education comments - physical education

To encourage folks who might write a bit for the upcoming education post I offer a small piece on physical education.

 

Numerous studies suggest that fitness under the age of twenty is an extremely important predictor for health in later life. Particularly important as one gets above the age of 50.  My pre-college years were a mixed bag.  Kids were generally fit.  Most of us walked or rode bikes to school from the first grade on.  Bicycles were our mobility.  My town was about two by four miles with a handful of major roads with 35 mph limits.  Most streets were posted 20 or 25 mph and lightly traveled.   While Montana has a bit of extreme weather, the number of days when you couldn't ride or walk to school was fairly small.  I even had snow tires on my Winter "beater."

 

Physical education in the schools meant gym class.  It wasn't all that different than math or science class - the focus was on those who were involved in school sponsored sports .. sort of the pre-professional track.  (High school football and basketball were enormous in the day. A visit to the barbershop .. sort of the local bookie .. would see thousands of dollars wagered.)  Those of us who weren't good at the right sports were given Cs for effort.  By the metric of what was deemed important I felt lucky to get a C.  A tall friend was uninterested in basketball so the teacher gave him Ds as punishment.   Classes consisted of  nominal calisthenic and weight training sessions follows by semi-disorganized attempts at sports.  Probably very boring for the stars and borderline torture for someone like me.  

 

The 9^th grade saw an experiment to spend a couple of months doing very different physical activities.. things like tennis, archery and marksmanship (Montana, remember?).  As it happens I'm a good shot ..  a pacifist marksman.  My Dad would take me hunting and fishing, but I had seen Bambi and refused to kill anything.  Still I learned to shoot and have an ability to control my heart rate - a special skill in the sport that I happened to have.  I turned out to be ok at the biathlon.  I'm not that fast on skis, but have endurance and didn't miss my targets so I didn't have to ski penalty laps.  I had a good time in gym until someone stole the teacher's prize bow.   All of the boys had to do "torture cal" for the rest of the year until the perpetrator was turned in (that never happened).

 

These days kids do much less active (muscle powered) transportation.  And, at least around here, you rarely see them out playing.  On the other hand kids who are good at sports often receive serious training outside of school. It isn't uncommon for someone to spend a few thousand bucks sharpening their daughter's volleyball or their son's soccer skills.  I'd hazard a guess that the distribution of fitness levels has become much more bimodal than in the past.  Some kids are doing extremely well, while many are worse off.

 

So what would I do?

 

I'd love to see more active transportation..  visit the Netherlands or Denmark for a taste.  That seems unlikely given parental fears, a lack of infrastructure and perhaps over-scheduling.  But there are other possibilities.

 

I had come to hate gym, so when I went to college I was worried about the PE requirement.  As it turns out I was in for a surprise.  The college had come to the conclusion that it's students should find a physical activity or two they enjoy - perhaps even love - enough to continue on their own.  Hopefully for the rest of their lives.  The first two weeks of class had us meet with someone who would run us through a series of tests.  Sort of what you'd expect from a good personal trainer.

 

I was told something I knew already - that I'm terrible at sprinting and jumping.  But then the surprise.  They told me that I had endurance - a lot of it.  In fact my slow to fast twitch ratio was very high - like a marathon runner's.¹  They have me try a number of  activities.  Running didn't work out, but cycling and rowing were on the mark.  A century (100 miles  Pasadena to the beach near Irvine and back was the standard) bike ride wasn't a terribly big ride and I did more than my share.   Rowing, given the right sheet of water, can be splendid.

 

That's what I'd like to see:    PE instructors finding out what kids can do well and what might motivate them to make physical activity something to look forward to every day.  It can be done.  I know of at least one public high school that does it.  And don't detract from the kids who are outstanding at a sport - that's fine too.  It's how I'd like to see STEM taught..  something enjoyable and interesting for most kids and let those with extreme interest levels specialize.  More on that later.

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¹ One niece is a successful ultra marathoner, the other runs half marathons.  Both are terrible jumpers and sprinters.

 

 

Comments

[Nancy White]

This seems like such a loving, kindness way of approaching learning. Wonderful!

[Gregg Vesonder]

I wonder if STEM/STEAM can have the same sort of personal trainer - in fact what the heck include the PE too. This would begin to prepare the student for the future. And personal powered transportation would not be a bad idea either. I felt bad that we could not take bikes to school in Western PA, probably because fo the hilly terrain and narrow roads. But we did walk many times. Great entry Steve!

[steve]

Thanks Gregg.. that's an excellent suggestion.

[Jheri]

I also found physical activities I loved in spite of school. I am tall and didn’t like volleyball or basketball so the gym teacher didn’t like me. I used my bike everywhere even in the Winter like you. When I was on my own I biked everywhere because didn’t have a car. Someone suggested I visit a personal trainer and that’s when I learned a liked a lot of things. It would be wonderful if gym class would have encouraged us.