Exercise is important, lots of people would spend their entire childhoods with exactly zero exercise if they didn’t have PE. If done badly it can be offputting, but I had very few negative experiences in PE despite being pretty unathletic.
Art is also pretty important IMO, if done well it teaches motor skills, thinking about things in a visual way, cultural contexts. It’s an expression of thought and emotion and frequently (in the form of pottery and architecture) the only thing we have left from prehistoric cultures. And y’know, it’s just fun - school life would be so much poorer without the occasional fun subject.
Exercise is important, lots of people would spend their entire childhoods with exactly zero exercise if they didn’t have PE.
And thanks to PE, they get to have some 40 minutes (or well under, for many activities) of exercise per week. I personally think that’s a terrible return on investment, especially with literacy going down the drain fast.
Honestly, all the money and effort spent on PE should probably just go directly into youth sports on a national level.
Your art class was miles better than mine, I’ll have to grant you that. I don’t remember much about mine, other than making lots of “art” (drawing, painting, charcoal work, clay… something) which was evaluated and finally graded completely arbitrarily but never worse than a passing grade, so after the first year art class quickly became time wasting class.
Actually, that’s a good point. If you can’t fail a class, it’s not actually important.
We had 90 minutes of PE, you’re right that 40 minutes is a waste of time. It’s probably not going to do much in terms of training strength or endurance, but familiarizing children with the concept of exercising and sports does a lot. I never would have entered my first youth sports club if it weren’t for PE.
Sure, I had 90 minutes of PE too, which included changing, explaining and waiting, and changing again at the end. Then depending on the activity, lots more waiting. I think spending half the time actually being active is optimistic.
familiarizing children with the concept of exercising and sports does a lot. I never would have entered my first youth sports club if it weren’t for PE.
Right, but that means PE is an absolutely terrible way to achieve your goals. It’s a massively expensive class. It requires huge special areas, sometimes both in and outdoors, with special equipment. And the return on investment is tiny (or in my case negative). And there is such an extremely obvious alternative too:
If you want to familiarize kids with youth sports, have them spend time doing youth sports. Why waste time and money on PE if your goal is directly available already, in a much more direct, effective and efficient way?
I would argue that PE in school is a thing the government uses to foist off kids being active on a school system that is inherently unsuited to teaching it. Schools are forced to teach it, wasting immense resources on something they ultimately don’t do well, with a goal that’s better achieved differently. The effects are tiny (or negative), but adults get to pat themselves on the back for a job well delegated at no extra cost, apart from every other area of a child’s education.
My local highschool-equivalent also offered various things that were literally “youth sports”, e.g. they had a handball team that was using the school sports facilities. I assume that’s pretty common here, because why wouldn’t you do it when you already have the facilities and well-qualified personell? And I’m pretty sure that this is a thing in the US, as well, school basketball teams are a huge trope. Though the fundamental issue with youth sports like this is that it only appeals to athletic kids, the unathletic ones are generally not going to care, or even be outright rejected if the team cares a lot about competitions. I think any youth sports thing that actually includes unathletic children is going to end up reinventing school sports.
Exercise is important, lots of people would spend their entire childhoods with exactly zero exercise if they didn’t have PE. If done badly it can be offputting, but I had very few negative experiences in PE despite being pretty unathletic.
Art is also pretty important IMO, if done well it teaches motor skills, thinking about things in a visual way, cultural contexts. It’s an expression of thought and emotion and frequently (in the form of pottery and architecture) the only thing we have left from prehistoric cultures. And y’know, it’s just fun - school life would be so much poorer without the occasional fun subject.
And thanks to PE, they get to have some 40 minutes (or well under, for many activities) of exercise per week. I personally think that’s a terrible return on investment, especially with literacy going down the drain fast.
Honestly, all the money and effort spent on PE should probably just go directly into youth sports on a national level.
Your art class was miles better than mine, I’ll have to grant you that. I don’t remember much about mine, other than making lots of “art” (drawing, painting, charcoal work, clay… something) which was evaluated and finally graded completely arbitrarily but never worse than a passing grade, so after the first year art class quickly became time wasting class.
Actually, that’s a good point. If you can’t fail a class, it’s not actually important.
We had 90 minutes of PE, you’re right that 40 minutes is a waste of time. It’s probably not going to do much in terms of training strength or endurance, but familiarizing children with the concept of exercising and sports does a lot. I never would have entered my first youth sports club if it weren’t for PE.
Sure, I had 90 minutes of PE too, which included changing, explaining and waiting, and changing again at the end. Then depending on the activity, lots more waiting. I think spending half the time actually being active is optimistic.
Right, but that means PE is an absolutely terrible way to achieve your goals. It’s a massively expensive class. It requires huge special areas, sometimes both in and outdoors, with special equipment. And the return on investment is tiny (or in my case negative). And there is such an extremely obvious alternative too:
If you want to familiarize kids with youth sports, have them spend time doing youth sports. Why waste time and money on PE if your goal is directly available already, in a much more direct, effective and efficient way?
I would argue that PE in school is a thing the government uses to foist off kids being active on a school system that is inherently unsuited to teaching it. Schools are forced to teach it, wasting immense resources on something they ultimately don’t do well, with a goal that’s better achieved differently. The effects are tiny (or negative), but adults get to pat themselves on the back for a job well delegated at no extra cost, apart from every other area of a child’s education.
My local highschool-equivalent also offered various things that were literally “youth sports”, e.g. they had a handball team that was using the school sports facilities. I assume that’s pretty common here, because why wouldn’t you do it when you already have the facilities and well-qualified personell? And I’m pretty sure that this is a thing in the US, as well, school basketball teams are a huge trope. Though the fundamental issue with youth sports like this is that it only appeals to athletic kids, the unathletic ones are generally not going to care, or even be outright rejected if the team cares a lot about competitions. I think any youth sports thing that actually includes unathletic children is going to end up reinventing school sports.