May 01, 2007 Public school physical education stinks. Along with
that, we see record obesity, record low fitness, and record low
activity levels among school-age kids in the United States. How
many schools in the U.S. have a requirement for daily physical
education? How many schools provide adequate staff, equipment,
and time for physical education so it has a chance at being
effective? Although administrators everywhere in the U.S. will
say they do, it is a sad fact that, over and over again, the
norm is that free-for-all recess is counted as physical
education in many school systems. It is also common that
physical educators, like one I know in Bowie, Texas, have 65
kids and only 45 minutes, a gymnasium, limited resources, and a
state-mandated curriculum to work with. The curricula tend to be
focused either on short units on various team sports or on
"health" and "lifetime activities"--but never on fitness. All
these factors are a recipe for failure of epidemic proportion.
One of my master's students chroni