Teaching Physical Education


When I look back and remember p.e. classes as a kid, I am amazed by how much teaching physical education has changed. The entire field has gone through what I see is a drastic and quite positive evolution since that day. Nowadays, teaching children physical education involves a lot more psychology than ever before. It isn't just about having students compete in sports where the strongest can dominate the weakest. Instead, teaching physical education is about making sure all the students are able to go in and work as a team toward accomplishing goals.

For example, we recognize there are different activities that we can use for teaching students physical education. Back in the day, it was all about basically running and ballgames. We would jog for miles, play basketball and football, and occasionally thrown in a game of dodgeball for good measure. Nowadays, however, students can participate in dancing, kids martial arts training, high ropes courses, low ropes courses, and basically anything else to get moving. There is an understanding that the important thing is to become involved in some physical activity. Not every child has to excel at the every skills, and not every child has to be an athlete. The important thing is that every child is given the opportunity to develop lifelong positive habits of staying in good shape and being healthy.

Our school has a no tolerance policy towards building, and as you can expect, that has really had a profound influence on how we teach physical education. It is a well-known fact that gym class has always been a place where jocks pick on the geeks but we don't let it happen anymore. We give the students time to share their personal experiences both in private and public setting after each class to make sure that no one is suffering in silence while being picked on by another student. We also reward students for encouraging each other, making teamwork every bit as important as competition in teaching physical education.

Of course, I think our understanding of exercise has become more complete and comprehensive as well. We don't really focus on quite the same fitness tasks anymore. It is true that we emphasize standard benchmarks such as jogging, sit-ups, and push-ups, but we also stress flexibility and core muscles as well. We want to make sure that our students develop well-rounded physiques, so we make them go through a wider variety of different conditioning exercises than before. This helps us teaching physical education because it allows students to understand how the different muscle groups work better. And by knowing their muscles, they really get to develop a deeper relationship with their own bodies. Ultimately this is a big part of what being physically active is all about.