Do you remember push-ups, trying to keep up with your school’s track star while running laps, straining to pull your chin up over a bar that was three feet over your head? If you do, you remember the regimen that was, and for many students still is, Physical Education.
However, there’s a movement afoot toward a kinder, although not necessarily gentler, physical education. The “new” physical education is not a specific curriculum or program; it is, instead, a new paradigm, a new philosophy. Different teachers might emphasize different aspects of the new physical education, but they share the same fundamental vision of what physical education should be all about: Helping young people enjoy physical activity now and for the rest of their lives.
The new physical education:
* emphasizes knowledge and skills for a lifetime of physical activity;
* is based on national standards that define what students should know and be able to do;
* keeps students active for most of class time;
* provides many different physical activity choices;
* meets needs of all students, especially those who are not athletically gifted;
* features cooperative, as well as competitive, games;
* develops student self-confidence and eliminates practices that humiliate students (e.g., having team captains choose sides, dodgeball, and other games of elimination);
* assesses students on their progress in reaching goals, not on whether they achieve an absolute standard;
* promotes physical activity outside of school;
* teaches self-management skills, such as goal-setting and self-monitoring;
* focuses, at the high school level, on helping adolescents make the transition to a physically active adult lifestyle;
* actively teaches cooperation, fair play, and responsible participation in physical activity, and
* is an enjoyable experience for students.
The need to get young people moving is undeniable. Less than half (49%) of high school students (grades 9–12) in the U.S. are enrolled in physical education classes, and only 27% take physical education daily. While physical activity among children is waning, overweight is increasing at alarming rates: From 1963 to 1994, overweight in children aged six–17 years more than doubled from approximately 4% to approximately 11%.
One of the most important aspects of the new physical education is—it’s FUN! A recent report on a national survey of children and their parents found that children who enjoy physical education class are more likely to have physically active lives (Sallis, J.F., et al. Correlates of physical activity in a national sample of girls and boys in grades 4 through 12. Health Psychology 1999;18(4):410–415). The report indicates that enjoying physical education class was one of only three factors that were associated with increasing students’ overall levels of physical activity; the other two factors were 1) spending afternoon free time outdoors or playing sports and 2) family encouragement of physical activity.
The new physical education has a way to go before becoming the norm rather than the exception. In many school districts, budget cuts and full schedules have drastically reduced or eliminated physical education altogether. But, in other districts, new activities—from inline skating to power walking, country line dancing to ultimate frisbee— and a new approach to instruction and class management are changing the shape of physical education.
As the popularity of the new physical education increases among students, parents, educators, and administrators, it has caught the eye of the national media, making recent headlines in the Washington Post, Kansas City Star, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal. The Star asked its readers, “Does P.E. stand for ‘Pretty Exciting’?” and answered, “It does…in many schools that are emphasizing more fun, flexibility.”
At Cabell-Midland High School in Ona, WV, students are donning wet suits, skis, and bicycle helmets and taking their activities to the great outdoors. One of the school’s physical education courses introduces students to outdoor activities such as mountain biking, whitewater rafting, and cross country and downhill skiing. Students are taught to develop the skills and endurance needed for safe participation in each of the activities. Students develop portfolios that include reading, writing, Internet, and mathematical assignments related to the physical activity they are studying. For example, their portfolio might include maps of rivers where whitewater rafting or trails for mountain biking are available in West Virginia.
Bane McCracken, Cabell-Midland’s director of physical education, says his approach to physical education emphasizes fitness and lifetime activity, and provides an outlet for students who might not be into traditional, competitive sports. “If we’re only teaching sports skills, we’re not doing our job,” McCracken said. By rewarding students for effort, McCracken de-emphasizes the pressures of competition that are a major turnoff to physical activity for many students. “When we play sports, we keep pulse, not score,” he said. That’s just one of the new ideas that are making the new physical education one of the most rewarding periods in the school day.
Source: The Academy of Educational Development’s online newsletter
