As educators we are having to give our high school kids a state mandated physical fitness test requiring a mile run/walk, push-ups, curl-ups and a trunk lift. There are NO requirements to be met or incentive for the students to try as kids are being pulled out of academic classes in order to perform these tasks.
Now I am in favor of fitness awareness, especially with high school students that are getting more and more out of shape every year, but this is a disater. It is not like this affects grades or graduation, so basically I have to prevent my senior students from skipping for the next two days while they perform tests that cannot be passed or failed and they do not want to be apart of in any way. Or it is a situation where the student is an athlete in the school and these tests are a joke compared to what they are asked to do on a daily basis during their athletic period. Also it means two less days in the spring to prepare students for the upcomming AP exam (yes, I am a coach who actually teaches a real academic class, shocking!!! Not English as this is poorly written).
If you have been to a Texas high school lately and seen a PE class then you understand a need for a program that will motivate students to get in better shape, but the sad reality of the situation is that this is not about fitness. It exists because politicians are upset with the Texas High School Coaches Association, which I am a memeber, defeating an effort to allow waivers for private schools into UIL activities.
We also had to perform a Bus Evacuation Drill for the same reason which cost thousands of doallars of taxpayer money in order to have your student leave their class to slide out the back of a school bus regardless if they ride one or not. At the current price of diesel, do you think that someone in trouble might already know to listen to the bus drivers' instructions and exit through the giant hole in the back of the bus? Think about every school district in Texas having to have all of their busses run an extra route to every school in the district twice a year just for this drill that was never required until this year. $$$$ that could go to . . . , I don't know, new textbooks?
Anyways, as Frank Costanza said, I have lost my train of thought. I just hate the fact that our state representatives are using a political agenda and our money in the name of "fitness" that has nothing to do with caring for the health and well being of our students and children.
"Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once"
Now I am in favor of fitness awareness, especially with high school students that are getting more and more out of shape every year, but this is a disater. It is not like this affects grades or graduation, so basically I have to prevent my senior students from skipping for the next two days while they perform tests that cannot be passed or failed and they do not want to be apart of in any way. Or it is a situation where the student is an athlete in the school and these tests are a joke compared to what they are asked to do on a daily basis during their athletic period. Also it means two less days in the spring to prepare students for the upcomming AP exam (yes, I am a coach who actually teaches a real academic class, shocking!!! Not English as this is poorly written).
If you have been to a Texas high school lately and seen a PE class then you understand a need for a program that will motivate students to get in better shape, but the sad reality of the situation is that this is not about fitness. It exists because politicians are upset with the Texas High School Coaches Association, which I am a memeber, defeating an effort to allow waivers for private schools into UIL activities.
We also had to perform a Bus Evacuation Drill for the same reason which cost thousands of doallars of taxpayer money in order to have your student leave their class to slide out the back of a school bus regardless if they ride one or not. At the current price of diesel, do you think that someone in trouble might already know to listen to the bus drivers' instructions and exit through the giant hole in the back of the bus? Think about every school district in Texas having to have all of their busses run an extra route to every school in the district twice a year just for this drill that was never required until this year. $$$$ that could go to . . . , I don't know, new textbooks?
Anyways, as Frank Costanza said, I have lost my train of thought. I just hate the fact that our state representatives are using a political agenda and our money in the name of "fitness" that has nothing to do with caring for the health and well being of our students and children.
"Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste of death but once"
) we serve pizza on whole grains, with reduced fat cheese and turkey pepperoni. hamburgers are made with 80% chicken. and i think it goes without saying that the fried chicken isn't really fried.