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Gym teachers make a push for increased phy ed standards

Joe McCarthy doesn’t like it when his elementary students sit still.

The 14-year physical education teacher has been a leader in state and nationally-based P.E. movements designed to help reinforce the notion that exercise in school is more than simply giving kids a chance to “shake all their sillies out.”

Physical activity throughout the school day is instrumental to a student’s cognitive learning process, McCarthy told the House Education Innovation Policy Committee Thursday. He testified in support of HF498, which would put Minnesota’s primary and secondary schools more in line with national physical education standards

“The brain stores no fuel itself,” said McCarthy, who teaches at Meadowview Elementary in Farmington.   “So if you want your kid’s brain to be turned on, focused, ready to learn, you need to send nutrients to their brain. The best way to do that is through physical activity and physical education.”

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bob Dettmer (R-Forest Lake), would direct the Department of Education to adopt, in rule, statewide physical education standards and benchmarks based on those from the K-12 National Association of Sport and Physical Education.

The committee approved the bill Thursday and sent it the House Education Finance Committee. Its companion, SF343, sponsored by Sen. Susan Kent (DFL-Woodbury), awaits action by the Senate Finance Committee.

The bill also contains provisions that would require the department to annually report the weekly amount of time K-8 students spend in physical education class, the percent of K-12 students who receive a passing physical education grade and the number of required physical education credits school districts require their high school students to complete in order to graduate.

Dettmer, who taught physical education for 34 years, said the bill would be the first time since 2010 that Minnesota has updated its physical education standards for K-12 schools. In 2003, the Legislature required that all school districts adopt local standards for health and physical education.

The value of exercise

McCarthy, a board member of the Minnesota for Healthy Kids Coalition, said recent research has proven that exercising regularly throughout the school day stimulates student brain activity and has a positive impact on their academic performance.

This conclusion bore fruit at Meadowview Elementary last year where McCarthy took under his wing 30 students who scored lowest among their peers in reading on the fall Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment exam. Each morning, for 12 weeks, McCarthy would engage the students in exercise-based cognitive learning games for 15 minutes. At the end of 12 weeks, the students saw significant increases in their spring reading MCA exams.

“That is the impact that movement and physical education has on our students’ ability to learn,” he said.

 

 

 


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