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Strollerderby
I hated gym class when I was a child. As a fairly uncoordinated, unathletic kid, I was traumatized by dodge ball, changing rooms, and the Presidential Fitness Tests. By the time I reached high school, I pretty much begged my parents to get me a doctor’s note to excuse me from gym (they took pity on me and eventually relented).
Now that I’m a mom, I love PE — or at least the idea of it. I don’t want my kids to be sitting still throughout the school day. I’d much rather that they were up and moving. And given the childhood obesity epidemic, it’s more important than ever to keep our kids active.
Therefore, it’s good news that more states are requiring PE at the elementary, junior- high and high-school levels, according to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education and the American Heart Association’s ”The 2010 Shape of the Nation Report: Status of Physical Education in the USA,” which they issued this week. Continue reading »
Did you just kind of flinch a little bit at the very thought of a bygone gym teacher? You’re not alone. A new study by University of Alberta researcher Billy Strean on people’s feelings about gym class found that almost everyone has horrible, horrible memories thereof.
Unsurprisingly, classic gym class activities like rope climbing, dodgeball or repetitive basketball drills actually discourage kids from athletics. Strean’s study found 70 percent of kids in Canada drop out of sports.
He advocates very loosely organized games where kids can simply let go and play, the way they are hardwired to do. Continue reading »
Apparently using soccer balls for a game of dodgeball in the school gym was a bad idea. A twelve-year-old lost his teeth, and now his parents are suing the school.
Hasn’t he ever heard “if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball?”
When I read the story of the lawsuit over at the NY Daily News, my first reaction wasn’t poor kid (I’m not heartless – that came next). All I could think was “wait, they still play dodgeball in schools?” Continue reading »
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