Dressing-Policy Dispute
Dressing-Policy Dispute After reading "Not Dressing Is Disobedience, Not Just a Nuisance;' by Mitchell and Hewitt (JOPERD, August 2002), I was compelled to offer a differing view. My initial reaction to the article was that the overall tone was very negative, punitive, coercive, and one of displaced responsibility. After some reflection, I cannot say that my feelings have changed. Let me begin by stating that I am an elementary physical educator, grades four through six. I understand that at the junior high and high school levels, where changing for physical education is routine, nondressers are a problem. I know nothing of the authors' physical education program, and the nondressers may simply be rebellious teens. However, in my own program, students are free to choose whether to participate or sit out. Is threatening students with inschool suspension, parental notification,lower grades, and being sent home an effective way to deal with nondressers? Perhaps in the short run, although I am not really convinced. But in the long run, is this the way to turn kids on to physical activity and is it likely to produce individuals who will at some later date choose physical activity when we, the physical educators, are not around? Some introspection is needed when students opt to sit out rather than participate. What is the message the nondresser is sending? Let me take a moment to relate a story from my gymnasium. During a basketball dribble-and-shoot warmup activity, children were asked to dribble to the music and shoot at one of five baskets when the music stopped. All students had their own ball. The next thing I knew, five players had made the choice to sit out (after they had begun the activity). To make a long story short, the kids were uncomfortable with all the balls coming back down and were afraid of getting hurt. When they returned for their next class (two days later), I offered students the choice of using either a basketball or a volleyball trainer. When the music stopped, students with volleyball trainers were to shoot at different baskets than those with basketballs. All five students voluntarily returned to the activity. My point? I could have threatened to lower their grade, call their parents, or send them to the office if they did not participate, but I found
Holiday Games and Activities
Add fun, fitness, and motor skill development to the holiday seasons with holiday Games and Activities. These fun activities, developed and field tested by an experienced elementary physical education specialist, promote the spirit of the season in classes and help provide quality physical education for children aged 5 through 11. They're excellent teaching resources for elementary physical educators, recreation directors, and playground supervisors. Holiday Games and Activities divides the school year into eight seasons: Back to School; Halloween; Thanksgiving; Winter, Christmas, and Hanukkah; Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day and Groundhog Day ; St. Patrick's Day; Easter; Summer. For each holiday or season, there are physical fitness activities, skills, games, rhythm and dance activities, and illustrates bulletin board ideas. Games and activities like Thankful Turkey Tag, Scrambled Eggs relay race, and Escape From the Spiders obstacle course get students involved and excited about physical education. And their excitement males teaching fun, too! To make the games simple to teach, Holiday games and Activities has easy-to-find information that includes: Ages for which the activity is appropriate, activity goals, space required, equipment needs and preparation requirements, safety considerations, adaption suggestions, and teaching hints. There are also over 30 certificates and decoration to reproduce and use.
The New ‘U’
Today's talk about tenure must be framed within broader discussions about the role of the university. Our university system is now over one hundred years old, the “Old-Time College” is gone, the “cold war” university is no longer viable, and the foundations of the modern “multiversity” are cracking, so it is time to talk about change. But change is not necessarily reform, and resisting change probably will not keep things the way they are, so academics must understand the forces reshaping the university. Whenever I listen to colleagues defend the status quo by saying that the United States has a university system that is the envy of the world, I hear echoes of the Detroit automobile industry's casual dismissal of foreign competitors in the early 1960s. The decision not to change did not preserve the auto industry, and it is unlikely to preserve public universities as we know them. The current debates about tenure began with ideological attacks on “tenured radicals” who used their secure jobs to subvert conservative cultural values. The attack on tenure gathered steam as fiscal hawks in financially-strapped states looked for ways to save money and found huge state university systems with budgets to match. When asked why he robbed banks, the legendary Willie Sutton replied, “Because that's where the money is.” When asked why they are robbing tenure, legislators, regents, and administrators reply, “Because that's where the money is.” Personnel costs are a large share of university budgets and tenure ties the hands of administrators and legislators accustomed to using purse strings to control universities.