Boston’s schools go lacking in phys-ed

[LWolf]

Data show 1 in 4 students have none. City ordered to create plan to fix problem.

By Bob Hohler
Globe Staff / July 13, 2009

<snip>
Boston’s public schools have failed to provide any formal instruction in physical education to about 25 percent of the city’s students, despite a state law that requires physical education be taught to all students in all grades.

<snip>
Though other schools nationwide have also drastically cut or eliminated physical education amid a push to improve test scores in literacy and math, the survey results underscore the breadth of chronic problems in Boston school athletics that were detailed in a recent Globe series. Mayor Thomas M. Menino responded to the series by announcing he would form a nonprofit charitable foundation aimed at raising millions of dollars to close crucial funding gaps in city sports programs.

The mayor’s spokeswoman, Dot Joyce, referred questions about physical education to the school department.

Boston School Superintendent Carol R. Johnson said she has tried to offset the deficiencies in physical education by developing a creative plan to promote physical activity in the schools through a wide range of partnerships with nonprofit groups, as well as collaborating with the city’s community centers and Parks and Recreation Department.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/mcas/articles/2009/07/13/boston8217s_public_schools_lacking_in_phys_ed_classes/?page=1

This is a long article, full of excuses and "creative" (read: non-funded, inadequate) ways to provide pseudo-pe for students.

I have a better suggestion. How about using that stimulus money that Obama/Duncan have tied to forcing their privatization "reforms" on states to, instead, provide funding for enough PE teachers to ensure that every student in the U.S. gets PE every day?

Providing jobs puts stimulus into the economy more than bad reform policies do. And it would improve the health of America's children, too.

Another suggestion: remove the high stakes testing that drives districts to cut back on everything but preparing for tests, and, instead, put the focus on serving the whole student. What a concept.

[FarCenter]

1. Have them do calisthenics in the classroom

You can get a fairly good exercise and physical conditioning program for all the students at minmal cost.

[LWolf]

2. lol.

Please come into my portable classroom when my 30+ 8th graders are there, and have them do calisthenics. Just don't expect them to be able to move their feet or arms from the space they take up standing there, because there is no other space. It's crowded. It's difficult to weave your way through the crowded bodies from one end of the room to the other when they are all seated.

Then, there is the raised floor/foundation factor that a portable classroom puts in the mix. Just walking across the room shakes things. Get 30+ teenagers "active," and things will be falling off the shelves.

Of course, I'm not in Boston. Teachers with multiple subject credentials, like myself, can be made to teach PE; they are licensed to do so. Teachers with single-subject credentials cannot, and are not.

PE is important, and PE is best taught be PE teachers, not by adding more responsibilities to teachers with academic responsibilities.

[FarCenter]

3. If you have them all do jumping jacks in unison...

maybe you will get a new classroom.

In the winter, when it was to cold to go outside, we used to do calisthenics. And it helped to keep us warm.

[LWolf]

4. I don't object to movement in the room, given space.

When I taught smaller class sizes, and smaller people ;), we danced, stretched, did yoga poses, etc..

That's not PE, though. That's a physical break to keep blood flowing through their brains and alleviate the discomfort and brain-killing boredom that sitting too long brings on.