Mandatory daily sports lesson in schools

[Tender Branson]

Poll is open for 1 week.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No mandatory sports lesson at all. I hate sports.

[minionofmidas]

Daily? Wtf for?

[DC Al Fine]

No mandatory sports lesson at all. I hate sports.

I know a lot of school children who hate reading...

To answer the OP: Although a certain level of fitness is beneficial, I don't see daily sports making that happen unless there is a cultural shift at home. Putting down the French Fries and playing outside more needs to occur as well. Otherwise you wind up with a lot of wasted class time, with the kids who like sports playing, and the kids who don't finding ways to half ass it or skip the class.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No mandatory sports lesson at all. I hate sports.

I know a lot of school children who hate reading...

Call me a snob if you want, but I'd say cultural development is much more worth the effort than physical one.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Not necessarily sports, but I wouldn't object to oppressing people into running & lifting weights. How else will we make a nation of supermen (and women)?

[Link]

Poll is open for 1 week.

Do you mean physical education where children learn about stretching, areobic exercise, and strength training or do you mean sitting in a classroom learning the history and rules of soccer... I mean "football"?

American children need to be forced to do daily physical activity for one hour in all grade levels except high school.  But they don't need to be indoctrinated into knowing or understanding anything about football, baseball, basketball, etc.

[bedstuy]

Poll is open for 1 week.

Do you mean physical education where children learn about stretching, areobic exercise, and strength training or do you mean sitting in a classroom learning the history and rules of soccer... I mean "football"?

American children need to be forced to do daily physical activity for one hour in all grade levels except high school.  But they don't need to be indoctrinated into knowing or understanding anything about football, baseball, basketball, etc.

I think that's basically right.  Kids require physical activity to be healthy, but that physical activity does require a ball or a jock culture.  Although, I don't know why you say high school kids don't need exercise.

But, I would say that if we made our physical education all about jogging 5 miles and then doing squats and power cleans, a lot of kids would get bored and hate it.  Sports are fun for a lot of people and they get people to exercise without making it a chore. 

[TNF]

Maybe not sports, but at least physical education should be required as a part of a full curriculum. But it should not outweigh arts or anything, it should be balanced.

[Cory]

No mandatory sports lesson at all. I hate sports.

This. Reading is what will save America. Kids these days are fat because the meal options available to them and the rise of electronic entertainment. Having them work out a little in school will change nothing and it just utterly missing the point.

[dead0man]

I don't normally do this, but.....

lol at people that think all you need is a healthy diet to be a healthy person.


Anyway, the "yes but only a few hours a week" option.

[angus]

"yes but only a few hours a week" option.

I voted for a similar option  "no, and only a few hours per week" but I think we agree.

My thinking had as much to do with sociological indoctrination as health.  Sure, a few hours per week of physical exercise is healthy, and that in itself would justify the curriculum, but PE ideally also introduces team sports.  There's much value in team sports.  My son plays soccer every spring and fall in a local league.  I don't expect him to become a professional soccer player, but I do want him to learn to participate in a group activity and to learn to co-ordinate.  This sort of thing was taught naturally in families who hunted mastodons, but we no longer have the need to do that.  Because of our modern lifestyles, we have to go out of our way to create the artificial hunt in order to teach social skills.  It doesn't matter to me much whether it's baseball or soccer or rowing a boat--we only picked soccer because the boy seems to prefer that--but the values of hard work, discipline, sacrifice, and teamwork that are necessarily a part of sportsmanship must be instilled, lest we end up with a population of social misfits unable to come together long enough to build bridges or repel invaders.

[cheesepizza]

Sports, no.  That's just going to alienate people that you're trying to help.  We've tried doing sports in PE classes, and it's great for jocks, but slower kids tend to be left out.  I'd argue more running, calisthenics, and personal fitness type workouts would be better, as they ensure that everyone participates and learns skills that they can use to work out after they graduate. 

However, the title of requiring sports specifically would make me oppose this.  I have a reasonable fitness level (~6 minute mile) but I'm not very good at most of the team sports(though I have a decent shot for basketball knock-out games ), so I felt that freshman gym class wasn't well suited for me, but to each his own.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Poll is open for 1 week.

Do you mean physical education where children learn about stretching, areobic exercise, and strength training or do you mean sitting in a classroom learning the history and rules of soccer... I mean "football"?

American children need to be forced to do daily physical activity for one hour in all grade levels except high school.  But they don't need to be indoctrinated into knowing or understanding anything about football, baseball, basketball, etc.

I think that's basically right.  Kids require physical activity to be healthy, but that physical activity does require a ball or a jock culture.  Although, I don't know why you say high school kids don't need exercise.

But, I would say that if we made our physical education all about jogging 5 miles and then doing squats and power cleans, a lot of kids would get bored and hate it.  Sports are fun for a lot of people and they get people to exercise without making it a chore. 

An America that ran five miles and lifted weights would be quite the country to see. Running teaches the value of suffering, disappointment, and pain, and the reward of finishing the race and going home to drink root beer and watch Comedy Central is much greater.

[rejectamenta]

With obvious exceptions to both, those with no physical aspirations or accomplishments should be chided as lazy and weak the same way a person who never reads is regarded as dull and unimaginative. Of course, the continuous degradation of this ideal is reflected in our pathetic jock-dominated PE system that revolves around poorly coordinated team sports.

I like cheesepizza's idea of calisthenics and aerobics, perhaps employing them early before allowing children the decision to further specialize (weightlifting, track and field, etc.) by middle school or thereabouts. But it is a pipe dream.

[Link]

I think that's basically right.  Kids require physical activity to be healthy, but that physical activity does require a ball or a jock culture.  Although, I don't know why you say high school kids don't need exercise.

I just don't think you need to do physical exercise at school for five hours a week.  Some of course would be okay but academic pursuits should really consume the entire school day on most days.

But, I would say that if we made our physical education all about jogging 5 miles and then doing squats and power cleans, a lot of kids would get bored and hate it.  Sports are fun for a lot of people and they get people to exercise without making it a chore. 

This is true for some people.  I just didn't like a lot of the sports teams because of the time commitment.  Casually playing basketball in the gym would be okay.

[Tender Branson]

No mandatory sports lesson at all. I hate sports.

Our Chancellor Faymann disagrees:

http://orf.at/stories/2191684

"Faymann: Daily PE lessons in schools to start in the fall of 2014."

...

Don't really know what to think of this: I was never sports-crazy, but also didn't mind it.

Having it daily would certainly not be bad for future lifestyles of the students and their fitness.

But I think it should be left to the schools, or better said to the SGA (School Community Council), which is a intra-school-body that consists of the headmaster, some teachers, parents and student representatives that were chosen by the students in the election.

They should then decide what to do with PE lessons in their school.

[Хahar 🤔]

I had PE daily starting from sixth grade. I assumed that this was normal. If not, it should be. I genuinely can't understand opposition to this.

[Franknburger]

Only if chess (which international studies have proven to improve strategic thinking and mathematical abilities) is counted as sports

[Del Tachi]

Strenuous physical activity not only improves health, but also builds character.

Mandatory physical education for all K-12 students in the United States.  At least an hour every day. 

[Franknburger]

Strenuous physical activity not only improves health, but also builds character.

Mandatory physical education for all K-12 students in the United States.  At least an hour every day. 

How about forbidding parking at school, and promoting students travelling  by bike?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Strenuous physical activity not only improves health, but also builds character.

Mandatory physical education for all K-12 students in the United States.  At least an hour every day. 

How about forbidding parking at school, and promoting students travelling  by bike?

Bro.

No.

My ride into school could stretch out to 20 minutes at times, and let's think about what that would resemble in the winter. Also, there were errands around town I'd do. Sometimes I wouldn't go home before work, so I'd be going home past ten at night. As well, I had track and cross country and I worked out year-round.

So yeah. Screw that.

[Хahar 🤔]

Strenuous physical activity not only improves health, but also builds character.

Mandatory physical education for all K-12 students in the United States.  At least an hour every day. 

How about forbidding parking at school, and promoting students travelling  by bike?

This is unreasonable in much of the United States; moreover, there are plenty of parents who would not be amenable to their children traveling to school alone.

[Franknburger]

Strenuous physical activity not only improves health, but also builds character.

Mandatory physical education for all K-12 students in the United States.  At least an hour every day. 

How about forbidding parking at school, and promoting students travelling  by bike?

This is unreasonable in much of the United States; moreover, there are plenty of parents who would not be amenable to their children traveling to school alone.

Oh, I understand, we are only talking indoor sports here. Wouldn't it be quite costly to build the many sport halls required if physical education in school is to be extended?

[angus]

I had PE daily starting from sixth grade. I assumed that this was normal. If not, it should be. I genuinely can't understand opposition to this.

I'm a bit surprised as well, but to be honest the OP has muddied the waters.  First he asked about sports (which suggests training in the sort of teamwork that humans will lose when they stopped having to chase mammoths) and then later said something about health concerns, which is an entirely different issue.  Given his later post about Faynmann's statements, I think it is different than the original question assumed.  He has a very bad habit of doing this, and a history of it.  If he were Italian or Spanish, I'd be more likely to forgive it, but his native language is a Germanic one, like English, and I can see no excuse for it.

In any case, if we're really talking about "sports lessons" in school, and not just health, then there are good, solid sociological reasons for it and I support it, and they have little to do with individual medical results.

If we're just talking about health training, then that's another issue:  our society has systemic health problems, and those problems are starting to be realized in developing countries as well.  That's another issue, and it will not be addressed by having the kids dress in sneakers and t-shirts and pretend to do some pull-ups for a few hours per week.