Cutting PE Could Hurt Grades

Ashley Ferrara

EDRE 415

How Cutting Physical Education in Schools Could Hurt Grades

A hot topic going around the physical education world is cutting down or cutting out completely gym class in the secondary and possibly primary setting.  The argument is that programs like physical education, music and art can be cut in order to allow for more time in the academic classroom.  While most people see why this could improve test score, studies have actually showed the opposite.  In a study of 48 students at a primary age students who had more physical fitness time actually scored higher on academic mental tests.  That being said, kids in the top 30% of kids their age group for aerobic activity where able to learn and recall much better than those in the lower 30% range of aerobic activity.

I agree that some middle and high school gym programs are doing our children a disservice and not providing them with educational lesson plans and just "rolling out the ball and pulling in the pay check".  This gives our programs a back reputation and it is our job as the up and coming physical educators to break this mold.  Even at a high school level we should still be focusing on teaching fitness and lifetime skills so that our kids will want to keep fitness in their life even when they don't have gym class.  Our goal is to teach physical activity to where kids value it and want it in their everyday life.

Sifferlin, A. (2013, September 11). How Cutting Physical Education in Schools Could Hurt Grades.  Retrieved 9/8/2014 from The Time: http://healthland.time.com/2013/09/11/how-cutting-physical-education-in-schools-could-hurt-grades/