Physical Education Now Taking Volunteers

With Michelle Obama pushing for healthier foods in school and the obesity epidemic spreading ever wider through our children, I received a paper that surprised me a bit yesterday.

In the last two years my daughter's school has started serving whole wheat macaroni and cheese, whole wheat hotdog/hamburger buns, skim milk only, etc. None of these really float her boat, but she eats it. Although her description of the now gelatinous mac & cheese is something to behold, I do hear stories of a lot of kids who buy lunch to throw it away now.

The reason I bring this up is because of the letter I am posting below...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/687893b8f929.jpg[/atsimg]

This is the actual paper all 7th graders had to fill out for their "electives" they want upon entering the 8th grade. It required a parent's signature, is the only reason I saw it.

I blocked out the school name, and her first and last name at the top. The top 4 classes are *REQUIRED* to pass on to the 9th grade. The list on the bottom are *ELECTIVES*.. These are extra classes you can choose to take or not take depending on your interest. They are not a necessity and only 4 will be taken throughout the year.

If you skip down to the 9th option, you will see Physical Education in the list of elective courses.

This surprised me. Physical Educatio/PE is no longer a requirement. We had it all through high school and everyone (short of a doctor's excuse) participated.

Just a few years ago, her health teacher told them that this generation (their's) would be the first to NOT outlive the previous generation. The entire school menu has been traded out for healthier alternatives.... So why remove all physical activity from the school requirements? How many children are actually going to opt for PE instead of art or agriculture?

Society screams from the rooftops about how unhealthy children are, how many are morbidly obese, and how many only see physical exercise on their gaming systems.

My daughter is not overweight fortunately, but physical exercise is beneficial to all children regardless of size. There are children that this was about the only exercise they got during the day. And yes, I do think it is the job of the parents to keep their child healthy. However, when words like obesity, and epidemic proportions are used to describe a lot of children today it just makes no sense to suddenly make PE voluntary.

The effort to change the school menu to all healthy choices while doing this makes it almost pointless. At ages 11, 12, and 13, most kids are not health concious and will not "voluntarily" choose PE over other alternatives.

Is this happening in your children's schools?Why is society preaching to these kids about health and then not taking notice of things like this?

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


I see what you're saying, but unless PE had included martial arts & dance then I wouldn't have enjoyed it & I feel there's no point in forcing yourself to do activities you hate to achieve goals you can reach in other ways.

That said I do think its very important to eat healthily and if information about diet is part of the PE class than I agree that at least the theory side of the class should be mandatory.

Just my 2 cent

P.L.U.R.I
-B.M

reply to post by B.Morrison


I see your and thanks for replying.

Here health class was taught every other day in PE. Inother words one day was play, one day was health. Health class goes away with PE. So no more teaching better eating habits, etc. I am not sure why either has been removed. In a few weeks they will hold the meet and greet for the next school year, and I plan on asking then.

It never hurts to ask.

I do notice here that there are A LOT of children who are very big. Not baby fat, or chubby... but very large. It is a massive increase from the time I was in school. Where there used to be a handful of overweight kids 15 years ago when I attended high school, I now notice that it is about 1 out of 3 atleast.

It is awful for the children whose parents just constantly over feed and let become part of the couch. I am sad to see this go because of those reasons if nothing else since the kids are blameless.

Arrrg. That was supposed to say I see your point. My time to edit ran out. Sorry.