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March
15, 2004 Physical education sent to the sidelines in public
schools Norman
Draper Physical
education is turning into the benchwarmer of school subjects. With
math, science, language arts, social studies and even the arts horning in on its
playing time, phy ed is getting cut back in schools statewide. In
many cases, schools plan to change phy ed from a requirement to an elective,
likely resulting in fewer kids taking the classes, and fewer phy ed and health
teachers as a result. Lots
of these changes are being proposed or have already been approved for next year.
The rationale is simple: Schools are under pressure to pump money into their
main courses, improve their students' test scores, and free up kids to take
other subjects such as music, art, and foreign languages. With money and time at
a premium, something's got to give. But
a vocal and influential lobby of educators and medical professionals is pushing
hard for the state to step in and require schools to teach phy ed. Several
hundred phy-ed fans rallied noisily at the Capitol earlier this month, and
legislators have listened. Bills
that would make phy ed a state school requirement have been introduced in both
the state House and Senate. "I've
gotten a lot of concerns from physical education teachers in my district,"
said state Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, chief author of the Senate phy-ed
bill. Tomassoni said he got an earful of those concerns from 60 to 70 teachers
and nurses at a meeting in Virginia, Minn. Beyond that, he said, studies have
shown that health-care costs caused by obesity add up to tens of billions of
dollars annually and that physically active kids tend to be better students. Schools
opting out The
fear is that if they aren't required to, schools will allow phy-ed and health
classes to fade away as a familiar part of the school day. And what with all the
national publicity about the nation's growing obesity problem, they argue that
the timing couldn't be worse for cutbacks. "We
are not thinking about kids," said Linda Thomsen, a phy-ed and health
teacher at Rockford High School, where cuts are being considered for next year.
"With all the information out there about obesity and diabetes. It's
because kids are not active, are not exercising. We are the only source of some
kids getting activities during the day." That
could be. But school officials argue that there are more pressing needs
elsewhere. Anoka-Hennepin
schools next year will do away with the seventh- and eighth-grade phy-ed
requirements, making them electives. In Minneapolis, the district has
recommended dropping its high school phy-ed requirement, and some elementary
schools have already cut back from two 55-minute phy-ed periods a week to one.
The Hopkins school board has approved cutting back its three-credit phy-ed
requirement for grades 9-12 to two credits next year. What
happened that turned phy ed into such a second-stringer? Last
year, when the Legislature swept away the old Profile of Learning graduation
rule, it got rid of any state requirement that schools teach phy ed. But there
are plenty of state requirements for schools to teach other subjects, and lots
of tests to make sure their kids are mastering those subjects. Combine that with
widespread money problems and, all of a sudden, phy ed takes on the look of a
luxury -- overpriced and expendable. Plus,
federal and state testing requirements mean schools have to work harder to make
sure all of their students are mastering language arts, science and math skills.
In Hopkins, that means resources have to be shifted to provide more help to
those kids who are struggling. That means more for math and language arts, and
less for phy ed. Parents
want choices Certainly,
not everyone is cutting phy ed. School officials in St. Paul, Rosemount-Apple
Valley-Eagan, Robbinsdale and Wayzata say they plan no reductions. And even in
districts that are planning cuts, students can still take phy ed as electives. Other
forces can come into play. At
Blaine's Roosevelt Middle School, parents' desire for more flexibility in
classroom scheduling means phy ed will have to take a hit. Without the required
phy-ed courses in seventh and eighth grade, said Principal Melissa Doerr, the
school can offer more remedial reading and math help to students in small-class
settings, and can expand its foreign-language offerings. "It's
not necessarily that they don't want to take physical education," said
parent Marci Anderson of her two school-age daughters, one of whom is at
Roosevelt. "But if they're struggling with class, I would like to give them
the opportunity to take something else." Besides, Anderson said, her
daughters keep active anyway, playing sports and participating in such family
activities as biking and hiking. In
Cathy Lachinski's eighth-grade phy-ed class at Roosevelt one day last week,
students were in the weight room working out on stair machines, treadmills and
various other exercise equipment. Several eighth-graders piped up to assure a
reporter that they would have taken phy ed even if they didn't have to. "
'Cause you don't have any homework," noted 14-year-old Dan Anderson. But
Lachinski said that when registration time comes around at Roosevelt, the number
of kids signing up for phy ed as an elective will shrink participation. She's
got figures that say so. Those figures show that of 320 seventh-graders at
Sandburg Middle School in Anoka, 50 girls and 109 boys signed up for phy ed next
year. For eighth grade, 43 girls and 103 boys have signed up out of a class of
292. Another
concern is that phy-ed and health teachers will lose their jobs when there are
phy-ed cutbacks. But phy-ed teachers insist the issue is larger than them. |