I appreciate Steve Jefferies’ invitation to respond to his editorial in the October 2013 issue of pelinks4u. What follows is less of a direct reply to his editorial than a set of thoughts about the current state of P-12 physical education and some possibilities for its future. Steve started his editorial by noting several positive developments taken from the 2012 Shape of the Nation Report and other stories about encouraging policy changes in a growing number of states. These included a 10% increase in the percentage of school districts requiring elementary school physical education over the past 12 years, a near doubling of the percentage of states providing lesson plans and tools for evaluating students’ progress in middle schools, and a 20% increase in districts adopting policies requiring schools to follow national, state, or district standards.
Other evidence of the increased attention given to the importance of physical education in schools can be found in almost every type of media: newspapers, magazines, web sites, blogs, social media, local television, and even network television programs that are seen by millions of viewers. The 2013 report by the Institute of Medicine strongly supported a “whole school” approach to physical activity learning in schools, and has been read widely by state policy makers, school boards, school administrators, and many advocacy groups. Never before in its more than one hundred years of inclusion as a school subject has physical education been more widely viewed in a positive light by so many different groups -parents, policy makers, health professionals, school administrators, students, classroom teachers, private foundations, and public agencies.
While Steve suggests that this newfound attention might not be a good thing, personally I welcome this improved public perception of the value of our programs in schools and think that our profession can accomplish much more from being in the limelight than we can from being in the margins: A place we’ve been in for too many years. Everyone likes the underdog, but when it comes to our profession, I’d much rather see us in the role of “favorite” because that gives us more opportunities to serve children and youth, and to make a real difference in the quality of their lives.
