The State Board of Education is considering a new framework for physical education in grades K-12. This could be one of the most important revisions to public education.
Throughout my years going to school, the physical education curriculum was exclusively about team athletics among students who were in the same grade. This placed me at a severe disadvantage because my classmates were bigger and better coordinated than me. It certainly didn”t help matters any that the most popular children in the class got to pick sides for the teams.
Imagine being the only child in class who doesn”t know the rules, lacks the necessary abilities and can”t fathom social dynamics of interacting with children her age.
Compound this humiliation with being chosen last for the team ? again and again and again ? in front of the entire class. Finally imagine that no one in authority views your emotional immaturity or your poor motor skills as being enough of a challenge to present you with any alternative.
Speaking from personal experience, this was an isolated place to be. The P.E. structure imposed demands that I had no ability to meet. It made me an easy target by putting my weakness on display before everyone in the class.
I pleaded with my teachers to let me out of P.E. but this worked only part of the time. After all, it was part of the curriculum!
On one occasion, I decided that if I couldn”t contribute toward a victory I could purposely engineer defeat. I threatened to “make my team lose” if they weren”t nice to me. I don”t think my teachers intended for me to learn to practice extortion.
The framework that is being considered by the SBE includes analysis of a child”s abilities in motor and social skills, at each level, K-12. It is possible, looking back, that in physical education at least, I may have fared far better with children who were younger than me. I hope that under this new framework, these matters will be given their due ? that social maturity and physical coordination will carry far greater weight than the grade you happen to be in.
Equally important, in my opinion, is that teams should be generated randomly. No one should be publicly humiliated by being chosen last every time.
The SBE will consider the framework at its Sept. 10-11 meeting and will accept public comments until then. The document can be found online at www.cde.ca.gov/ci/pe/cf/documents/pefrwk.pdf.
Written comments can be submitted to the CDE”s Regulations Coordinator, 1430 N Street, Room 5319, Sacramento, CA 95814; regcomments@cde.ca.gov. Please be sure to specify the draft upon which you are commenting.
Contact Cynthia Parkhill at cparkhill@clearlakeobserver.com.
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