The general decline in standards today

[sheeplady]

You can argue with the way phys-ed is taught -- I hated, and still hate, volleyball with the flame of a thousand suns -- but you can't argue with the fact that kids today are fatter and more sedentary than ever. If mom and dad aren't going to kick their doughy backsides into the street to work off the blubber, somebody's got to. We need more phys-ed, not less.

Also, although I am not a fan of watching sports, there is something to be said in students understanding how various sports work. For instance, being able to understand how a baseball game is played, what happens in a basketball game, etc. I think should be a part of our general education. Other's may disagree, but I think it's a part of our culture and therefore we should have a reasonable understanding of it by the time we reach adulthood. I'd rather have kids learn about sports by playing them than by watching them on TV.

I hated a lot of gym in school but I also loved some other parts of it. I would really like to see the curriculum revised and include things like healthy eating and more options than simply sports- things like dance, yoga, weighlifting, etc. We did some line dancing in school and I always loved that unit. Same with field hockey, tag football, basketball, etc. Essentially, I would like to see PE set up less as sports and more as physical activity- even things like hiking should be included.

But you are right, we need to teach kids healthy habits somehow.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I despised games / PE "lessons" at school. I remember being especially angry that the school wasted money on keeping two full-time games teachers and all sorts of equipment when there was a shortage of funding for academic subjects (of course, looking back it's possible that the education board dictated this and not the school). Sport does enough damage to culture without having it forced on kids at school. I only wish I'd had the nerve to refuse to turn up for those "lessons". Over twenty years later, all they've left me with is an abiding contempt for sport.

The gym teachers that my kids had were heads and shoulders above the alcohol swilling Coach Rockjock types that I had to deal with. We only had to deal with phys ed for the first two years, thankfully.

As far as professional sports (at least in the US), I'm kind of partial to major and minor league baseball, but if NFL Football were to end tomorrow it would be a gain. Certainly, it would be no loss. There have been well over 200 game rule changes in the NFL over the last 20 years: how something that exists within that perimeter can be deemed a "sport" is beyond me. WWF pro wrestling has more credibility. At least most wrestling fans don't labor under any illusion that a lot of it is staged as a spectacle.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Too few credits in PE. Isn't that a load of crap! What a reason to not let a student graduate. PE should not even be a credited course. I somehow managed to get out of PE all through high school. I took study hall in the Art Department instead, and used the time to gain more art skills and credits - which I've actually used in life, unlike running track or playing dodge ball.

So you don't play in an ADAA-sanctioned dodgeball league?

 

[HudsonHawk]

I would really like to see the curriculum revised and include things like healthy eating and more options than simply sports- things like dance, yoga, weighlifting, etc. We did some line dancing in school and I always loved that unit. Same with field hockey, tag football, basketball, etc. Essentially, I would like to see PE set up less as sports and more as physical activity- even things like hiking should be included.

We did some of those things. We did everything from square dancing to archery. Lots of track and field type stuff (what you Euros call "athletics"). Come to think of it, things like basketball and volleyball were pretty minor.

 

[Zombie_61]

I moved to another state in my junior year. I was an honor roll student and had already been accepted into college when the counselor called me into her office right before Christmas break my senior year and said I was doing really well except for one thing...I wasn't going to graduate because I didn't take a state-mandated health class required for all incoming freshman. I explained that I lived in another state at the time which didn't require such nonsense, and she said "I understand...do you understand you're not going to graduate without it?" So I had to change up my schedule in the last semester of my senior year to take this stupid class, which was essentially "Venereal Disease and You"...

My wife had the same counselor I had, and he screwed her over as well. She moved from Illinois to California between her sophomore and junior years, and for some reason this jackass told her that the credits for the english classes she'd taken in Illinois during her freshman and sophomore years couldn't be transferred from state to state, and that she'd have to take them again. So he worked out a schedule, and she packed four years of high school english into her junior and senior years. Half-way through her senior year he called her into his office and asked why she had taken so many english classes. Again, he denied having told her to do so and informed her that, because she'd taken so many english classes, she hadn't taken some classes that were required for graduation, and wouldn't graduate. Like me, she got up and left his office, but he was able to convince her to come back and discuss the matter, and in the end he issued her a waiver for the missing classes and she graduated with her class. :frusty:

...On a side note, your credit system must have been a lot different than ours. In ours, 26 credits was more than two full years.

I don't know anything about how the credit system worked here in California when I was in high school (1975-1979). I only remember what he told me, and I don't think he even knew what he was talking about. What I do know is that I hated high school, so when he said I wouldn't graduate I saw no need to stay.

 

[rjb1]

I had a truly enlightened "phys-ed" teacher when I was in high school - he put physical fitness far ahead of sports and games.
He decided that everyone should pass the Marine Corps physical fitness test, which included a certain number of sit-ups, push-ups, distance running, etc.
We started out slowly and he got us all into good shape and then we all passed it.
I've never been in as good a physical condition in my life.
If all gym teachers were like him we would all be better off - literally.

(He later ran for a position on the local school board and became one of it's most competent and respected members.)

 

[HudsonHawk]

I had a truly enlightened "phys-ed" teacher when I was in high school - he put physical fitness far ahead of sports and games.
He decided that everyone should pass the Marine Corps physical fitness test, which included a certain number of sit-ups, push-ups, distance running, etc.
We started out slowly and he got us all into good shape and then we all passed it.
I've never been in as good a physical condition in my life.
If all gym teachers were like him we would all be better off - literally.

(He later ran for a position on the local school board and became one of it's most competent and respected members.)

We had to pass tests like this every year. I'm sure it wasn't like the Marine Corps test or anything, but you were required to do a certain number of situps, pushups, run a mile, etc to pass the class.

 

[LizzieMaine]

All of the major spectator sports had more actual participants seventy or eighty years ago than they do today. Every town, every factory, every club or organization had its local baseball or softball team, with regional leagues operating at different levels of skill. And every child knew you didn't need eighteen people, a laid-out field, uniforms, umpires, and coaches to play -- if there were only two or three of you you could play one-old-cat all day long and get all the exercise you needed. And with all the progress we've supposedly made toward involving more women in sports, there are far fewer women playing baseball and softball today than there were in the Era -- there hasn't been a viable professional women's baseball league since the early fifties.

Even basketball, which requires the least investment in equipment and space of any of the major team sports, had more participation in the Era than it does today. It wasn't until the glandular freaks of the NBA took over in the fifties and sixties that it became overwhelmingly a spectator event.

Pro football is an overhyped clown show at best, and a parade of vicious, semi-literate thugs disguised as athletes at worst. If it has any redeeming social value at all, I don't know what it is.

I like the idea of folding things like hiking, camping, and woodcraft into the greater field of physical education. Kids used to learn this stuff in the Scouts, but as membership in those organizations continues to decline, there's a real need for something else to come along to take it up. We have a local organization here called "Trekkers" which gets a lot of kids involved in the outdoors, but it can only handle so many kids. Something conducted thru the schools would be entirely appropriate, for my money.

 

[Touchofevil]

I had a truly enlightened "phys-ed" teacher when I was in high school - he put physical fitness far ahead of sports and games.
He decided that everyone should pass the Marine Corps physical fitness test, which included a certain number of sit-ups, push-ups, distance running, etc.
We started out slowly and he got us all into good shape and then we all passed it.
I've never been in as good a physical condition in my life.
If all gym teachers were like him we would all be better off - literally.

(He later ran for a position on the local school board and became one of it's most competent and respected members.)

The most common complaint I hear from P.E. teachers is that they cannot get many of their students to consistently dress down let alone participate in the day's activity. When I was a youngster, it was understood that you were to dress down and participate on a daily basis without question.

 

[rjb1]

It may or may not have been the real thing when it comes to the Marine Corps, but we did get a certificate (suitable for framing) to that effect at the end. It was a school-year-long preparation, so we really were in good shape at the end. It was probably connected to the governmental push for better-condition kids that Lizzie mentioned.

 

[rjb1]

"When I was a youngster, it was understood that you were to dress down and participate on a daily basis without question."

The good PE teacher I mentioned had a strict rule that *everyone* had to dress out and participate unless you had "fungus of the rungus". (and had a note from a doctor about that)

 

[Touchofevil]

"When I was a youngster, it was understood that you were to dress down and participate on a daily basis without question."

The good PE teacher I mentioned had a strict rule that *everyone* had to dress out and participate unless you had "fungus of the rungus". (and had a note from a doctor about that)

The Strict Rule is why we have so many students needing to retake P.E. classes. The apathy is pathetic.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

PE was mandatory at the small High School that I attended. Outside in good weather..inside in winter. I actually enjoyed the time out of the class room and looked forward to it each day.
HD

 

[31 Model A]

Has anyone noticed how boot camp reality shows seems to be a big hit and the boot camp type training camps some states now have to assist with troubled kids today????? Gee.....if this country still had the draft, would it not be the same and at the same time the security of out country would not fall on the one percent who serve? Would we still have the obese problem?????? To me it sounds as if the elimination of the draft did this country more harm than good. Yes, standards are low today for many reasons....IMO and there is no turning back. It's not the lack of education, education is provided, discipline and personal responsibility is not.

 

[Matt Crunk]

The big push for physical education in US schools came out of a concern in the early fifties that American kids were getting too fat and sedentary. "The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports" came out of this period, along with mandated phys-ed classes, which were universal by the early sixties, and remained so into the eighties.

You can argue with the way phys-ed is taught -- I hated, and still hate, volleyball with the flame of a thousand suns -- but you can't argue with the fact that kids today are fatter and more sedentary than ever. If mom and dad aren't going to kick their doughy backsides into the street to work off the blubber, somebody's got to. We need more phys-ed, not less.

There are always some kids who love and excel at PE - the natural athletes who usually also participate in team sports. But there are also kids (among which I was one) who hate being forced into structured physical activity, had little to no interest in team sports, and had much rather sit out PE or take a study hall instead. You cannot make children enjoy PE by forcing it on them. Those who do not enjoy it will always do the bare minimum required to get by, and odds are it will have no effect on their habits later in life.

I might add that while I HATED being forced into physical activity, which in PE included walking, running, playing basketball or dodgeball - I was at the same time an avid roller skater, skateboarder, snow skier, swimmer, scuba diver, and a sponsored Bicycle Motocross racer (ranked 6th in my state) who got plenty of exercise on my own - but I got it doing things I loved, not what was forced on me by PE/gym class.

For the record, when I had to take a required PE class in college . . . I took bowling.

 

[Matt Crunk]

. . . there is something to be said in students understanding how various sports work. For instance, being able to understand how a baseball game is played, what happens in a basketball game, etc. I think should be a part of our general education.

I'm not sure if it's the same way for kids today, but in my day kids, especially boys, learned the basic rules of those games (football, baseball, basketball, even soccer) on the playground in grade school - during recess, not PE class, which didn't come until junior high.

 

[jamespowers]

There are always some kids who love and excel at PE - the natural athletes who usually also participate in team sports. But there are also kids (among which I was one) who hate being forced into structured physical activity, had little to no interest in team sports, and had much rather sit out PE or take a study hall instead. You cannot make children enjoy PE by forcing it on them. Those who do not enjoy it will always do the bare minimum required to get by, and odds are it will have no effect on their habits later in life.

I might add that while I HATED being forced into physical activity, which in PE included walking, running, playing basketball or dodgeball - I was at the same time an avid roller skater, skateboarder, snow skier, swimmer, scuba diver, and a sponsored Bicycle Motocross racer (ranked 6th in my state) who got plenty of exercise on my own - but I got it doing things I loved, not what was forced on me by PE/gym class.

Agreed! That was my problem with it as well.

 

[jamespowers]

The Strict Rule is why we have so many students needing to retake P.E. classes. The apathy is pathetic.

I actually flunked PE one quarter. Not because I didn't do anyting but because I was doing something when they told us to stop. lol lol

I would much prefer children today be taught how to budget money and understand household finance---now THAT is something every one can us throughout life and not be suckered by the guys from marketing. Hat on backward stuff they can figure out on their own.

 

[jamespowers]

The big push for physical education in US schools came out of a concern in the early fifties that American kids were getting too fat and sedentary. "The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports" came out of this period, along with mandated phys-ed classes, which were universal by the early sixties, and remained so into the eighties.

You can argue with the way phys-ed is taught -- I hated, and still hate, volleyball with the flame of a thousand suns -- but you can't argue with the fact that kids today are fatter and more sedentary than ever. If mom and dad aren't going to kick their doughy backsides into the street to work off the blubber, somebody's got to. We need more phys-ed, not less.

What we need are parents who will go out with their children and play with them---not let the TV, videogames etc. babysit them. That always works for me. No video game consoles in this house.
Letting the government dictate when and where to play stinks.

 

[jamespowers]

I'm not sure if it's the same way for kids today, but in my day kids, especially boys, learned the basic rules of those games (football, baseball, basketball, even soccer) on the playground in grade school - during recess, not PE class, which didn't come until junior high.

Same here.