Experts sound alarm as more schools put phys-ed on back burner
DAVE MCGINN
The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Sep. 16, 2016 3:46PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Sep. 16, 2016 3:46PM EDT
Patty Bromley knows every joke lobbed at her profession. After 14 years teaching phys-ed in Ontario, she’s as familiar with the stereotype as she is with three in the key or keeping your stick on the ice.
“It’s the same old, ‘What do you do, roll a ball out and drink a coffee while the kids are playing?’” says Bromley, who has spent the past dozen years at Ursuline College in Chatham.
It may not sink to the level of contempt, but our low estimation of physical education’s importance is reflected in more than just bad jokes. It’s easily gauged by cost-cutting reductions in programs across the country – from elementary schools up to postsecondary institutions – that physical-education experts say is contributing to the crisis of childhood obesity and widespread sedentary behaviour. The Conference Board of Canada, the World Health Organization and UNESCO, among many other groups, have all called for increasing the time and quality of students’ physical education.
Mental health is another key area that phys-ed classes hope to address. For some students, the physical activity of a traditional phys-ed class is a way to help deal with academic pressures, Bromley says.
“We get a lot of kids who have a tough timetable who are taking tough sciences and tough math, and they’ll take a fitness course just to come and relieve some of the academic stress that they have,” she says.
In Canada, 27 per cent of kids between the ages of two and 17 are overweight or obese, according to a study that looked at data from 2004 to 2013 and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in May.
Patty Bromley, a physical education teacher at Ursuline College in Chatham, Ont., speaks with her students during relay practice, Sept. 3. (Geoff Robins for The Globe and Mail)
Less than one in 10 kids ages five to 17 get the recommended 60 minutes of heart-pumping daily activity, according to a report this year from Particip-Action, a national non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging Canadians to lead more active lives.
Despite these worrying trends, physical education continues to be treated as expendable, experts say.
The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for Children and Youth recommend 60 minutes of physical activity every day for ages 5-17.
Statistics Canada noted that only 9% of ages 5-17 get 60 minutes every day.
It is thought that the lack of physical activity for children and adolescents is the reason 31 percent of school-aged children and 26 percent of adolescents are sleep-deprived.
6