Does PE Help or Hurt Kids? | Daniel Rodriguez

[stef]

This article is not about the right age to start lifting with your kid, nor about why public schools should use the Blue Book as a textbook (which they should). This article is about good and bad – and kids. Critical thinking is good for kids. Body dysmorphia is bad for kids. Which is your child getting from their PE program?

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[CommanderFun]

It's funny how little "educating" goes on in physical education. As someone who now enjoys lifting weights and the benefits it brings, I think "physical education" in the public school system is what kept me from getting into it sooner. Most gym teachers are horribly uneducated. They are usually laboring under the mistaken impression that any kid that ends up in their class could one day be a professional athlete if they just work hard enough (under their careful guidance, of course). A lack of natural ability instead ends up being treated like a lack of work ethic by these wise mentors of youth. What the hell is the point of testing to "fitness standards" when you haven't actually trained kids to meet those standards? A kid isn't going to be able to bang out a whole bunch of pull ups because you made him play dodgeball or something. The shitty environment of school PE and being forced into team sports as someone with below-average talent really turned me off to lifting. I thought team sports and lifting were for assholes, because people who did those things were assholes to me for having trouble with them. I sought other ways to improve my physical standing, but in truth lifting really would've been the best route to go, as I now know. It's just another way the public school system made my upbringing markedly worse than it needed to be, but I'm especially resentful that it turned me off to something I have come to love later in life.

[Jerry Naughton]

"Unfortunately, PE coaches are limited by the requirements of their state education boards and their own lack of understanding, and often cannot do what is best."

Could you elaborate on how State Ed Boards limit PE coaches? I don't have any use for govt bureaucrats in education (or just about anywhere else), but are there specific policies/regs they're doing that actually prevent good coaches from running good programs?

Thanks.

[drodriguez]

"Unfortunately, PE coaches are limited by the requirements of their state education boards and their own lack of understanding, and often cannot do what is best."

Could you elaborate on how State Ed Boards limit PE coaches? I don't have any use for govt bureaucrats in education (or just about anywhere else), but are there specific policies/regs they're doing that actually prevent good coaches from running good programs?

Thanks.

Hi Jerry,

Yes. There is a list of silly things that waste time in §116 of Texas Essential Skills and Knowledge (TEKS) for each grade level. PE coaches are required to do all of these things or else be fired. An enthusiastic, well-informed coach could expose kids to better methods but they would be very limited on how much time they could do that because they have to keep up with all the silly things. §116 is a list of some good things, some dumb things, some conflictual things, and many things that just waste time. Each line deserves our scrutiny because it governs our kids, but I'm not doing all that here. PE coaches teach basic movements, introduce sports, help kids socialize, and teach folk and modern dances. Maybe they don't need to do all that.

There's also conflictual stuff. For example, in the 6th grade, TEKS requires coaches to instruct kids on the dangers of idealizing bodies in the media. Then in the 8th grade they are taught to "develop and maintain muscular strength and endurance of the arms, shoulders, abdomen, back, and legs" (B-10 in last link below). So TEKS is aware of body dysmorphia in kids and wants to stop it. But it admits it can't and uses bodybuilding paradigms to talk about strength. How is an 8th grader not supposed to idealize bodies in the media when the coach teaches them to think about their abs? A good coach wouldn't do this. But PE coaches in Texas have to.

Here's some links. The first 2 are for 5th graders and recent. The last one is for 6-8 grade but a little dated. I will update with a better link when I have it.

https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/...EKS.pdf#page24

https://www.tahperd.org/web/images/p...pecificity.pdf

https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/ch116b.pdf

[Jerry Naughton]

Thanks for the response. Government can suck the joy out of anything. Just glanced through a few pages of each of your links. Reminded me of the book “Three Felonies a Day” - there’s so many laws (or rules for teachers) - many conflictual as you note - that pretty much anyone can be taken down if they get sideways with the wrong people. The easiest way to do that is to question the status quo or show some initiative that embarrasses legacy players.

Cheers.