pineda Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 CBS Evening News with Katie Couric News Segment: "Beginning this spring Texas will become the first state in the nation to require at least 30 minutes a day of PE - and require all 4 million students third through 12th graders to undergo a series of annual fitness tests to see how they compare now and later to other kids their age." Click here to watch the full segment. The legislator that proposed this is Senator Jane Nelson. She says that "studies" will prove that more fit students produce much better grades than their less fit counterparts. Couldn't this apply to Texas state legislators just as well? Wouldn't our best legislators also be the fittest in Austin?I wonder how she would feel if she were to be "fitness-assessed" in front of all her peers, and then given a "FITNESSGRAM" suggesting how she could improve her own health?Before she roled this out to all of Texas schools, why didn't she offer to be the first guinea pig? I'm only guessing here, but I don't think she would be too happy to learn the truth about her B.M.I. and be told she might want to take up aerobics to fix it.Jocks are smarter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Are you suggesting that we should be against fit and healthy kids? That, because adults have experienced the joys of obesity, our kids should get those same opportunities?I don't know when they dropped PE (they had it when I was in school), but I am having a hard time understanding the animosity I am supposed to feel toward a requirement to have 30 minutes of exercise per day. Is health and fitness a sign of the decline of American values? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 She doesn't work out?They eliminated PE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted March 12, 2008 Author Share Posted March 12, 2008 Against fit and healthy kids, no, of course not. Against P.E. in our schools, no way. At our Klein schools, they did not eliminate P.E. Maybe this was happening at other Texas schools, so our legislators felt the need to make sure P.E. was put back in.The main problem I have is with the FITNESSGRAM itself. Check out the top of the pyramid sometime.And, if the premise is that fitter people are smarter people, then why not have our legislators demonstrate that for us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Being told that your kids do not meet guidelines for healthiness offends you? Do you take the same offense when the doctor tells you your kid is overweight, or is it just your school's PE teacher?There are a lot of things to be offended by and about. Pardon me if I let you fight this war alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Are you suggesting that we should be against fit and healthy kids? That, because adults have experienced the joys of obesity, our kids should get those same opportunities?I don't know when they dropped PE (they had it when I was in school), but I am having a hard time understanding the animosity I am supposed to feel toward a requirement to have 30 minutes of exercise per day. Is health and fitness a sign of the decline of American values?DITTO !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted March 12, 2008 Author Share Posted March 12, 2008 Being told that your kids do not meet guidelines for healthiness offends you? Do you take the same offense when the doctor tells you your kid is overweight, or is it just your school's PE teacher?If I took my child to the doctor and was told by a medical professional, whom advice I was asking for, that my child was overweight, no, I wouldn't be offended. If that doctor were to make suggestions for a healthier lifestyle, no, I wouldn't be offended. But, I don't send my kids to a school to seek professional medical advice either.And, if the state is trying to prove by this legislation that fitter kids are smarter kids, then why not let the state legislators be the first to prove this theory? Or is it just too late for our state legislators to jump on the fitness bandwagon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 And, if the state is trying to prove by this legislation that fitter kids are smarter kids, then why not let the state legislators be the first to prove this theory?This is the third time you have posted this statement, even though it is irrelevant to the point of the legislation. I am trying not to comment on the ridiculousness of the statement, but you put it in every post. Do you really want your posts to be judged by this comment?Frankly, your posts sound like you have overweight kids, and you feel like the fitness notice you are going to receive is some sort of indictment of your parenting skills. Therefore, you are lashing out at the supposed weight problem of the author of the legislation. It may well be that the author of the legislation is attempting to spare today's school children the same fate that she endures. If so, I find that admirable, not deplorable. Whatever your reasons, I do not find a letter to a parent pointing out a child's weight problem to be much of an intrusion, nor do I find it detrimental. I am quite sure that an overweight child endures much worse from his or her classmates.Then again, I grew up in an era when kids walked to school, rode their bikes, and played sports. Maybe I just don't get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted March 12, 2008 Author Share Posted March 12, 2008 Maybe I just don't get it.I'm pretty sure you don't, or you wouldn't make statements like you have been without further researching it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchtastic Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 I remember very clearly in elementary school having to do a PE assessment. I think it was a couple of times a year. We had to assemble outside, do sit ups, pull ups on the monkey bars, run the track, etc. We got our written scores after. Afterwards were rewarded by getting to play war-ball (dodgeball), so we didn't mind too much.I don't get how it isn't perfectly acceptable for a PE teacher to grade kids on their level of achievement as any other teacher would. They're not doing medical tests, they're seeing how many laps the kids can run, correct? Or something similar?Red, the funny thing is there are probably more kids playing organized sports today. How those little butterballs wheeze up and down the soccer field, I dunno, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cnote Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 I agree with crunchtastic, in Humble ISD, all through elementary school and sixth grade before organized sports kicked in, we had annual Presidential Physical Fitness tests. We would run laps, do pull ups, do sit ups, and do a toe touch stretch on a box with a sliding ruler as far as we could. At the end, we all got graded and were handed ribbons based on our performance....it was a fine program and we all got a kick out of it.I guessed it sucked for the kids that got poor grades and no ribbons, but no more than it sucked when they got knocked out of dodgeball in the first ten seconds...or when they got bad grades on a test. Physical fitness is a great thing to teach in school, the saddest part of this whole thing is that it was ever eliminated in the first place.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 How those little butterballs wheeze up and down the soccer field, I dunno, though.This is my new signature.Pineda, I have kids, one in elementary. I want to know if she isn't physically able to do 10 push-ups or 20 sit-ups. THAT is the PE teacher's job, to help teach kids how to exercise PROPERLY, and from what I remember, most coaches were also the Health Class teacher in High School. Most Physical Education Teachers have a degree in just THAT, Physical Education. Do you have some reference materials or studies that counteract the claim that "Healthier Kids make Smarter Kids." ??? I think eating right and exercising properly does stimulate a healthier growing body overall. Kids that sit in their rooms playing Mortal Kombat 23, eating cheezy poofs and drinking Starbucks all day long get older and seem to be the same grown-ups I encounter stocking the shelves at Kroger's or giving me the incorrect change when I hit the drive-thru at Wendy's.BTW Pin, I agree that our State Reps. should have some sort of physical process at least every 2 years, as well as a credit check or watchdog evaluation process done at the same time to deem their worthiness of their position. OH, and TERM LIMITS !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted March 12, 2008 Author Share Posted March 12, 2008 This FITNESSGRAM is not P.E.It is a separate program mandated by the Texas Education Agency.The President's Fitness Challenge is still at the schools.We never dropped P.E. at our schools, it's always been there.Here is a link where you can learn more about the program.FAQ's about FITNESSGRAM by parents & teachers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Pineda, could you point me to the part of those links that is supposed to offend me? Everything I read sounded like a good idea, including the part where the fitnessgram is private. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchtastic Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 I agree with crunchtastic, in Humble ISD, all through elementary school and sixth grade before organized sports kicked in, we had annual Presidential Physical Fitness tests. We would run laps, do pull ups, do sit ups, and do a toe touch stretch on a box with a sliding ruler as far as we could. At the end, we all got graded and were handed ribbons based on our performance....it was a fine program and we all got a kick out of it.I'm so glad you remembered--it was driving me crazy. I do remember the ribbons now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted March 12, 2008 Author Share Posted March 12, 2008 How do you spend your time?Under the self-reporting part, the student is asked to write down:Total minutes of physical activity and the total minutes of TV or computer time.Where are they supposed to write down the total minutes of homework time, the total minutes of reading time?I'm sorry if you don't understand what I'm talking about here, Red. We will have to agree to disagree on this topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crunchtastic Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 This is my new signature.I'm so flattered! OK, so I just looked at the PDF of the parent report. This is pretty neat. As to recording homework, etc. That's simply out of scope for this program. They have, and should, keep the focus on physical acitivity. With any luck the kids are still young and guileless enough that they won't fudge on self-reporting like most adults do.I do think that the report is written at too high a level for parents. No offense to you parents, but this really needs to be LCD, which if I'm not mistaken is still the 8th grade reading level for adults. This seems a little beyond that. It's a little jargon-y too, and I'd give a graphic designer a do-over to work on readability. I like the idea of it, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cnote Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 Where are they supposed to write down the total minutes of homework time, the total minutes of reading time?I'm sorry if you don't understand what I'm talking about here, Red. We will have to agree to disagree on this topic.I don't really understand what we are supposed to be offended by either...but I will add that in my experience the kids that did better on the Presidential Physical Fitness tests were not any smarter...in fact, the star in my class who was first place in everything was also taken out of the class for special ed content mastery. I don't have any statistics, but I am sure there was absolutely ZERO correlation between rank in the classroom and rank on the playground....there were athletic dumb kids, athletic smart kids, overwieght dumb kids, and nerdy non-athletic smart kids...and so many in between. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memebag Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 I think the link between grades and physical prowess is BS, but so what? Kids need to run around. Tire them out before you send them home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cnote Posted March 12, 2008 Share Posted March 12, 2008 I think the link between grades and physical prowess is BS, but so what? Kids need to run around. Tire them out before you send them home.if you read my earlier posts you will see that I agree with this 100%...there is nothing wrong with the kids being tested physically. And dodgeball is a right of passage that should never be abolished! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted March 12, 2008 Author Share Posted March 12, 2008 "I don't have any statistics, but I am sure there was absolutely ZERO correlation between rank in the classroom and rank on the playground", except that it exactly what Sen. Jane Nelson and Sen. Rob Eissler think, which is why they introduced this bill in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cnote Posted March 13, 2008 Share Posted March 13, 2008 "I don't have any statistics, but I am sure there was absolutely ZERO correlation between rank in the classroom and rank on the playground", except that it exactly what Sen. Jane Nelson and Sen. Rob Eissler think, which is why they introduced this bill in the first place.Their Hypothesis may be misguided but the bill has no downside, only positive effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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