PE in schools

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Elementary School Parents

Hi All,

I'm Karena and very new, so be gentle.

Here goes. My son is in 5th grade and what the Board of Education has marked as a poor school with a nearly failing grade -- also note the school is run by the state due to poor managment. Since the start of school I've had a number of issues with the school. This is just one of them, my son has gym twice a week. It seems as though there's always some sort of assembly or gym is canceled for some reason or another. The gym that he has doesn't seem to be much of an workout either, I remeber really playing gym when I was in school, breaking a sweat. Does anyone else find this happening in their schools.

Kpowell

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Parent Replies to "PE in schools"

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Karena,

I took on our school and district when my son was in 1rst grade (2 years ago) because they eliminated the PE program all together! The teachers were supposed to teach it but they never did....the principal fired the PE teacher due to a lack of funds. So...after researching the matter...it is against the law for any California school not to be having 200 minutes of physical education per every 10 days of school. There is also a state curriculum for PE...a core curriculum that schools are supposed to follow. If you live in California go to the State of Ca website and schools etc...then you can find curriculum. If you are in a different state you can probably find your curriculum requirements for PE the same way. If your school is "out of compliance" with state mandated curriculum you need to report them and they will regret being"out of compliance". You need to use those terms exactly by the way.Being out of compliance and reported for it starts some pretty intensive investigating into the school on all levels and no school or district wants that. Good luck...I threatened to report our school and the threat alone got them to rehire the PE teacher and reinstitute our PE program.

wow I don't know if I've been lucky w/my daughter and her schools or Texas has a really good requirement for PE. In k-4 she had it every day and did some sort of excercising/gym thing and now in 5th (diff. school) she has it for an hour 3 times a week and also does PE "stuff"... they even have them suit up in a uniform. She moves again to another school for 6th next year and I'm a little worried about them as they are a Tier 1 school so guess I'll see.

Here's a source for some important scientific data supporting the need for exercise:
FROM www.carrollschool.org:
Research Update: "Spark" by Dr. John Ratey

"Spark" written by Dr. John Ratey of Harvard Medical School lays out a compelling agenda for today's schools. We have long known that exercise (elevated heart rate, aerobic exercise) makes people feel good. It improves our health, our mood, and keeps anxious behaviors at bay. Ratey makes the case that "exercise is the single most powerful tool that we have to optimize the function of our brains." What is this saying to schools? Shouldn't schools redesign themselves to begin every day with this type of exercise? Exercise amplifies the production of brain-derived neurotropic factors (Miracle-Gro for the brain) that make the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex ready to learn. The only school system in America (Naperville, Illinois) that performs consistently with the top achieving countries in the world in math and science employs this exercise philosophy.

i just sent out the same question. My daughter has gym 1 time a week and weather permitting outside recess. NOT ENOUGH. There has been times she tells me that for gym class they watched a movie-explain that. I asked the PE teacher why that was, and he told me its in the cirriculiam for the marking period. schools need to take some responsability for child obeisity -they do have our children for six hours out of the day!!!

Not sure of your son's school or state, but look up the requirements. Some states require an amount of time to be allocated for PE. It would in your son's interest to google this information and coordinate this with the school pe teacher. She could direct your next step. Keep in mind obesity in children is climbing and guidelines for physical exercise is being monitored to assist children in maintaining healthy lifestyle choices.

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