Move over, dodge ball
U.S. schools pump up phys-ed with more choices aimed at being ‘active for life’
You won’t find gym class on the schedule in upstate New York’s Victor school district.
What you will see: kayaking, rock climbing, mountain biking, dance, self-defence, archery and inline skating — all under the heading of physical education.
“We want our kids as they walk out of these halls in Grade 12 to be active for life,” said Ron Whitcomb, the district’s director of health, physical education and athletics.
With the childhood obesity rate at about 17 per cent, the U.S. federal education law passed in December 2015 elevates health and fitness to rank among things like art, music, civics and science as elements of a well-rounded education and makes additional funding available.
Experts say it’s a chance for more physical education teachers to look beyond graduation, too, and leave even the least competitive students with the will and skills to keep moving. In many places, that has meant more bike riding, outdoor hikes and yoga, and less dodge ball and shimmying up a rope — more choice about which activity to pursue and less emphasis on who’s the best at it.
In the shadow of Washington state’s Mount Rainier, physical education teacher Tracy Krause’s students have for several years been fly-fishing and rock climbing as part of an Outdoor Academy program that also incorporates English language arts and environmental science. All first-year students at Krause’s Tahoma High School take a foundations class that lets them explore things like dance, yoga, strength and conditioning.
Washington, D.C., teachers put all of the district’s second-graders on bicycles to gain a lifelong skill. Grade 4 and 7 students do parkour. D.C. sixth-graders learn orienteering, including how to read a compass and geocache. High schoolers swim.
On the flip side, schools are in- creasingly doing away with “human target” games like dodge ball in gym class, as well as team sports that may pit accomplished competitive athletes against classmates who would rather sit on the sidelines.
The goal should be to meet all students where they are and move forward, said Cheryl Richardson, senior director of programs at SHAPE America, the Society of Health and Physical Educators, not “where P.E. is so hard that they learn to hate it or associate it with some sort of torture.”
Gym class was so defeating for Christa Crawford Valency, 31, she transferred out of her private L.A. high school.
“The P.E. teacher was a former professional football player. He was … ‘ We’re going to run stairs,’ and I was just, like, throwing up. I could not keep up.”
“I was having panic attacks.”