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Updated: 11:12 PM Sep 7, 2008
MPSD P.E. Dispute
A group of parents are outraged about the new MPSD physical education requirement for elementary students. Posted: 7:35 PM Sep 7, 2008Reporter: Tametria Conner Email Address: tametria.conner@wtok.com |
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18 Comments 
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I just ordered an EDU-FITT kit for my kids and it truly is amazing. Ive never seen kids having so much fun while learning about eating healthy. If you are a parent, I suggest checking out the website. www.getfitwithcoachsmith.com/edufitt
There is a P.E. teacher in Broward county who has a great program that will resolve any all the issues regarding the physical education mandate. He already has a web-site up and I've seen some of the material that he has and it is INCERDIBLE! His site address is www.getfitwithcoachsmith.com His program is called EDU-FITT!
I don't think Mr. Kent's race is involved with this at all. The policy was approved before Mr. Kent came here. I don't think that all parents knew about it until school started this year, by which time Mr. Kent had started his job. He has said the policy will remain. I cannot understand why it would even occur to Michelle to ask if race had something to do with it. Can't people have genuine disagreements anymore without someone pointing out someone's race? Come on people. We are past this and you need to realize it.
Is this parent who is leading the supposedly concerned citizen group bucking the policy due to Mr. Kent being black? When Sylvia Autry was the superintendent, where was this lady then? If she is not a certified educator, she needs to stay in her place. She can take her kids for an hour walk or put them in after school sports. I guess with the new superintendent telling her that the principals have met and AGREED to the new policy, she just can't accept that. How did Poplar Springs get away with having PE every day for an hour anyway? What happened to music, library, computer lab time, etc? Parental opinions are valued, but I am sure she would be offended if a teacher tried to tell her how to raise her children and what she needs to do with them at home!
I do agree having PE time daily at school is ideal. But it's true that teachers are being overloaded with paperwork and other requirements. When I was a child a great long time ago, the kids in the neighborhood who didn't play organized sports would get together and play baseball, or tag, ride bikes, walk to the park, etc. I do see kids playing these days after school, but apparently not enough of them do that.
As a teacher in the MPSD school district, I am more concerned about the students who aren't on grade level in reading and math. I feel that these areas are more important than recess. Why can't the students play when they get home from school? We need our valuable time during the school day to get all students to the level they should be. I would also like to add that children aren't just sitting in their desks all day. Teachers spend alot of time planning fun, hands - on lessons that involve students being up moving around.
As a teacher at another MPSD school, we have an extended P.E. built into our schedule. I am not sure why some of you are saying that the children are made to sit all day. That is absolutely not true. The children move around in the classroom. They are given time to play during recess. Please don't generalize about these things. Unless you work in a school, you don't know the pressures that teachers are under to comply with NCLB. Time is a precious commodity. Yes, physical education is important for our health; but in this technological savvy world, computer time is important and most definitely library time. All of these activity periods make a more well-rounded child. There is time at home for the parents to take their child out for an hour long stroll after dinner. This will build in more quality time being spent with the child. The parent group from Poplar Springs say that they are speaking for several other parents; they aren't. They haven't contacted anyone from my school.
MPSD is mandated by the state Department of Education to provide 150 minutes/week of physical education. This mandate is a wonderful example of an unfunded mandate which the State enacts but which provides no funding to local school districts. The balance of require PE minutes (50), typically is enacted by calling it recess or activity-based programs which is code for "anything" is acceptable. Currently, all of the local schools comply with this mandate by having two, 50-minute PE periods. All schools, that is, except Poplar Springs Elementary School until the 2008-2009 school year. The district made the change in order to provide teachers with a period of professional development time. The 50-minute periods were seen as a perfect time to enhance professional development for the teachers, a recommendation which emerged from curriculum studies proposed by Harvard University. So where is the point of compromise on this issue? Install PE but remove the arts? Teacher growth?
I think that children need some time to be just that "children". In being a subsitute teacher I have seen first hand how much kids need to get out of the desk for a while. Their attention span would increase if they had some time to release all the energy they have. If we keep letting the school system make these kind of decisions our children will eventually hate school! Wouldn't you hate your job if you never got to get our of your position? After all let's not forget about all the time spent on homework. There's some more time spent in a chair!
ok one get rid of that computer lab it is something school had for yrs and all that is learned is out dated 90% of the time they reach high school... as far as time in P.E. goes commonsense is absent here.. even again advise of the experts here says 30 min every other day...
I know when I went to school we had a PE class everyday. It does the children good to get out and run. The children need a break from school work, they need fresh air and to be able to run and play. Some children are gone (at school) for 9 hours a day, if you figure in the bus ride. So I think they need to have a recess, or PE. Let them burn off that restless energy. I think that PE should be part of their schedules, even in middle school and high school. It needs to be EVERY day, at least for 30 minutes. So I say, Give the children their play time, and maybe you will see better work results from them. As for those that want to take that from the children, you try to work for 8-9 hours without any breaks and see how restless you get!
Do our kids really need "computer lab" in school? Isn't that like "telephone lab" or "T.V. lab" for our generation? I think "computer lab" just gives "computer teachers" a job. Doesn't encouraging physical acivity and exercise/healthy lifestyle have a bigger impact on a child's life than teaching them a technology that will be obsolete almost as soon as they walk out of the class? This is just another reason why we live in the fattest state in nation. Just walk through our mall and count the number of morbidly obese individuals that you see.
I am shocked that MPSD doesn't have a scheduled recess for students! At QSD, there is a scheduled 30 minute recess and a 30 minute activity time. P.E. is also only two days a week, library, music and ETV being one day a week. Recess is scheduled everyday. I'm surprised the teachers at MPSD aren't going stir crazy with the students being inside all day!
I think the parents who are complaining should try to home school or pay for private schools for their kids. The school would not have changed the schedule if they truly felt that it was a bad decision for the children.