Pediatrics group issues new guidance on recess for the first time in 13 years

[markpkessinger]

5. As for PE classes . . .

. . . unless they are VERY different from the way they were conducted in the '60s and '70s, I would have to question their value.

I was a classical music nerd, and was not particularly athletically inclined, nor did I have any interest whatsoever in team sports. In high school, PE classes in my rural Pennsylvania school district were divided into several units each consisting of maybe 4-6 weeks focusing on a particular sport or activity. In the fall, there was a touch football unit, followed by a soccer unit, followed by a wrestling unit. In the Winter and into Spring, it was gymnastics, basketball and baseball. Oh, and the weirdest one, in junior high, was a unit hwen the boys and girls PE classes joined together for a square dancing unit!

I hated every minute of it. For those of us, like me, who had fathers who were not sports obsessed, there was never any effort to help us improve our athletic skills. The gym teachers focused all their attention on those who were already athletic; for the rest of us, it was just something to be endured and gotten through, as our classmates and even sometimes the teachers mocked our lack of athleticism. Now, had it been focused on personal fitness, then I might have taken some interest!