and high school I had to take one semester of PE (every day) and one semester of health.  The health class was actually where we learned about nutrition and the general principles of weight maintenance.  Of course, the sections were each usually about a week or so long, but it at least got us started.  I learned a lot from those classes.  PE was (like everyone else's it seems) all about sports with a general physical test in the beginning and end of the semester.

in NYC they made PE a requirement all through out school, from first through 12th. and my college makes me do it because its city ran. i only have to take one semester, but its only worth 1 credit...

The shame of it all, is this growing movement to do away with PE altogether in schools, mainly because parents want to shield their out of shape kids, from embarrassment. That isn't the school's fault, it's the parent's fault. At some point, the kids who can excel should be allowed to, and not limited, because of the kids around them. My oldest daughter is nine, and her favorite thing to do at PE is run distance. Usually a couple of miles at a time. She's amazing. Her school was going to do away with PE, because the parents were going to council meetings complaining because PE was "too hard" and their kids couldn't keep up. The parents of the other kids, myself included came to those meeting too, and they got pretty heated. My daughter's school decided, that it would be best to divide the kids up, into different groups within the PE class, to not only tone things down, for the kids who couldn't keep up, but allow the kids who were better, to freelance, and do their own thing, and continue to be pushed, to do better.  They tried to allow the entire class to do this, but many of the kids, who's parents were at those meetings, wanting PE eliminated, were happier simply not participating, if forced to think for themselves.  Teachers can only do so much with kids who don't want to participate, before it's at the expense of those who do. 

Many years ago the elementary schools made "PE" the teachers responsibility and if they didn't want to do PE they didn't have to.  Due to budget cuts in schools the PE and music are usually what's cut first because they aren't on the "no child left behind"exams  Kind of hard to teach to the test when its not tested.

Oh and because sports aren't "politically correct" they can't have that!  You know kids can't be losers playing sports and having team competitions is too damaging to their self esteem!  Oh and then there is also the risk of a kid actually getting hurt or fall down and sue the school or whatever.

I remember the best gym classes I did in elementary school was when we got to play dodge ball -- now that is never allowed in a school in these parts mostly because too many woosies were crying to their mommies when they got hit "too hard"

 

All I remember about PE (way back in the '50s) was constant riducule and pain.  I was undersized and couldn't keep up.  They'd force me to run and I'd fall down, doubled up in pain. I had trouble holding up a baseball bat or throwing a basket ball more than a few feet.  I was one of those "woosies" who cried during dodge ball. 

Everybody, even my family, made fun of me and told me I was lazy and accused me of faking how I felt. After a while, I just gave up and barely passed gym each year.  My self esteem was in the toilet until I was 40 and found out what was wrong.

Guess what?  I have a congenital heart defect and they could have killed me.    One of the symptoms of this particular defect is dropping dead upon over exertion.  When you hear of a seemingly healthy youngster keeling over, it's usually from this or a similar defect.  I still feel anger that not one person thought to have me seen by a doctor.

I mention this just to make you aware that PE teachers don't know everything. Be an advocate for your child. I would have done better if I'd been taught yoga or tai chi, which was unheard of then.