The governor of Florida has just signed a new bill that requires 30 minutes of continuous exercise daily for students.  Middle schools have to get daily physical education in grades six through eight beginning in the fall of 2009.  Well now.  Isn’t that great?  The kiddies deserve time to get out and play, right?  Well sure if you want to add hours into the day.  The state also requires that all students who score a one or a two on the FCAT get a remediation class.  I know my middle school had to cut out physical education for students who scored ones or twos in both English and Math.  So my question here is if No Child is to be Left Behind academically how are we supposed to increase instruction time and physical education time without increasing the actual amount of time students spend in school?  Call me crazy but something has to give.  The government either needs to back off of the standardized testing or get serious about it.  I don’t think you can have it both ways.  Kids aren’t going to be able to be well rounded with the requirements that are currently in place.  I guess that isn’t entirely true.  They could be if we could make the school day longer but that would mean finding more money for teachers and keeping the parents and students from completely flipping out. 

I for one could hardly get a parent to make their child do homework or projects at home because the kids were ‘working too hard’ at school.  Too hard?  They were in school for six and a half hours a day.  Thirty minutes of that is lunch and another thirty is changing classes.  So that means five and a half hours of ‘work’.  No, because most students had an elective and a PE…so MAYBE four hours of work.  For students who were in danger of being “left behind” they had at most five and a half hours of work.  Now they have  to be given physical education so those students who are the lowest performing just got their academic time cut to a little over four and a half hours.  How are we supposed to compete in a global economy with four hours a day???

I’m ranting, I know.  It just makes me so mad that our country can’t get its act together and provide a decent education to our children.  I want my child to be challenged.  I want my child to be required to learn multiple languages and advanced math and advanced sciences if he or she is capable.  I don’t really care if my child gets physical education if it just means running around and playing.  As long as our school day is so short he/she can play at home.

Do you think physical education should be required in schools?  How do you want your education dollars spent?