Some of children's most devastating mental scars were cut in gym class. FitnessLink did some investigating and found that very few schools follow the Surgeon General's 1996 recommendation for daily physical education for all students, kindergarten through grade 12. Physical education, like other school subjects, falls under each state's general jurisdiction, with specific programs and policies developed and implemented by local districts. A state may require two years of PE for graduation, a district may stipulate three years, and individual teachers usually get to decide which activities to teach and for how long. Many schools have no physical education specialists, so teachers create their own idea of what PE should be.
PE is merely an extended recess.
The youngsters not on the watch of my student teacher were chatting, resting or necking. Dr. Davies alludes to three full and overcrowded classes in one gym at one time. Class overload is an often-cited downfall of PE programs. Combine that with the average teacher's focus on team sports and you have 35 kids sitting on the sidelines while 10 play basketball. It seems that even among the better PE programs, the curriculum is mostly about playing sports.