By Steve Jefferies (Admin) on Friday, May 18, 2001 - 12:51 pm: Edit

A change we need to make in physical education is the view that getting kids in shape necessitates lap running and mind-numbing calisthenics. Forcing fitness on people of any age never really works - they just quit when participation becomes optional! More effective, is to encourage youth to try activities that are fun, physically active, and leave participants wanting more. These "physically educated" students then become adults who are skillful, physically fit, and lead healthy, active lifestyles. We risk turning kids off of physical education when we always start lessons off with running or exercises. It's time for a change.

By Brian Barrett on Thursday, May 31, 2001 - 08:27 pm: Edit

I agree with Steve Jefferies. I have been teaching elementary PE for 22 years and have gone through several philosophical changes. For years I had children running laps, circuit training (pre-programmed pauses in the audio music tape to signal a switch),lifting small weights, dyna bands, bench stepping, etc etc. For the past 10 years I have been using very carefully selected, created, and modified low organized games to meet the social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs of my students. I use games for warm-ups, games for cardio, games for strength, games for flexibility. I use no traditional ADULT type exercises. My kids have never had so much fun and gotten such a great workout at the same time. Least you think that fitness is all my PE program is about I use games to develop 1)perceptual motor skills, 2)listening skills, 3) social skills, 4) the ability to focus, concentrate and persevere, 5) thinking skills, 6) physical abilities, and 7) the relaese of stress and excess energy. Often times these other objectives and the fitness objectives can be accomplished together in the same game.

Brian at http://hometown.aol.com/fitplay/index.html

By Lori (Lori) on Tuesday, January 08, 2002 - 03:04 pm: Edit

I also agree. One of my goals in my programs have always tried to make it fun for everyone. Modifying when necessary so that success can be achieved. Challenging? I have never heard a student say it wasn't. But, they did it and had fun doing it. What I have found though is that when kids feel they can do something or they can improve they have more fun when they succeed.

You might try this little experiment when you are working on that mile run requirement.
As a coach I know as many of you do, that we can not do something once a week and expect great changes. Yet, many programs still require the kids to run the mile once a week, timed, and if they do not pass it in a certain amount of time they fail. Well, it was my classes turn. About 70 percent would walk, 20 percent would walk/run, and maybe 10 percent would jog the entire mile. After the first trimester I told my students that we were going to try something a little bit different. We would only test in the mile once a month. We would run 1 lap each day for a month. Many of them thought, "I could do that." For those kids who were overweight or perhaps PE was the first experience in any physical activity they saw a little light in the tunnle. At the end of the first month everyone improved. Times were better, kids who walked the mile jogged half or the entire mile. The second month we did 2 laps. Times continued to improve. Best of all the fear of the mile wasn't there.
A little change to our games, a few twists in our norms, and we have some fun and improved programs that our kids enjoy doing and help us to get out of the rut of being boring and old.

By Kenneth Clark on Tuesday, March 19, 2002 - 07:42 am: Edit

I also believe there needs to be a change in the way we incorporate physical fitness in the physical education program. If children do not like the activity that they are participating in, then they are not going to want to do it and they certainly arenât going to do it out side of the class room. I like the idea of playing games for the warm up. I am still in college, but when I was observing a physical education class the instructor had the children go into instant activity as soon as they entered the classroom. Not only did it save time but it also was fun for the children. Another thing I believe we need to do is educate the older children on fitness. When I was in high school no one taught me how easy it was to be physically fit. I didnât realize how easy it was to stay healthy until I took a Lifetime Fitness course in college. If you took a brisk thirty minute walk three times a week it would greatly lower your risk for cardiovascular disease. You could even break it up into ten minute increments throughout the day. If we could somehow integrate this type of information into our classrooms, then I feel the children would make a conscious effort to stay fit.