<p>Kathie: I can't believe your Penn schools require a semester of PE for every year of high school. I thought those excessive PE req'ts went out with the 70's. With all the added requirements, certainly 2 semesters of PE (consecutive) and 1 semester of health should be enough (that is AL req't and I think it is also CA). </p>
<p>BTW, your guidance Counselor probably "requires" 2 years of a foreign language because many colleges require such for admission and she doesn't want seniors finding that out too late that they need FL (plus, our country needs to be more bi-lingual like the rest of the world).</p>
<p>Ok, I guess I can win on a few counts. I am stupid for spelling "wear" as "where", and my kiddo's school wins for guys in skirts! I laugh every spring. My older son has not worn a dress (he just sweats), and I wonder if the younger will try to pull it off when he is a little older.</p>
<p>I think one semester/year of PE is great; aren't we all trying to keep our kids in shape? Is the issue the lack of electives or the requirement for PE?</p>
<p>dmd77: Some kids need the PE but a lot of kids already get enough exercize with their sport e.c.'s. My son's (non school) coach didn't like the fact that my son would be tired at practice after having a 90 minute PE class in the afternoon (Kid's school has "A" days and "B" days so they don't have the same classes everyday -- kind of like college. Their classes are 90 minutes long each day (4 classes a day)</p>
<p>The bottom line is that my kids wouldn't have time to take PE every year. They are taking 5 years of science, 4 years of math, 4 years of English, 4 years of Social Science, 4 years of foreign language, 4 years theology, 1 year PE, 1/2 year health, 1 year fine arts, 1 year of journalism, 1 year Computer Aps. Where would they have room for PE every year??????.</p>
<p>The second language that the rest of the world learns is English. If we want our kids to learn a useful second language, we should be teaching Chinese in HS.</p>
<p>beprepn: Or latin. helps with science and English classes. Most people in the US will never have the need to learn Chinese (BTW, which Chinese? There are 5 different Chinese languages)</p>
<p>oh yes. my school has mandatory PE classes two days a week every semester all 4 years. which would be fine if those of us who actually exercise could take another class or get a study hall or something, but in the winter i have swim practice before school, gym at school, then from 3-5 i have cross country (fall), a HS swim meet (winter), or softball (spring), then club swimming (yr round) from 5:30-8:30 or 6-9. yet, it is still necessary to "maintain my physical fitness level" by taking gym every week. because obviously 4-5 hrs a day of exercise is just not sufficient.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The bottom line is that my kids wouldn't have time to take PE every year. They are taking 5 years of science, 4 years of math, 4 years of English, 4 years of Social Science, 4 years of foreign language, 4 years theology, 1 year PE, 1/2 year health, 1 year fine arts, 1 year of journalism, 1 year Computer Aps.
[/quote]
Jlauer95 I'm sorry that your kids go to such a badly run school with such poor teachers. Am I correct in assuming that it is a private school, since your child takes theology classes?</p>
<p>The school that they go to now is not badly run (two of their former schools were -- the source of most of my horror stories). My only complaint now is the "peer reviewing" of essays and the one wierd grade on an AP Bio paper from an otherwise good teacher..</p>
<p>My favorite: our youngest brought home a test in current affairs, where the answer on several "current" questions was the Soviet Union. I sat her down, and explained the USSR to her. </p>
<p>A couple of days later, the school sent a note home (tip off: a bunch of other parents were annoyed) explaining that the reason the Soviet Union was the answer was because the teachers were using a pre-1989 textbook, and didn't want to "confuse" the students. Hhhhmmmm. I wonder if they felt they were free to tell the students that George Bush is president, or were they going to say it was Reagan, because the book did, to avoid confusing them !</p>
<p>pret: Why are they using a pre-89 textbook??? Even my kid's Catholic school follows the public schools cycle of replacing one subject's textbooks every year (so all textbooks end up being changed about every 6 or 7 years. That book your child is using is from a couple of "cycles" ago.</p>
<p>Jlauer,
well, that's my point about the PE requirement. My son took 5 years of math, 4 years of english, 4 years of social studies, 3 years of german (took German 1 in MS), psychology,4 years of band, computer programming 2 yrs and the mandatory basic computer classes, health, etc. So should we have said, "sorry, my son doesn't have time" ? That was the point of my rant: that there is not enough room in the kids schedule for mandated fluff classes. </p>
<p>I agree that all kids should exercise but as others have said, if you are doing a sport or marching band, seems like that should count for PE. Ahh, and health - our kids start in 4th grade with drugs, 5th grade is sex ed, 6th grade is drugs, 7th grade is the body, 8th grade is more sex ed, 9th grade is drugs (more graphic) and 11th grade tops it all off with more sex ed, diseases and more drugs! If we parents have any questions about anything, we can just ask our kids.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that kids shouldn't take a foreign language, just that most students are not aware that it's not a requirement. And speaking of languages, only the "gifted" kids can take russian. No test or anything, just the "gifted" pronouncement in third grade.</p>
<p>Because of moves, my older son has been in 6 different schools -- some public, some private. I have funny, weird stories from all, some more than others. I had one private school principal tell me that he hates talking to the parents of the "chronically naughty kids" (kids who are openly defiant, bratty, mean. And/or kids that routinely don't do their homework) because those parents get soooooo upset. I told him that he needed to be more concerned about not upsetting the parents of the good kids. </p>
<p>WHY do schools treat the complaints from the parents of the chronically naughty kids equally with the complaints from the parents of the good kids. WHO CARES what those parents think -- Who cares if they pull their kids out of the school??? -- Those parents obviously don't know how to parent. Why risk losing good families just because naughty/bratty kids won't be dealt with???? PLEASE listen to the parents of the good kids (well-behaved and do their school work), those parents obviously are doing something right. No school ignore the pleas/concerns of the good kids because those kids are the ones schools want to keep -- especially if they are boys (teachers LOVE to have well-behaved boys in their classes to help "balance" the rowdier ones!)</p>
<p>jlauer - there are 1800 students at my son's school, so approximately 600 have at least one F on their last report card. I don't know if the Fs are particular to any teachers or subject or grade - there hasn't been any communication that I can tell. Since my son is not one of the students involved, I don't know how those parents have been contacted, if at all. I think one of the problems is that most of the teachers came from a school on an accelerated block system (4 class periods per day, a year covered in one semester) and this school is on a standard 7-period day. The thought is that the teachers have not adjusted to this, as well as the 10th and 11th graders who had that same transition. My son is a freshman, and his junior high is on a 7-period schedule. As to "the dance of the lemons", the teachers were hand-picked by the new principal, who had worked with them for the past few years.</p>
<p>It's strange, because the students know about it, they've been talking and blogging about it, it's being discussed on local message boards, but there has been nothing from the school administration. On a positive note, I'm not as worried about my son's class rank.</p>
<p>kathie..... I agree with you. Did you think that I didn't? Are all the req'ts that you mentioned statewide or district wide? If some are just district-wide, then parents should make their voices heard to their school boards. If the rules are ALL state-wide, then appeal to your reps with the points that you have made here. The No Child Left Behind is a federal program and doesn't require all the PE that you have mentioned.</p>
<p>My younger son was in kindergarten and was disrupting the class by always reading the big book that was held up for the kids to see at circle time. he was reading and no one else in the class was. she would say "what does this say" to the whole class and my son would always answer. I certainly understood how this was a problem in teaching the other children. when she brought it up at a conference I asked her "what are some ideas you have to work around this? what can I do to help? (since this was a classroom problem). Her suggestion -- "you should allow him to watch more TV at home and also, if you wouldn't allow him to do any reading at home, by next year in 1st grade he should be more at the level of his classmates". Not only did she actually say this, she wrote it down in a follow letter from the conference as her main suggestion for modifying his behavior. we couldn't believe it -- the answer -- don't let him learn!</p>
<p>JLauer asked "WHY do schools treat the complaints from the parents of the chronically naughty kids equally with the complaints from the parents of the good kids."</p>
<p>Because those kids' parents have lawyers. Lawyers that they pay to harass the teachers and the school to keep misbehaviors off the kids' records.</p>