My opinion is some of this is just alarmist. If we are talking about trends in education, "they" don't want to get rid of physical education so much as "they" are trying to balance it with other necessary educational pursuits. My son is in middle school and the kids do two quarters of physical education, one quarter of health, and one quarter of life skills (which gets into stuff like teenage parenting, drugs, and such - very informative and the right messages). When he gets to high school, it's a similar arrangement only I think they also take stuff like financial and life management, which I think is great. How many of us knew anything about life when we came out of high school (or even college for that matter)?
Thus, I have no problem with physical education being de-emphasized in the curriculum, particularly since some of you may recall that gym class is often a complete waste of time. Good parents get their kids involved in activities in the school or community or elsewhere. I suspect these are the kids who actually embrace fitness and health, since we are more likely to stick with activities we have some skill with or interest in, versus feeling like a loser because you don't get picked for the dodge ball team during gym class.
I am really a broken record on this topic, but as long as we keep blaming everyone else for everything, nothing is going to change. Parents need to be responsible for their children and not leave them to twist in the winds of current educational trends.
Marie
