Make your move: Physical education classes aim to create 'physically literate' students

The state of physical education in 2024 certainly doesn’t resemble the P.E. practiced by Gen Xers and Boomers during their school years.

Those earlier generations may recall physical education class as a sometimes demoralizing and stressful part of schooling where you performed dangerous activities like climbing the rope or played games like “Soak ‘Em.” Ah, the 20th century.

At Toledo Public Schools, the P.E. programs are guided by the Ohio Department of Education’s Physical Education Standards , which were adopted in 2015. The standards emphasize a desire to create “physically literate individuals.”

The five standards that make up a “physically literate” individual read as follows: Standard 1: Demonstrates competency in a variety of motor skills and movement patterns. Standard 2: Applies knowledge of concepts, principles, strategies and tactics related to movement and performance. Standard 3: Demonstrates the knowledge and skills to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical activity and fitness. Standard 4: Exhibits responsible, personal and social behavior that respects self and others. Standard 5: Recognizes the value of physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and/or social interaction.

Over at TPS, Jennifer Deyarman serves as director of multilingual learner education, language assistance, and unified arts (fine arts, P.E. and health). Ms. Deyarman said that regular P.E. sessions are a routine part of every TPS student’s grade school years.

“We offer P.E. beginning in kindergarten and it goes all the way up to eighth grade,” said Ms. Deyarman. “All students have P.E. for two half hour sessions two times a week. The state of Ohio adopted new standards, so we do follow those standards and the goal is teaching lifelong exercises and activities, something that they will continue into adulthood.”

Toledo Public Schools offer a broad selection of sports, games, and physical activities in their physical education classes. According to Ms. Deyarman, P.E.-related injuries are rare.

“Injuries are not routine at all.” said Ms. Deyarman. “If you do have injuries it’s just your common bumps and bruises and at our locations we have school nurses, so if there were injuries that required attention there’d be someone on site to take care of that.”

While elementary and middle schools have mandatory P.E. twice a week, high schoolers are required to have one solid year of P.E. classes for graduation, spread over two semester courses: P.E. session 1 and P.E. session 2.

In an age where 93 percent of teens are using some sort of social media (with YouTube topping the list), educators emphasize the importance of teaching good physical activity. The Centers for Disease Control statistics say less than one-quarter (24 percent) of children 6 to 17 years of age participate in 60 minutes of physical activity every day.

“More and more kids are on social media and things like that, so it’s important to get them engaged in physical education and activities like that to keep them physically mobile so it’s good for their development and well being,” said Ms. Deyarman. “We follow those (Ohio Department of Education) standards and we have really dedicated P.E. teachers who have well organized, well run classes, and that limits injuries as well due to their professionalism. Pickleball is becoming a phenomenon so were trying to get kids interested in that and that’s something that could transfer to a lifelong interest in sports.”

At the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan, Chris Kyles has served as the vice president of sports for 25 years. Throughout the decades, Mr. Kyles has seen sports and physical education change and transform to what it is today.

“I think it’s changed in a few ways. Just seeing the amount of training that goes into competitive sports and we have recreation leagues now as well. We do a lot of sports sampling where we’re introducing kids to pickleball, lacrosse, golf; all the non-traditional sports. So those have been some of the biggest changes I’ve seen over 25 years,” said Mr, Kyles.

Mr. Kyles said that in age where young people are likely to be involved in sedentary activities like video games or social media, physical education is more important than ever.

“The biggest thing is having them to be active and be healthy and having them get outside and play,” said Mr. Kyles. “That’s the main reason why we have recreational and competitive sports. I think physical education also teaches them to have a healthy balance between gaming like e-sports and also the physical sports. I think it’s super important for kids to get active.”