Writer's Block: Sweat it out
Should physical education in schools be mandatory, and why?
I never answer these things - but there's always a first time...!
My answer is, No, unless they are very careful about screening children to find out what is physically appropriate for each individual child to do.
I broke a bone in my right foot in high school P.E. class doing jumping jacks, an exercise that a podiatrist told me that I should never have done, due to the bone structure of my legs. I also experienced other injuries to my feet in high school P.E. class, due to the same cause. I've had nothing but problems with my feet ever since then. And, some physical therapy I had in recent years made certain problems worse.
Now, it's been ages since I've been in high school. I have no idea what is standard these days, and how much attention is paid to physical differences in individual children. Do modern school staff members have enough expertise to recognize that some students may experience long term physical complications from certain exercises?
Oh, and HUGS
HUGS back!
(Skipping is a weird thing for me; first I couldn't skip, then for a while I could, and then by freshman year of high school, I couldn't. My mother tried to teach me again and I fell down!)
But the whole atmosphere was that not everybody was adept, and those who were would help those who weren't, and we were all in this together. It was really quite a pleasant experience.
And I know how uncommon that is, so until the idea that that's how it should be becomes commonplace, my answer would be no.
I suspect that lawsuits do motivate a certain increase in caution, but most schools are terminally underfunded, so who knows how good they are at it. Ten years ago I worked at an elementary school for a while and they were moderately careful, at least with regard to keeping track of allergies/respiratory, etc., issues of various students...
Yes, I was thinking the underfunding probably keeps these issues from being addressed. I'm glad that school you worked at kept track of allergy/asthma issues - a good start.