https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/01/why-pe-is-terrible/581467/
https://apackham.github.io/mywebsite/Packham_Street_TFN.pdf
Article and paper suggest that middle school PE was not generally successful at improving physical fitness, but resulted in more behavior problems and absences.
PE is a total waste of time and resources. The kids who want to be fit will be, and the ones who don’t, won’t. Just give the kids some unstructured time to run around or just hang out, and let broader society deal with how to get them involved in physical activity.
Schools should be primarily about academic learning, and as for the most part they can’t even do that adequately, we should be trimming their remit, not expanding it.
If P.E. does not improve physical fitness, you’re teaching it wrong.
I HATED PE and I was always a very fit athlete. Being a varsity athlete allowed to me to opt out of one semester of gym but still had to take the basic gym class.
But, a few days a month I had to tell my elderly male gym teacher that my cramps were too bad to participate. It’s something I’d have no problem doing today if needed but as a 14 year old girl in pain with undiagnosed PCOS, it was torture. I more than once stayed home rather than have that conversation. Again.
Our middle school PE was pretty interesting. We were introduced to a wide range of sports that we learned the rules and tried out: gymnastics including the horse and other apparatus (also basics like forward & backward roll & cartwheel), basketball, soccer, football, golf, meditation and progressive relaxation, and even ballroom dancing. Our kids were taught bike safety and tennis as part if their grade school PE.
I agree having it properly taught is important. It would have been more inspiring to have teachers that appeared fit and to care about their bodies—several of the PE teachers were morbidly obese.
@SatchelSF I think we all would agree that schools primary function is academic learning however we on CC tend to focus on the high end of the learning scale and forget about the other part of the equation.
In my experience, PE has become much more than “dodgeball”. Health education is covered as part of PE and where available, the critically important swimming, which is really water life safety for those not able to swim already.
If we were to cut PE as not being an academic portion of school what else gets cut? Band, drama, choir because they are not academic subjects in many people’s minds? Do we cut what used to be called industrial arts or shop because they are not academic subjects? These are all things that are important to different segments of society and future career options. Who makes the decision what is important and what is not? I have said for years that our society has changed for the worse with the “everybody needs to go to college” mantra. No they don’t. The world still needs ditch diggers. We need people to work physical labor jobs and PE very much fits in to that equation.
I would be interested to find out if the get similar results away from the football-mad Texas schools. PE teacher is often a path for the highly-paid coaches.
S2’s STEM HS has no PE nor the facilities for it. They had to write a comprehensive paper as a graduation requirement. For him, this was better. He ended up at the office a few times from Jr. High PE.
Both of my kids went to a private MS/HS. They had the option of regular PE or athletic PE. Mine both took athletic PE and enjoyed it. They focused on strength and endurance training, stretching and other ways to avoid injury (including heat related injuries), nutrition for athletes, plus some sports medicine introduction. They could do some of the physical therapy during that time if needed for their sport and a couple days a week they could opt to practice with their team or coach a bit early (or late).
Regular PE did roller skating, golf, ultimate frisbee, tennis along with more traditional sports, yoga, pilates, zumba, nutrition, general health. I didn’t feel either was a waste of time. Both my kids felt it was a good break from the academics. My D needed it because sports was the ONLY way she was motivated to go to school and graduate. Son just enjoyed it as a break from his other classes. When he transferred to public school in 10th grade he really missed PE and was no longer in the school’s athletics. (He played I/I polo after school)
Yes this was in TX
Middle school PE for my dd was torture. It was all running on the track. She HATED it.
HS PE was much more impactful. She only had to take two semesters but it was all based on living a healthy, active lifestyle, by doing activities that you find enjoyable. Kids were able to try out everything from yoga to rock climbing. It was wonderful and she loved it. She played sports too but that didn’t exempt anyone from PE.
PE no doubt works for some kids. The kids who wouldn’t have needed the dedicated PE class in the first place.
I am all for organized sports on a voluntary basis, and would favor shortening the school day and reinstituting traditional, unstructured “recess” to help kids get their “sillies” out (as mentioned by the article).
I just think hiring a bunch of teachers and creating a special class for PE is a waste of time and resources. The public schools in most areas of the country can’t even do an adequate job teaching the basic academic subjects (wealthy suburban districts of the kind overrepresented on CC are a notable exception). Let’s make the public school remit smaller, not bigger.
Yes, I would eliminate most of the other non-academic money sinks as well. We need to start pushing back against mission creep - the idea that schools should be all things to all people. Let the rest of society pick up the slack!
I’m totally for the idea of vocational schools BTW. The fallacy that every kid is interested in, or has the intellectual capacity for, a traditional college experience is a costly indulgence.
Our local school district has both traditonal and alternative PE. When I drive by in the mornings, alternative PE looks really alternative.
However, I’m a BIG fan of PE and subscribe to the Elle Woods Theory that “exercise increases endorphins, endorphins make you happy.” I’ll skip the next part of her line “and happy people don’t kill their husbands.” :))
My Jr High building was condemned the summer between 7th and 8th grade. The school district knew it was a problem and had had several bond issues to build a new building while I was in elementary school. The bond issues all failed and then the building failed.
So, during my 8th grade year we were allowed to use only the first floor of this 3 floor building. Band, choir, lunch, PE, and Art were all in the gym and the guidance counselor’s office was in one of the locker rooms.
We went outside a lot for PE when the weather allowed. But, it was Iowa and the weather didn’t usually allow.
We often sat at the lunch tables and played cards. I learned to be a good hearts and euchre player that year. @-)
She may have hated it, but that sounds like a good class to me. Nothing is more important for lifelong cardiovascular health than regular cardio.
@roethlisburger - That’s all they did for an entire semester. On the track. Every time. The HS and park with the cross country trails were right next door and they never used them once.
The PE requirement in our public HS is a joke - total waste of time. Two semesters required. Then what? Our HS has great facility for scholastic players (weight rooms etc), but they are not made available to the students enrolled in PE. Why? I’d be much happier if our D could use that time for additional academics or perhaps a fun elective. She’s been into competitive soccer since 3rd grade. Currently trains 3 days week with games on weekends so fitness isn’t an issue.
It isn’t shocking that most negative responses for PE revolve around ones own child. Well, school curriculum thankfully doesn’t revolve around one child. Does your kid hate music too? Art? Post #5 says it best.
Not shocking at all, that’s how we gain perspective. Don’t get me wrong, the semester requirement for a Health class I see as valuable. PE in the abstract should be valuable as well, however, the PE class as delivered at our HS is worthless. An easy A, but utterly worthless.