Physical Education more than just track and field

 Physical education is not just about track and field, but rather, it incorporates a lot more knowledge and skill which can easily be transferable to other subjects in school and other areas in life.

 

This is the view of Physical Education teacher at Harrison College, Adrian Thorne, the top student in the In-Service Certificate in Physical Education at the Erdiston Teachers’ Training College, who spoke to the media recently at the College.

 

“I think that we need to be teaching more throughout the year...I think that track and field can be done after school, and within schools we are supposed to teach what physical education is and provide all of the complementary skills – coordination, agility, teaching about diet and nutrition and that is what we are supposed to be doing, but we are not actually doing that right now,” Thorne said.

 

“I think that we have to realise that now we are not teaching physical education. A lot of physical education teachers would tell you we are not teaching it. We are teaching sports. Just sports. Basically all the way through we are just teaching sports – constantly running – you have got to learn how to run...but we just say, go run. A lot of these children nowadays don’t know how to run. You know, if you see them you know that their coordination is off, you have to break it down, way down...So there is a lot more that we can do.”

 

Thorne said that it is because of this that many students are not interested in this subject. 

 

“I think that a lot of children are turned off from physical education because all they do is run, play football. Physical education is supposed to be problem solving,” he asserted, and it should have an impact on other subjects in school, and therefore a lot more work needs to be done in this area, he stated.

 

The PE teacher said that another thing that turns children off of this subject is having to go out in extreme weather conditions and participate in sports. Therefore, he is making the call for indoor multi-purpose facilities to be built at all schools.

 

“I think that schools need to build multi-purpose facilities indoors so that when the rain falls…we go inside and do something; when the sun is too hot outside; that you go out and do something.”