How much PE will my first grader be getting ? A simple question I asked the principle of my children's school over three years ago. One might assume there is some permanent form of PE in the public elementary schools here in San Francisco...The truthful answer, not even close. The answer, when I got it about 3 months later...was "roughly 35 minutes once every 2 weeks. Here are just five of the responses I got from parents when I found this out.
1) That's impossible
2) That can't be
3) It's horrifying
4) Isn't there something to do?
5) No way?
Unfortunately, yes way. That simple question of how much PE is my child getting at school, has lead me down a long discombobulated road of the reality of PE in our public schools. Let alone a decent quality Dance Education program that could help.
Zero was the amount of funds for my kids school when I first asked. Later I appealed to our PTA to take a clear serious look at this whole in our kids overall education. Although many parents agreed that it was wrong, I found a that when I brought up the issue at PTA meetings, I was met with everything from. "We will discuss that in the future",,,to "If you don't like it then take your kid to another school". To literally "Jim Brosnahan, you can just leave" as your constant "push" for more PE is disruptive". Disruptive,,,I think to myself. What is disrupted is the neurological development of our children's brains due to lack of oxygenation that comes from sufficient PE? Let alone the basic connection of the mind body relationship each child will be going through life with.
"You come off upset about this" I am told by school administrators. "Please don't bring up the issue of PE in this PTA meeting" I was told...Soon I found myself, volunteering my time and skill as a Dance/movement educator on a regular basis. Yet because, there was little overall recognition of it being a school, district wide problem, I was able to tackle it class by class, only by the teachers who seem to have a clue about the importance of Movement, let alone quality PE.
I was recently at a party and a woman came to me and said "Hey you are that PE agitator guy at our school, that is so great that you speak up, I could never do that".
I like many others exchanged holiday small talk and pleasantries, was a bit flattered by the complement, yet in my mind I thought. "Why are people so willing to let this issue of the lack/absence of PE just go, without putting up a fight." ( I was just quoting my thoughts btw:). Then my loving father I spoke with the other day said something that rang true. He said something like." With the work you do as a Dance/movement educator you see first hand the positive effects on the students, others just simply don't know what high quality Elementary school PE/Dance education looks like."
Hmmmmnnn I thought, he is right, what can I do to get the administrators attention and make positive change at my kids school. ( although truth be told, I have a dream that we can bring Dance/Movement Education to help all schools across America,),,(the other 6 continents we will do later, my fellow dancer/teacher/understanders of the value.) Ahhh Ha THE LAW of 200 minutes for every 10 school days. Yep, that is the law of the land here in California, yet with massive budget cuts and lack of priority, it is a law that is let slide...Well it was, until I do what I like to call "Going into physical action to make the 200 minutes accountable.
First I was met with comments like. "We don't have the money" or "It's so bad you have to choose an arm or a leg you want to loose, we can't have quality math and PE"......Excuse me, but if that is the analogy, doesn't that leave my child as an amputee after Elementary school...
I felt no choice, I had to become,,,,,,,,,,,,,THE AGITATOR FOR MORE PE,,,,,,,,. Let's see, was I embraced as a dedicated parent trying to fix what is right,,,,,,that would be an overall no. Many of the Starbuck cup clutching parents, turned their head the other way, the schools main administrator avoided meeting with me, because, I wanted......A MASTER PE SCHEDULE THAT PROVED OUR KIDS WERE GETTING THE 200 MINUTES THE STATE MANDATES.....I went to the district, I researched who was in charge, we got a "PE teacher training program" to train regular classroom teachers to be the PE teachers". In SF, that's the best we have for now I am told by the district.
Why am I writing this??? Because I have learned that even if everyone at your kids school doesn't like you for agitating, you must to make change.
Now we have a rough Master Schedule showing the hours that go into making the 200 minutes.
Fellow Dance teachers/parents/educators in training. Make a difference and find out what is happening in your district and push for change. This generation of children are counting on it. Brain studies show, that children with at least the 200 minutes do more than just score higher on tests. Brain scans show, there are several regions of the brain that are stronger than those kids without regular PE.
As a Dance Educator, I see the difference in the eyes of the child, who is told by his class room teacher...Johnny sit still"....I say, let's not sit still. Advocate for Dance in schools, a quality PE program. Let's change our National approach to PE, even with the nice million dollar add campaigns to tell kids to get 60, that is good, but we must do better. Our children are counting on it.....word
.
With love and sincerity,
James Brosnahan
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