Receiving credit for physical education through ROTC or marching band has been a hot topic in California lately.
Here is an interesting article from the Orlando Sentinel on opting out of physical education. Just the title alone caught my attention. It is titled “Tens of thousands of Florida kids opt out of gym class.” It reminds me of when a student asks me if we have gym today. My response is usually something like this, “No, we have physical education class today. The gym is a building.”
Opting out of physical education seems like a backward trend. Lets hope these students get good jobs some day. They’ll need some money to hire personal trainers when they find they don’t have the tools to stay healthy and fit.
A colleague of mine once had the following quote in a PowerPoint. It makes so much sense.
“In the great work of education, our physical condition, if not the first step in point of importance, is the first order of time. On the broad band and firm foundation of health alone, can the loftiest and most enduring structure of intellect be reared.” — Horace Mann