Online PE

I pride myself in being opened minded and feel I have the ability to see both side of an issue. I am especially opened minded to any idea that helps promotes (quality) physical education. I have kept this topic on the back burner for a couple years now. I hesitated to write about it because my views are very strong to one side. I have read article after article about the positive impact of this program, but no article has convinced me to change my view. The topic I am referring to is “Online PE”. The first time I heard the term “online PE”, I thought the term was an oxymoron.

Having been a physical education teacher at the secondary level for over 30 years, my first thought, it was sometimes hard enough to motivate students to exercise when the students were in front of me, how would I motivate a student only responding to me on a computer. About the time PE was starting to make a comeback in America, this new idea has caused even fewer PE classes being offered in high schools across America.

When PE barely exist in American High Schools (Less than 2% of US high schools offer daily PE), why did we need a system that would cut back on PE classes in schools. High School PE in the United States is a almost a dinosaur.

A childhood obesity epidemic has drawn the attention of our society to reconsider the value of quality PE. Schools across the country are investigating the value of a quality physical education program. The problem is, some educational leaders have not investigated past their perception of old PE, dodge ball and rope climb, and have not discovered the endless value of a quality (PE4life) PE program.

I know our school district puts an emphasis on the value of self directed learners, but I think online PE maybe carrying this a little too far. Isn’t online PE a slam at professionally trained, highly qualified PE teachers around the country? How qualified do you have to be to have students send you an email once a week to report how physically active they were during the week. I do not believe I need a college degree to teach “online PE”. Since I have never taught online PE, someone educate me on accountability. I was told parents just sign a note to verify student progress, anything wrong with that picture?

I know high schools have conflicts created with so many graduation requirements, students have trouble fitting in important classes to their schedule. Is there a more important class than one that prepares children to lead a healthy life? It is sad we turn over such an important curriculum to chance.

 Our high school has over 3000 students, and everyone takes daily PE all four years. At the same time we are academically successful. In fact, PE has become one of the most important core subjects in our school. As the nation faces a childhood obesity epidemic (33% overweight or obese) our district has only 5% rate of students overweight or obese. We now have documented proof from Harvard, a fit child learns better. Our PE4life program has a pilot program called Learning Readiness PE. We have dramatically improved reading and math scores using physical activity. Our high school schedules students into PE the period before their most difficult class.

We also know a fit child behaves better. With school violence being a major educational issue in American schools, how valuable is a curriculum that will improve student behavior? Schools are spending millions of dollars on security cameras, metal detectors, and school security officers. Would it make sense to spend money on a quality PE curriculum that will actually change student behavior not just monitor behavior.

I believe nearly 25 states have approved online PE. If a school district does not offer quality PE or daily PE, maybe online PE is better than NO PE. Does our society really feel we will solve the childhood obesity crisis with online PE? If your community had a PE4life program, they would not have a need to introduce online PE.

I have read all the articles about the value of online PE. I have read several students’ testimonies on how great it works. I hope to hear from some readers so they convince me a child can learn better from a computer than a highly qualified PE teacher in a PE4life type program.