I know that sounds like a line from the movie "Animal House", but it is not. 75% of Americans age 17 to 24 are ineligible for military service because they are undereducated obese, have a criminal record or a combination thereof. Even if military service is not in their plans, having 75% of youth who have medical problems, are dumber than rocks or who have rap sheets is not good for the economic future of this country.
(You don't have to ask anyone from the GOP to know what their answer is: "Cut taxes for the rich and let the free market fix it.")
After the Soviets surprised us with Sputnik, there were educational reforms to concentrate more on math and science education for children. There was a move to beef up phys-ed for children, in many school districts, phys-ed was required from kindergarten through high school.
Maybe it's time we start again.
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
3 comments:
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But that would require beefing up our (gasp) GOVERNMENT schools, and that would make the Free Market Fairy cry. We all know what the right-wing's solution is:
ReplyDelete1. Free Market Fairy waves her wand.
2. ????
3. Ponies!
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
You have a point, but I'm kind of scared about what mandatory physical education would be like.
ReplyDeleteI read this fascinating essay on how we teach math - and it was saying, if we taught *art* that way, we wouldn't let kids fool around with crayons and paints and clay - no, we'd teach them to mix colors, and name colors and shapes, and make them regurgitate theories, and if they were *really* advanced, we'd let them do *COLLEGE LEVEL* work - i.e., paint by numbers.
If they survived this for 14-16 years, *then* we'd let them start doing their own doodles and playing with the play-doh.
Instead, we do this crazy-ass thing - we give them the chance to play, and let them find out if it feels good or not. And we try to teach them to have some fun, just playing with stuff - even if they're not budding artists.
It'd be *great* if we could do stuff like that with phys ed. Because moving a healthy body is *fun* - even if you can't catch and throw a baseball, or carry a football (or provide blocking, etc.), even if you can't dribble and shoot. Doing physical stuff with your body becomes fun once you get into it.
I date back to the time when physical education was mandatory in my state (had to get 45 minutes per day, minimum), and you're right, it *was* a joke. The PE "teachers" tossed a bunch of basketballs out on the gym floor then went off to the head coach's office to smoke and compare penile implant sizes, as far as I could tell. Thing is, 45 minutes of bopping around on a basketball court at least sorta gets you moving, even if you're on the geek squad (the ones that nobody wants to pick for their team) and nobody in that group can manage to hit the side of a barn, much less a basketball goal...
ReplyDeleteEven *that* minimal amount of "physical education" beats the heck out of what kids get today, which is sit in a chair inside 4 walls 24 hours a day other than those lucky duckies whose parents enroll them in after-school sports programs...