The state’s minimum requirement for physical education in public
elementary schools
– 20 minutes a day – shouldn’t be hard to meet.
The state’s minimum requirement for physical education in public elementary schools – 20 minutes a day – shouldn’t be hard to meet.
Nevertheless, both of South County’s school districts fail to meet that negligible standard, according to a report recently released by the California Department of Education.
“It’s been a continuing problem in the state,” Olive Stead, Gilroy Unified School District director of curriculum and instruction, told reporter Heather Bremner. “But I think it’s time that people do something about it.”
No, actually, we think it’s long past time that school districts did something about it. We’ve been harping on this topic for years. The simple fact is that encouraging kids to get active has physical and academic benefits.
We’re tired of the excuse that a focus on academics means that schools don’t have time for P.E. Study after study shows that physical education improves academic performance.
Helping them to find forms of exercise that they enjoy can help reduce the epidemic of childhood obesity.
Gilroy has the highest percentage of overweight students in Santa Clara County at 31 percent. Twenty-three percent of Morgan Hill students are overweight.
Reaping the physical and academic benefits of P.E. doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t have to push out academics.
There’s no need for a replay of the middle school math minutes brouhaha the GUSD recently experienced.
There’s no need to hire additional P.E. instructors.
There’s no need to extend the school day.
In fact, with a little creativity, physical education dovetails nicely with math and science instruction. Students can track the minutes spent in P.E., can track results statistics, can study the benefits of P.E., and can even experiment with the results of exercise on heart rate and other systems.
“It’s a sad fact that P.E. is education’s ugly stepchild,” California Center for Public Health Advocacy Executive Director Harold Goldstein said in a press release. “P.E. doesn’t just help address our obesity crisis. When properly taught, physical education plays a vital role in positively affecting both the academic and behavioral performance of children, while building lifelong health habits.”
Let’s use our common sense and work together to get our students moving during the school day. The benefits are too many to ignore.
