{"id":178189,"date":"2019-02-12T20:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T01:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/02\/12\/athletic-education-is-to-education-as-athletic-supporter-is-to-supporter\/"},"modified":"2019-02-12T20:12:00","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T01:12:00","slug":"athletic-education-is-to-education-as-athletic-supporter-is-to-supporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/02\/12\/athletic-education-is-to-education-as-athletic-supporter-is-to-supporter\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletic Education is to Education as Athletic Supporter is to Supporter"},"content":{"rendered":"
In a development that could only have occurred in the sports crazy state of Texas, a mandate for improved physical education has been shown to diminish educational outcomes<\/a>:<\/div>\n

It\u2019s almost too easy to satirize physical education, better known by its eye-roll-inducing abbreviation P.E. From Clueless<\/a> to Superbad<\/a> to Spiderman: Homecoming<\/a>, parodies of gym class are a pop-culture darling. Perhaps that\u2019s because they speak to one of America\u2019s fundamental truths: For many kids, P.E. is terrible.<\/p>\n

A recent working paper focused on a massive P.E. initiative in Texas captures<\/a> this reality. Analyzing data out of the state\u2019s Texas Fitness Now program\u2014a $37 million endeavor to improve middle schoolers\u2019 fitness, academic achievement, and behavior by requiring them to participate in P.E. every day\u2014the researchers concluded that the daily mandate didn\u2019t have any positive impact on kids\u2019 health or educational outcome. On the contrary: They found that the program, which ran from 2007 to 2011, actually had detrimental effects, correlating with an uptick in discipline and absence rates.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

According to the study, the program resulted in a roughly 16 percent increase in the number of disciplinary actions for each student. The study also found that the proportion of misbehaving students went up by more than 7 percent.<\/p>\n

The findings of the study, which has yet to be published in an academic journal, are limited in scope. Still, the new paper adds much-needed nuance<\/a> to the body of research that has evaluated the effectiveness of various approaches to P.E., complicating the findings<\/a> of studies<\/a> that generally assert<\/a> the importance of school policies that encourage regular opportunities for physical activity.<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

The results of Packham\u2019s paper on the Fitness Now program support the basic takeaway that the design of P.E. courses is what\u2019s most consequential, and they hint at two interconnected factors that experts suggest tend to undermine the impact of such curricula. For one, P.E. programs often rely on a superficial notion of gym class\u2014conceiving of physical activity as little more than a timed run around the track, for example, or a game of kickball\u2014and this results in worse offerings. And then, when students feel forced to take these basic offerings, they may resent the classes more than they would otherwise. \u201cOlder kids have already formed these important eating and exercising habits, and changing their daily decisions is more complicated than just providing money for jump ropes,\u201d Packham says. <\/p>\n

Despite greater recognition of the academic benefits of physical activities\u2014including guidelines from agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> stressing that kids should get at least an hour of such activities a day\u2014schools began to <\/a>deprioritize<\/a> P.E. about two decades ago, and the cuts have persisted<\/a> in many<\/a> cases<\/a>, suggests Kohl. Accompanying this shift has been a movement away from casual activities such as recess, which experts argue is one of the more effective means of promoting children\u2019s physical health. An immense body of research demonstrates<\/a> the positive benefits of increased recess time, which schools started to cut after No Child Left Behind was signed into law, because of the policy\u2019s emphasis on academic subjects such as reading and math. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that many people what the real purpose of education actually is:  It’s there to give an unchallenging class major for student athletes, because those TV residuals don’t generate themselves.<\/p>\n

The evidence is clear:  Recess is better for academics and physical fitness than gym class.<\/p>\n

In fact, nothing is better for academics and physical fitness than gym class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a development that could only have occurred in the sports crazy state of Texas, a mandate for improved physical education has been shown to diminish educational outcomes: It\u2019s almost too easy to satirize physical education, better known by its eye-roll-inducing abbreviation P.E. From Clueless to Superbad to Spiderman: Homecoming, parodies of gym class are …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[397,588,460],"class_list":["post-178189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-education","tag-fail","tag-public-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}