Nicole (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trickykitty) wrote2015-09-05 08:20 am
trickykitty) wrote2015-09-05 08:20 am
Entry tags:
Phys Ed
My nephew sprained his ankle in his P.E. class, and it got me to thinking.
P.E. is NOT Physical Education, as the name implies. Yeah, the kids get exercise, but wouldn't it be wonderful if P.E. actually was a class about educating kids on the aspects of their physical bodies? Understanding food and diet, which could include learning to read food labels. Understanding calories and other terms that relate to the balance between food and exercise and what they mean. Learning how to track daily workouts using paper and pencil as well as modern technology, such as a walking counter/meter on a smart phone or smart watch.
All I've ever known of P.E. was that it was the alternative to athletics (read: sports and gymnastics), and that the kids participate in physical activities, but not really learn about their own physical bodies. I'm all for there being an alternative. I participated in athletics throughout all of junior high and high school, but I always hated the team sports (namely, volleyball and basketball for me as a girl). I was fine in track and cross country, and I loved when I finally joined the tennis team, and I'd been bowling since I was a little one, but those were individual, or at most doubles, sports where I wasn't having to coordinate with a team of other players. And some of those athletics teachers can be rough, which was one of the reasons I stopped being in band - for every 10 athletic teachers, there's one band instructor that feels more like a drill sergeant than those 10 athletic instructors combined ever wished they could be.
I just think it would be neat if those kids in P.E. who otherwise probably could care less about sports, and maybe even learning, were somehow primed to be open to the areas of fitness, nutrition, and maybe even physiology. There's a fallacy that the non-smart, non-atheletic kids won't succeed in those areas of study, but I think priming them to at least know about them while they are still in grade school would help open the door to new possibilities for them. It could still be an "easy A" class, but throw some actual EDUCATION into the Physical Education course.
P.E. is NOT Physical Education, as the name implies. Yeah, the kids get exercise, but wouldn't it be wonderful if P.E. actually was a class about educating kids on the aspects of their physical bodies? Understanding food and diet, which could include learning to read food labels. Understanding calories and other terms that relate to the balance between food and exercise and what they mean. Learning how to track daily workouts using paper and pencil as well as modern technology, such as a walking counter/meter on a smart phone or smart watch.
All I've ever known of P.E. was that it was the alternative to athletics (read: sports and gymnastics), and that the kids participate in physical activities, but not really learn about their own physical bodies. I'm all for there being an alternative. I participated in athletics throughout all of junior high and high school, but I always hated the team sports (namely, volleyball and basketball for me as a girl). I was fine in track and cross country, and I loved when I finally joined the tennis team, and I'd been bowling since I was a little one, but those were individual, or at most doubles, sports where I wasn't having to coordinate with a team of other players. And some of those athletics teachers can be rough, which was one of the reasons I stopped being in band - for every 10 athletic teachers, there's one band instructor that feels more like a drill sergeant than those 10 athletic instructors combined ever wished they could be.
I just think it would be neat if those kids in P.E. who otherwise probably could care less about sports, and maybe even learning, were somehow primed to be open to the areas of fitness, nutrition, and maybe even physiology. There's a fallacy that the non-smart, non-atheletic kids won't succeed in those areas of study, but I think priming them to at least know about them while they are still in grade school would help open the door to new possibilities for them. It could still be an "easy A" class, but throw some actual EDUCATION into the Physical Education course.