By Kelly Youngblood
A proposed law that would no longer require Illinois schools to offer PE to students has some local educators concerned.
Brian Wenzel, a PE teacher at South Side Elementary in Champaign and the Unit 4 PE coordinator for K-5, said if the bill passes, it would be a “huge mistake.”
“The number of children in middle school and high school who are affected by health problems is increasing every year. PE is more important now then it has ever been,” Wenzel said.
Bill HB0440, which was introduced in January by Rep. Jeanne Ives, amends the current school code and provides that physical education may (rather than shall) be provided to students.
Illinois is currently the only state that requires PE for K-12 students.
The current law states all schools in Illinois must offer PE to students every day. However, elementary schools can submit waivers to the state to allow them to reduce the number to at least once a week.
Schools that don’t offer PE every day have to provide students with a recess to make up for the lost PE time, Wenzel said. However, he noted students don’t always get a recess due to other duties or activities held during recess time such as band, making up work, or losing recess privileges due to a disciplinary issue.
Dr. Judy Wiegand, superintendent of the Champaign School District, said PE classes are held two to three times a week in Champaign elementary schools in combination with recess, which allows them to meet the state requirement.
Students in middle school and high school have PE every day.
If HB0440 is passed, it will be up to individual school districts to decide if they want to offer physical education to students.
While Wenzel believes PE should not be eliminated from schools he feels the way PE is taught needs to change.
He’d like to see PE programs be fitness based with the focus more on student activity levels and less on traditional games like basketball, volleyball or baseball.
“While skill development is extremely important it should not be the major focus. The focus needs to be on the student activity levels,” Wenzel said.
Wenzel referred to the term MVPA or Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity. The goal of MVPA is for students to maintain a vigorous heart beat of 165 BPM for an average of 15 minutes out of a 40-minute class.
“People see PE as rolling the ball out or playing dodge ball. Dodge ball is not PE and should never be apart of what we do with our kids. We need to stay innovative on creating ways for students to be engaged for the whole class,” he said.
Wenzel said the benefits of enhancing PE include better health, better learners and better behaviors.
Wiegand said she believes families, teachers, and community members want more opportunities for activity, including PE and recess.
“Personally I would not want to reduce the time our students spend engaging in meaningful physical activity,” Wiegand said. “We should focus more on the whole child and this includes health and wellness.”