I’m a monkey in a long line of kings
Sleeping all afternoon makes sleeping at night that much harder
just a thought:
In the modern school system, marks for academic subjects like math and english are given in a simple way, right or wrong, did you understand the equation/book or not, so on and so forth.
Meanwhile courses like Phys. Ed. are more on effort and attitude then ability. Like you will still get a decent mark if you try hard.
Courses like Industrial Arts (Shop Class) or Home Ec. are in the middle, whereas your sanding, sewing and cooking skills are being judged as much as attitude.
According to most studies, the standard Western child is growing obese. If perhaps kids actually needed to be good at sports to pass a Phys. Ed. class, would that be necessarily wrong? Perhaps not even good at sports, but able to do a run in x amount of seconds, or lift x amount of weight? If we held Physical Activity to the same regard as English class, would it not result in a healthier, more well rounded student body?
I mean, sure some kids aren’t natural athletes, but just like studying algebra, they would have to practice soccer to make the grade.
It’s a pretty wild thought, but I’ve been mulling it over all night and haven’t found the hole in the argument yet. The only thing stopping it is the common stereotype of the lunkhead jock and the weak-armed brain, that and the lack of respect any physical activity class gets when compared apples for apples with another class. Witness the recent flip-flopping by the NS Department of Education who proposed that missing more then three days a year for extracurriculars would be punishable. Faced with the outcry from the NSSAF and others, they dropped the sports teams/drama clubs and other sanctioned groups.
According to the Jamie Muir, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Education, extracurricular trips by sports teams and other sanctioned groups will be exempt from the recently imposed three day limit. When contacted to ask whether the three day absentee limit will also apply to members of the provincial legislature, Mr. Muir’s office informed reporters that the Minister will answer any queries upon his return from a two week fact finding mission to Amsterdam.
The only thing holding that back is the fact that so many people would be opposed to it. It’s amazing how some people can exert so much effort just to avoid doing something. Of course you’re going to run in-to the kids who “arn’t jocks” etc, but just like you say, that shouldn’t stop them from actually trying. If a kid can’t read, he either fails, or gets help and learns, that is how the system works, and I agree that it should work the same way for Physical Education. It’s just unfortunate that Phys. Ed. has turned into a joke course, that many people do not take seriously anymore.
Not only do marks in Phys. Ed. have to be based on the efforts of the students, along with their performance in Physical Testing, but there must be reprocussions in failing to suceed. Just as like any other course, it should affect whether they graduate. It makes me think of some of those girls we knew in school who would sit on the stage, or convienently always forgot their gym clothes, those sort of things should affect their success in the course, and whether they are able to continue on throughout the further grades.
Something I know you remember from High School is the lack of forced Physical Activity in Senior High. In Junior we in Gym class, however once we got to Senior High, that class was completely dropped, and the only class that even slightly resembled our old Gym Class was that one flash of light that was PAL/CLM, which (much to the dismay of many of the people in our class) was not exactly as physically active as many of us wanted it to be, however we had to deal.
Comment by Chris — 28.9.2005 @ 9:54
I bet I’m one of the last people you expected to hear from on this topic but your thoughts got me thinking. You bring up some great points but I think it goes back even further than school. I’m not sure what things were like where you spent the majority of your early childhood but from what I recall and even today most physical activities are organized sport that you have to pay to take part in. I think the key would be more activities outside of that and for free. I have noticed the Shelburne Rec. Dept. has been trying to do more things like this the last few summers but it has to be an all year effort. Also, from what I remember we always had outdoors activities when I went to daycare and walks which was good but then when you got home, especially if you lived out of town and your parents worked till like 5ish like mine, you were lucky if you could go outside and play before it was time to have supper and get ready for bed. Luckily I lived off the road so I could easliy go out and play around the yard without my parents right by my side but then most of the activities are seditary, playing in the sandbox and swings…I mean they don’t require a lot of physical effort. I think Chris points out a lot of good things too…I think we should have had gym in senior high but I think the activities should focus more on what a person could do at home by themselves since most of the time you don’t have a whole team to play with and if you’re someone who sucks at sports. As for how gym grades are given I think it is screwed, I mean you should get some of it for effort because not everyone is going to be good at the stuff but you should have to put in a genuine effort for everything in that case not just the tests which is what seems to happen. Key is getting kids started early, making it a part of their regular routine at home.
Comment by Laura N — 28.9.2005 @ 13:54
Me again…just to comment on the 3 days off thing. It is stupid. That directly goes against the efforts to encourage physical activity. How about schools start actually enforcing good study habits and maintaining certain grades so kids can remain on teams. From what I remember the “good” student’s grades never suffered because of trips away…but the kids that always did the minimum amount of work were still allowed to play and then got a social pass to the next grade, I’m not including the kids that had legit reasons for doing the minimum, such as learning disabilities, because that is a whole other problem within the system and so are social passes in my opinion. Ok, now I’m really done.
Comment by Laura N — 28.9.2005 @ 13:59
I’m not sure if I disagree or agree….I think being good at reading is much more important than being good in gym. You can be fat and still have a decent job etc, but you can be stupid and not fat and be dick all….schools should worry about intelligence and leave gym how it is…two hours a week to get out of real class. Let parents and other people worry about health
Comment by Murf — 29.9.2005 @ 21:44