PDFE Assignment 9

I feel like my physical education background was different than the common student, because I moved schools a good bit. I went to primary school here in Rome, Georgia at Glennwood Elementary School. From Kindergarten through second grade my P.E. teacher was Mrs. Rice and our classes had between 20 and 30 students. We had P.E. classes for around an hour every third day because we rotated between Art, P.E., and Music. We never focused on specific sports, but rather we made sure to cover the basics of elementary movement. The class took place inside a gym half the time and outside on a track or in a field the other half of the time.

As I became older I transfered to Berry Elementary School. At Berry I was able to do many different activities that the average school child might not be able to enjoy. My classes were a little bit smaller. We probably had between 15 and 20 students in the class and it lasted around an hour and a half. Unlike primary school we focused on games more. Sometimes the class would play capture the flag out in front of Frost Chapel and other times the class would go into the Windshape gym and play games like basketball and dodgeball. This was probably one of my favorite P.E. classes because we played games that I enjoyed and we had a vast amount of freedom our class had on Berry's beautiful mountain campus.

I left Rome and moved to Fayetteville, Georgia the summer I was going into 7th grade. For two years I attended Whitewater Middle School. The P.E. classes were a lot larger because the school was bigger. I believed the classes consisted of around 25-35 students. The classes met everyday for 9 weeks then students had to change their electives. P.E. was always my favorite class so I tried to make sure I was able to get into a P.E. or P.A. (Physical Activity) three out of the four 9 weeks. The classes consisted of many of the same activities I did when I was at Berry. We played games like dodgeball, flag football, and basketball.

After I finished middle school at Whitewater, I transfered to Our Lady of Mercy High School. I had the pleasure of having my father be my P.E. teacher for a good bit of high school. My classes were a tad bit smaller than they were at Whitewater. I usually had somewhere between 20 and 25 students in a class. We were required to have only one semester of P.E. and one semester of health. Our P.E. class usually did some form of running or actual physical for the first half of class, then play a game for the remainder of class. Because we could only take one P.E. class, I took a couple weight training classes and team sports classes.

I strongly disagree that schools are reducing the amount of physical activity required for students. As a nation that is notorious for being obese and having health issues, it seems preposterous that school systems would reduce the amount of active time students are participating in physical activity. I believe that schools should require at least 3-5 hours of physical activity a week. I also believe that all students should be required to participate. I think that students who are out of shape often times do not play or participate because they fear being mocked or ridiculed.