Of Cats and Kids
Unsent letters, P.E. teacher edition
Posted by: Carol Lombardi
Tuesday, January 23, 2007 10:33 PM
Dear P.E. teacher,It must be great to be at the forefront of the fight against childhood obesity. You have awesome power to influence the young children you see every day, the power to give them the lifelong gift of a love of physical activity. You have the power to launch them on the healthiest possible path, one they will follow for the next 80 or so years. What an amazing job and responsibility you have.
Except apparently we do not see eye to eye on your job description.
You know my kid. As she told me today, she's the "slowest and clumsiest one in the class, the one who always gets tagged first" and subsequently spends much of her P.E. class sitting on the bleachers watching the other kids play.
I'm not arguing that she isn't the slowest and clumsiest kid in her class. I suspect she is, because there isn't a classmate in an iron lung to boost her out of last place. But she's smart, energetic and well-behaved and has a great attitude and work ethic. She's the kind of kid who takes to heart what the teacher says.
You could teach her stuff, if you wanted to and if you would acknowledge that just maybe she hasn't reached her full athletic potential yet. Seven-year-olds are 95% promise and possibility. They are guaranteed to surprise you if your eyes and heart are open to it. But you have to give them a chance. Over time, untapped promise and possibility morph into anger and frustration.
She could probably even help you think up a new game (i.e. one not based on a video game), a game where the less able kids aren't humiliated, then eliminated one by one and left on the sidelines to watch the athletic superstars get their daily workouts.
She does her best. She does not do THE best, but she does HER best. She is ready to absorb whatever wisdom and encouragement you are willing to offer. So offer some, ok? Teach.
Comments
All too often 'teachers' focus on what kids need to learn to pass that year's criteria -- whether it be state/federal high-stakes academic testing, or the intricate rules of the various flavors of kickball.
A concept that can readily be applied to put the Education back in PE comes from Rafe Esquith's 'Teach like your Hair's on Fire" and that is to not train students for what they need this year, but for what they'll need 5 to 10 years from now...
How does this apply to PE? Instead of forcing students to run around a track, do jumping jacks, sit-ups, etc that are repetitive, boring and universally hated (in the name of a Presidential Fitness Program), expose them to a wide array of Physical Activities so that they find one or two that they enjoy so they'll WANT to go on doing it the rest of their lives. Yoga. Swimming. Bicycling. Skating. Dancing. Hiking. Walking. Trail-running. These are life-long activites that can be done well into one's senior years. Kickball and Dodgeball are not, and as such should be relegated to recess, not a staple of PE. If education is the goal.
The fastest cure for a clumsy kid (or adult) is Yoga. It also teaches one how to focus oneself in all aspects of schoolwork in our overstimulating ADHD world as well as sport (shooting freethrows or throwing darts, for example). The fastest cure for a lower extremity sports injury (and general soreness) is time spent in a pool. The fastest cure for an overweight youth and adult population is helping them find something active they love to do, and encourage them to do it every day. Not teaching them how to benchwarm or stand around out in left field or wait for your turn at bat.
I know many, many of my friends dreaded PE in Elementary through High School until they 'rediscovered' the fun of sports and physical activity -- once participating on their own terms in college/adult-hood and it became fun again.
Physical Fitness educators need to step back and evaluate what long term lessons they want their students to learn, and contrast that with the message they are sending their students.
Kids are like puppies -- throw a ball out in the middle of them and they'll run around, have fun and amuse themselves for hours. Put a leash on them and make them sit, and well, they learn to sit.
Posted by dw on February 3, 2007 at 3:05 AM
Kids are not like puppies.
Posted by nick on February 16, 2007 at 10:56 AM
