PE, Health, Latin, Band... How Much Can You Fit in Your Curriculum?

That Sioux Falls paper reports that the Sioux Falls school board is considering scaling back its high school physical education and health requirements from three semesters to one. Folks who want to keep the requirements say that cutting PE and health is "ludicrous" (that's Roosevelt health and wellness teacher Rhonda Kemmis) when "one third of schoolchildren are either obese or at risk with their weight" (that's Darrin Smith, American Heart Association, paraphrased by Jon Walker, "District Might Trim Health Requirements," that Sioux Falls paper, 2008.03.10).

The main proponent, board member Debbie Hoffman, says requiring that much PE and health is like making every high school student take remedial reading: if one third of kids are having health problems, why require the other seventy percent to give up their electives for three semesters of dodgeball and nutrition videos?

O.K., PE and health classes are a lot more involved than that. Kids get exposed to lots of activities, like tennis and weight training, that contribute to lifelong wellness. Health classes can cover topics that just don't fit in biology or anywhere else in the curriculum but that every citizen-in-training can benefit from.

Of course, you can pick any class on the HS course list and argue that it would provide benefits for every student and therefore should be required. I could argue that requiring every student to take debate (say, Fred, does Watertown still do this?) would boost critical thinking, confidence, and civic engagement and support learning objectives in language arts, social studies, and even science (ask the policy debaters what they learned about AIDS, malaria, and water treatment this year debating the African public health assistance topic). Requiring four years of foreign language would help us catch up with our competitors in international business. Requiring carpentry and auto mechanics would give every student vital practical skills that would save them money throughout their lives and broaden their job opportunities.

How do we do all that, though, when kids are trying meet the requirements for, say, the Opportunity Scholarship? To create more flexibility for students in their class schedules, maybe we should allow students to fulfill PE and health requirements through their participation in extracurricular sports. While we're at it, I wouldn't mind letting students earn academic credit for participation in extracurricular academic activities like drama, interp, and debate. If students could earn a semester credit for working out with the cross-country team for a season or rehearsing for and performing in the one-act play contest, those students would have an extra opening in their course schedule for another math or science or music class instead of a required PE or English class.

But sitting here over breakfast trying to think of the perfect set of course requirements, I feel just like I do when I teach speech, lit, or algebra: there's always something else I wish we had time to cover. We'll never fit all the good things we want our kids to learn into a four-year high school curriculum.

Should all students take PE? Absolutely. They should also take chorus, debate, government, wood shop, and media literacy. But they can't. The best we can do is teach kids that they can do anything, but they can't do everything. Set priorities, make choices, and do the best you can with the time you have.