Physically Demanding
Submitted by Boys and Schools Blog
If you’ve ever spent the day looking after one or more young boys, then you probably know what it’s like to just be happy that they’re wrestling with each other rather than the furniture or innocent bystanders. And you probably are also familiar with the feeling that hits right around 2pm or so, where you would willingly saw off your own leg with a plastic dinner knife if you could just have a moment of peace. Not that my boys engender that emotion, of course. They’re too busy learning Latin and quietly diagramming sentences to, say, break three different lamps in the course of the day. Ahem. Anyway, like I was saying, if you do know the feeling I’m speaking of, then you can probably summon up more than a little sympathy for teachers, whose job it is to find constructive ways to channel the boundless energy of a group of young boys. Seriously, they deserve combat pay.
Anyway, there definitely are teaching strategies to help focus boys’ energy in the classroom so that they stay attentive instead of getting fidgity and making trouble. But two of the things that help boys stay active in school (and therefore give them an opportunity to move and expend energy so that they can better focus in class) seem to be in danger. I’m speaking, of course, of recess and physical education. I’ve written before about the move to shorten or otherwise limit recess in schools, but now it seems that phys ed classes are being overlooked, eliminated, or “fudged.” And this at the same time that schools are looking at how to combat childhood obesity. Here’s a hint: “fudging” gym class doesn’t help. (No pun intended.) Florida lawmakers are upset that schools aren’t following the spirit of the newly mandated 150 minutes of P.E. per week. While the intent was to get students outside and exercising, schools are counting things like stretching at their desks or walking to the lunch room as part of the mandatory P.E.
In their defense, the schools claim that there are insufficient funds for PE teachers and the activity the law desires, and that there is too little time in the school day to implement it. And while I sympathize with the stress of trying to find the gym teachers and meet the requirements, I can’t help but think that the complaints miss the bigger picture. By giving students the opportunity to get exercise, they might actually find that they’ll be helping themselves create more attentive students who are better prepared for class. Perhaps by spending time on PE, they’ll be saving time on admonishing kids who just need a little exercise and activity to better focus on their lessons.
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