I figured out how to Cut and Paste... finally! Here's the article I wrote on the other blog.
I went to my son's open house last week and had an encounter with "Coach" who is the... supervisor... for PE. I asked him if there was anything going on besides basketball at PE this year. "Yes," he assured me, "Sometimes we do calisthenic warm-ups before we play." "I see..." I said, all too clearly... then I started mouthing off. "What a great opportunity to expose these kids to sports that they will keep as a lifelong healthy habit." They nodded sagely. There were actually four of them standing around the sign in sheet table. "So are you teaching them all different kinds of warm ups? Aerobics? Tai Chi?" "What the heck is Tai Chi?" snorted the Coach. One of the other helpful souls chimed in, "I think you have to be certified to teach that." Which leads me to an in depth search as to what exactly PE Coaches ARE certified to do.
So obviously I am dealing with Philistines here. What makes me angry is not their lack of interest or knowledge of the field in which they are being paid to teach. Well, yes it does make me angry. But what I mean is, all the other teachers in that school have to follow a curriculum. The Science teachers, Social Studies teachers, English teachers, and Math teachers all have specific daily plans from the State BESE Board for teaching. This robs teachers of a lot of opportunities to explore their subject in more depth when the kids want to learn, of chances to go over material when the kids didn't get it well the first time, and of teaching things that the teacher may feel would benefit the kids more. In some cases the Comprehensive Curriculum is so regimented there is no room for any input from the teacher, and in some subjects important concepts are not covered because there is no time left. At best the Comprehensive Curriculum, designed so that students could transfer from one school on Friday and enroll in another one on Monday without missing anything, has so many daily achievements there is no time allotted for testing and assessment. Teachers struggle every day to follow the regimented tasks laid out for them by a committee at the Capitol, made by people who are not in classrooms and have distorted concepts of how all children are the same, and the same as when they went to school. These teachers work valiantly and successfully for the most part. Many stay after school for tutoring for the kids who don't get it in class.
Contrast this with the physical education program. First, the kids are graded on participation, which means they change into their PE uniform. Second, there is NO education. Besides Basketball, they do not learn rules to games, are not exposed to games, do not play games. Even in Basketball I have seen kids told to "get out the balls and play", no scoring, no rules, travelling all over the place, and no coaches in sight. Subjects like Baseball, Football, Track, Hockey, and Soccer are not covered at all. There are no comprehensive units designed to introduce a sport, explain the rules, test the kids on their knowledge of the rules, and play the game. Elementary School PE teachers go to great lengths to make interesting games for the kids to play, competitions that help them achieve, and goals to help them be successful physically. Since I have had children in middle school, and this will be my 7th Middle School year, 6th High School year, I have not heard about the boys doing anything but basketball (the girls seem to have a unit on Archery; but this was deemed "too dangerous" for the boys to learn.)
Not all boys enjoy basketball.
I know this is a news flash, and very unpopular for coaches to consider. But PE is the time the kids should be learning all kinds of sports, fostering that "lifelong habit of exercise" I was talking about earlier. Besides the big field sports, Tennis, Volleyball, Golf, Dance, Gymnastics and Tumbling, Weight Training, Skating, Bowling, Table Tennis, Fencing, and Swimming are all sports that most kids in Louisiana are never exposed to unless their parents have invested some serious interest and cash. Karate, Wrestling, and Boxing are also sports that some kids find their lifelong passion, and others are grateful to know something about. Truly, in an Olympic year, there is no excuse for not exposing children to these sports in the Physical Education classes in a safe, supervised environment.
It is shameful that the only class that is not completely structured by the state is not structured AT ALL at the local level.
In our paper today there was an article titled, "State's children get low health grade" (I don't know why they don't capitalize the important words any more, is this a local thing?) with a subtitle of "Study gives Louisiana a D in active youth report." I have seen the schools and the PE program and I would have been shocked if they had scored higher. For boys who don't excel at basketball, and since everyone plays it, few excel, nothing else is offered to them. Blaming parents for letting kids sit in front of the TV too much is on the front page. I am a little tired of seeing that if you give your kid a chance to sit down you are a bad parent. On page 8A where the article is continued it gives a D to physical education programs in the schools. I think this is fair. They are supposed to be learning in these classes, and exposed to sports they are not already doing.
Another problem is the lackluster way in which Health is presented. Also taught by the same enthusiastic coaches, you would think the class was Watching Paint Dry. The human body is a fascinating machine and we understand so little of it. What a terrific opportunity for kids to learn what makes your body healthy and how important it is to start and keep good health habits. The actual class is about as motivating as a bad cold.
I am all for deregulating the classrooms to give teachers more leeway in teaching. If a Social Studies teacher teaching World History wants to start with Ancient History instead of the Middle Ages, I think they should be able to do so. If a teacher wants to save the short story unit for the end of the year, I think that's fine. But please, please give some guidance these Physical Education coaches are needing so badly, since they don't seem self motivated. Which is why they call them Coaches, not Teachers.
