WAG Taking an "F" for middle school PE

[raenndrops]

P.E. DD had juggle unit once. She had to make juggle socks. Fill old dress socks with rice and make appropriate sized balls out of them. She still breaks them out occasionally, but I don't see juggling as exercise. If P.E. is going to teach and increase health in our youth then activities need to increase and sustain heart rate. If the activities do not do this then P.E. is nothing but organized recess.

But juggling is about hand-eye coordination which is needed in a lot of sports, so it could be a precursor to legit stuff

 

[profmom]

What is ironic is that many of the p.e. teachers out there are overweight themselves. I find that a true oxymoron.

You know, I wish you could have done aerobics in college with me with my "overweight" instructor. I guarantee you would not have made it through half an hour.

Part of the agenda of PE around here is to teach kids that physical activity is fun and try to build some lifelong love for active recreation. If juggling helps with that, I am all for it.

PE is very distinct from gymnastics training because they get to run around and be physical in a zero-stakes environment where form doesn't matter, they can work only as hard as they feel like on any given day, and mistakes are irrelevant. If you think that PE is a waste of time for your child because it's just about getting exercise, you either have a poorly designed PE program or you're missing part of the point. My son is playing rec soccer once a week this fall and he loves it because it's fun in a completely different way than gym training.

 

[txgymfan]

Part of the agenda of PE around here is to teach kids that physical activity is fun and try to build some lifelong love for active recreation. If you think that PE is a waste of time for your child because it's just about getting exercise, you either have a poorly designed PE program or you're missing part of the point.

This is the point most people are making. Often, public school PE programs are poorly planned and minimally funded . They are frequently overcrowded with one teacher responsible for 30 - 60 kids possibly with an aide. They rarely have enough functional equipment for all children to participate ( have you seen the balls they try to use?!)


PE class can be once a week or even if it's multiple time a week, it may be cut by the children's need to change clothes (twice!), with not enough time to build skills, develop cardiovascular health and or introduce a variety of sports in enough depth to get kids interested.

Students often run laps on lumpy parking lots or uneven playgrounds and are taught by well meaning teachers who may work with hundreds of children a day in more than one building.

When done well, PE is great at introducing life long activities , developing physical and cardio health and giving kids a much needed break from a tradition school. Unfortunately, it's rarely done well in the US public school system.

 

[skschlag]

I agree that PE isn't all bad. My ds gymnast did an online PE class this summer, and learned a lot. I am not worried for him about life long physical activity. He rock climbs, he skis, he rides bikes, etc. He loves being active. Having a waiver for PE for him means he can focus on other things and get the school work done that needs to be done for his other classes. If he was in PE he would have to leave our house at 7, have school from 7:30-2:45, get home at 3:30, leave at 4 for gym, practice 5-9, home at 10. This is allowing him to have less stress and more opportunity to do his work.

In addition, he took pe in middle school, and dealt with more injuries from PE than from gym.

 

[John]

PE Is not all bad, but PE should teach theory to being healthy as well as ideas towards being healthy. Those ideas can be anything but the fundamental idea of exercise is to increase strength and cardiovascular fitness. I am sorry but Juggling my old dress socks does not accomplish this. I beleive instead it teaches children false ideas of fitness, being fit does require sweat equity.

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

When done well, PE is great at introducing life long activities , developing physical and cardio health and giving kids a much needed break from a tradition school. Unfortunately, it's rarely done well in the US public school system.

It's not just the US public school system. I know it is not good here either in the Netherlands. I can also say that most students around here don't think it's fun at all.

The sports we do most are softball and track. It's boring. It's tiring. A lot of people call in sick before PE, so they don't have to participate. In guilty of this as well, because sitting outside in wet grass while it's raining and you can't do anything (I'm injured) is not fun. It's cold and it just sucks.

I just don't get why they want PE. Maybe 2 or 3 kids are excited for it. They are usually the soccer players who would like to run laps all day. I have thrown up in PE because I'm not good at running. I've injured myself badly during PE and had to push through, otherwise the teacher would call my parents to say how bad I was. How is that supposed to be fun?

 

[Iwannabemargo]

From what I have heard from my kids it different here in the UK.

PE is mandated, along with Maths, English and science its one of the subjects that every student must take.

In my children's school its split so they do 6 weeks on each sport, and as neither of mine took it as an option after 12 they do 225min (3 x 75m lessons) a fortnight.

Little Lad is currently doing rugby (drama as he has just had braces fitted and we had to buy a special mouth guard to fit over them), then its football (soccer). They will do cricket and athletics in the summer term but not sure what they will do in spring( although badminton and volleyball spring to mind)

Pink has done rugby and her teacher has promised they will get round to gymnastics at some point.

Their school is pretty typical in its facilities with a multi sports hall, a gym ( smaller hall with wall bars and a wood floor), outside space for rounders, all weather pitch for 5 a side football and hockey, 2 rugby/ football pitches and a grass running track. They also do cross country running round the area ( we used to have to run down the hill to the sea ( about a mile), swim round the harbour to the other beach and then run back up the hill again.

I hated running (asthmatic )but we did enough sports that you could always find something you liked.

Class sizes are bigger for PE but that is why a lot of team sports were invented, so you could get a full PE class involved.

 

[sce]

Part of the agenda of PE around here is to teach kids that physical activity is fun and try to build some lifelong love for active recreation. If juggling helps with that, I am all for it.

PE is very distinct from gymnastics training because they get to run around and be physical in a zero-stakes environment where form doesn't matter, they can work only as hard as they feel like on any given day, and mistakes are irrelevant. If you think that PE is a waste of time for your child because it's just about getting exercise, you either have a poorly designed PE program or you're missing part of the point. My son is playing rec soccer once a week this fall and he loves it because it's fun in a completely different way than gym training.

That was not my experience with PE. Grades depended on showing skill in each sport. I was bad at most of those sports. I understood the rules and, in my head the mechanics, but I could not execute. It was not fun, no matter how many times I was forced to play those sports.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

PE seems to mean very different things in different countries. I loved PE when I was growing up. Most kids did.

Here PE is seen as a subject that introduces as many sports as possible to the kids. We want every kid to find a sport that they enjoy. There is a national curriculum for the teachers to follow and the PE teachers in the secondary schools all have masters degree in physical education.

What we did in PE? We had cross country skiing, skating, ice hockey, soccer, floorball, basketball, badminton, volleyball, gymnastics, aerobic, frisbee golf, track and field, handball, dance, martial arts and swimming. Also lots of different games inside and outside. We actually learned the right techniques for each sport. Those skills have helped me a lot in my life.

Our gymnasts participate in PE and I think it's a good thing. They get to do something totally different from gymnastics. It's good for injury prevention since playing and trying different sports stresses the different muscles. It's also good for cardio and endurance since gymnastics doesn't require that much endurance. Some of our gymnasts are in a sports class and that means they have a gymnastics practice 2-3 times a week on first period. Kids who do different sports have morning practices in their own sports at the same time. But they all still have a separate PE class.

 

[azara]

I hated PE with a passion. We mostly played sports I was bad at, but weren't taught how to improve at all. The only ones I ever did well at were artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, and, weirdly (or perhaps not), diving, which I remember we did for a term. If we'd been taught how to play the sports or even what the rules were, maybe it would have been a bit better, but as it was, all I could do was stand there helplessly while everyone else threw the ball amongst each other, and never to me. I'm asthmatic, so any of the running activities and swimming were nigh impossible for me to do anyway. Most of the health classes were basic and/or repetitive, and centred around what would happen if you did drugs. I can now tell you a lot about how to do drugs, but I wish the science of exercise had been emphasised instead, because that would have been interesting. I don't think the word "endorphins" was ever even said...

Obviously most of your children aren't in such a position, because they're all gymnasts, but I want to highlight that the way the subject is taught makes a really big difference in the experience. I never had a PE teacher that was educated in the mechanics behind the activities, or that was particularly competent at teaching drills or the rules. If I did, maybe I would have felt differently. As it stood, PE was just two hours of ball sports a week, where the naturally good kids had a great time, and the pretty bad were totally left behind.

When I rediscovered gymnastics in senior school, part of what I loved about it (other than competent coaching) was that it turned out I wasn't so terrible at sports after all, just the ones we were forced to play in PE. The structure of the school programme is really dreadful.

 

[raenndrops]

In our local schools, they learn the rules of a sport and are tested on the rules in addition to actual participation.
Starting this year, they can exempt gym at the high school level only… by competing for 2 seasons in a school sport or band. Too bad our school doesn't have a gymnastics team.

 

[twinmomma]

Grades here are participation based, with some written tests to meet cross curricular requirements. PE starting in Middle school is every day.

As for the comment re: overweight PE teachers? Horrible fat shaming statement. Educate yourself on fitness and body size. This mentality is why I was hesitant to put my daughter in gymnastics to begin with.

 

[raenndrops]

Grades here are participation based, with some written tests to meet cross curricular requirements. PE starting in Middle school is every day.

As for the comment re: overweight PE teachers? Horrible fat shaming statement. Educate yourself on fitness and body size. This mentality is why I was hesitant to put my daughter in gymnastics to begin with.

My high school gym teacher was 105 lbs soaking wet... And 5'2" tall. She taught our aerobics unit... By leading us in aerobics (complete with 1980s aerobics workout gear, lol).
She was the best... No body shaming allowed, but at the same time, she did take physical limitations into account and could adjust work outs for individual girls as needed

 

[jenjean70]

Correct. She misses first period pe to sleep in. Gets home from gym around 9:15 pm. Sleeps from 9:45-8:45. Goes to school for second period at 9:20. Shangri la. Except for the F.

Wow! That's a lot of sleep. My son gets to bed around 10 and gets up at 7...school starts at 8:55 am. He does have off campus PE so he can get his homework and chores done. He does seem tired in the morning though....

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

Wow! That's a lot of sleep. My son gets to bed around 10 and gets up at 7...school starts at 8:55 am. He does have off campus PE so he can get his homework and chores done. He does seem tired in the morning though....

Being tired in the Morning is quite normal, as long as the tierde SS fades away during the Morning. It is possible he wakes up while he is in the deep sleep part of his sleep cycle.

 

[duyetanh]

But juggling is about hand-eye coordination which is needed in a lot of sports, so it could be a precursor to legit stuff

Juggling has actually been used as a tool in aiding when an athlete has a mental block. Just thought i would share. Go juggling!