PE

Post Reply New Topic

How do our kids do in PE? My son, who actually always does well in areas of effort, just isn't all that athletically inclined. He's now started middle school and I've received the first round of grades. He scored a 50% in one area because he can't run a 10 minute mile. I find it strange to grade something on performance if they aren't tracking effort and improvement in the grade. Is it fair to grade someone low because they might have some coordination issues? I've asked the teacher how they address kids who are not naturally athletic, and I'm waiting to hear back from her.

So, I'm wondering if people have had experience working with PE teachers.. and are there accommodations afforded to our kids who might not technically be delayed with their gross motor skills but are at the low end of normal... have proprioception issues related to sensory stuff and/or have the stereotypical awkward gait many of our kids have.

We never hit past 2nd grade in public school, but my son would supposedly not have qualified for adaptive gym - so they refused to test him. They just let him run around and do what he wanted away from the group. They really did not care what he did, in PE, as long as it did not interfere with anyone, which he didn't. His grades in PE were excellent. I presume they knew if they weren't, I would have been up there insisting on testing. I was already fighting too many things with them to worry too much about PE.

I really think PE should be pass-fail, anyway, b/c it is really not important other than giving the kids an opportunity to get some recreation and exercise.

I don't actually know what kind of modifications they can make if the child is not qualified for adaptive gym. If they were letting my kid's lack of athleticism affect his grades, I would be up there inquiring about getting tested/re-tested for adaptive gym at the very least, though.

I will be curious what other people post because I have no idea what they would have done for my son in the higher grades where I presume just running around and playing by himself would not have been acceptable. You would think they would mark your son on effort or something, but if they may not want to if everyone else is being graded on athletic prowess.

I think it should be "pass-fail," too.

I would bet that many kids starting middle school can't run a ten-minute mile. I know I couldn't.....

In the US, when I went to school, they had something called the Presidential Fitness Test, which I presume they still have. It involves a battery of fitness requirements where they counted how many sit ups you could do in a certain amount of time. They did the same for push ups --and we had to do pull ups and all sorts of stuff. The centerpiece of the thing was the timed mile. I think it started in elementary school --and the passing grades changed through-out the years. I am not 100% sure if they made is do the whole thing in HS or if it was just constant training for the mile test then.

They would really get on people who looked like they were going to fail.

I understand wanting to promote activity and health - but IMO this was totally the wrong way to do it - as it made a lot of us really despise exercise.

ok, Good news!! He gets tested multiple times, and will receive a perfect score as long as he continues to improve. He literally can beat his previous time by seconds and it will give him a perfect score. So, it isn't as bad as it looked when I got the grade report!

(Why) do PE grades matter, anyway? Do they count towards something in the states?

I had top grades in everything except PE, I hated the social aspect mainly, and I was more uncoordinated as a kid. Failing or performing 'below expectation' in that class never affected any other part of my education.

As far as I know, PE factors into overall GPA. But, this is my son's first year in Middle School. Grades don't really matter at all in Elementary School... except to identify areas where they need help, so I'm still learning how this works. Maybe it doesn't matter!

Maybe not, I hope for his sake it doesn't or there's some kind of workaround.

Then again, there might be less academically inclined students counting on PE to raise their GPA.

Yeah.. this may be an example of me worrying about something that doesn't matter at all. So, I'm willing to let it rest!! lol! As long as my son isn't defeated by the grading they do, that's all that matters. I want him to stay active. But, he's such a good student in other areas... PE isn't going to ruin him at all!

That's a brilliant approach to have, you sound like an awesome mom.

Where I live now it counts towards total GPA in that it gets averaged in with all your other grades -- so it counts towards your GPA the same as math or science or English etc. I always assumed places that do that, weight effort fairly heavily. Some kids not good at academics probably consider it an easy way to get a decent grade, but if you are getting As in your academic classes and not good at sports, it would bring your GPA down--which is why I think it should be pass-fail like where I went to school.

Well, I try! lol!
Thank you!