Two recent news stories signal the changing state of play among children and youths, and reflect the value of physical education in our schools…
1) Layton, Utah will become the first American municipality west of the Mississippi River to install an electronic playground. ”The playground includes electronic versions of games such as Capture the Flag and tug-of-war. Layton’s city parks planner says the goal is to get the video game generation back to the playground so it becomes more active.” More information about this project can be found here.
2) Massachusetts state law requires schools to provide physical education to all student at every grade level. However, in the city of Boston alone, more than 7,700 elementary school students and 4,800 high school students at 27 different schools (proportional to one out of every four students in Boston) “went without phys-ed instruction during the 2007-08 academic year.” Corrective action has been ordered. More from the Boston Globe here.
play, think…
J.R. Atwood
Tags: Boston, changing state of play, corrective action, electronic playground, Layton, Massachusetts, PE, PE class, physical education, physical education policy, play, playground, recess, UT, video games
July 17, 2009 at 2:36 pm
What does that mean, JR?
They’ve installed a Fit Trail in Albuquerque composed of machine-stations (http://leegertrained.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/gym-of-the-stupid/).
One of my readers said that she thought enjoyment was key to getting people to be more physical. I’m not sure I agree. I think people have completely lost it.
Electronic playground? Wii Fit?
Those things would be fine additions to the life of someone physically and mentally active…but obviously, per your second statement above, that activity isn’t happening.
How do we turn it around?