That New PE Research Study Got Me Thinking About My Kid’s School Week
I was scrolling my neighborhood parent Facebook group last night, waiting for my chocolate chip cookies to finish baking (I’d already burned the first batch, don’t judge), when someone linked a new research study out of Ohio State about how U.S. parents view elementary school PE. I clicked it mostly because I was avoiding folding the mountain of laundry on the couch, not because I thought it would stick with me. But it did, mostly because it called me out on the weird, messy contradiction I didn’t even know I was living.
For context, I’ve got a 2nd grader, Lila, and a 4th grader, Jax, at the public elementary down the street. Last week I was early for parent-teacher conferences, so I hung out by the gym doors waiting for Lila’s class to wrap up PE. I stood there for like ten minutes, and I watched Lila the whole time. She didn’t run, didn’t play four square, just sat on the top bleacher picking at a scab she’d gotten falling off her bike the weekend before. When the bell rang, she walked out slow and didn’t even tell me she’d sat the whole period out until I asked. She said she “didn’t feel like running today.” I just nodded and told her that was fine, and we went to talk to her teacher about reading levels. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.
The study says most of us are like me. 80% of the 1,200 parents surveyed said they think PE is super important for kids’ mental health, for burning off extra energy, for teaching them teamwork. I would’ve checked that box too. I know sitting at a desk all day is bad for kids. I complain all the time that mine spend too much time on their iPads after school. But then the study asked the big question: if your school had to add 20 extra minutes a day of either reading/math test prep or PE, which would you pick? 62% of parents picked math and reading. I would’ve picked that too, a year ago when the school sent exactly that survey home. I checked “prioritize instructional time” without even thinking twice, because Jax was struggling with fractions and I was panicking about how that would affect his state test scores, which affect the school’s funding, which affects everything, right?
That’s the messy part, right? I don’t think I’m a bad parent for that. I think most of us are just tired and stretched thin. When the PE teachers did a little walk-out last semester asking for smaller class sizes and more prep time, I signed their online petition. But when they asked for parents to come speak at the school board meeting that night, I said I couldn’t go. I had a dentist appointment I couldn’t reschedule, which was true, but I also didn’t want to leave work early, didn’t want to deal with finding a babysitter, didn’t want to get into an argument with a bunch of strangers about test scores. I felt a little guilty after, but I brushed it off. What difference would one more person speaking make, anyway?
The study also pointed out this really depressing split I hadn’t really thought about before. Parents whose kids don’t have access to after-school sports or safe places to play after school are the ones who want more PE the most. But those are exactly the parents whose schools have the least money for PE, the least time for it, the most pressure to hit test score targets. Wealthier parents, most of whose kids are in soccer or gymnastics or whatever after school, are more likely to say PE is fine the way it is, because they’re already getting their activity elsewhere. That makes sense on the surface, but it also feels so wrong. The kid who can’t run around a safe yard after school is the one who needs that 45 minutes at school the most, and he’s the one who doesn’t get it.
I caught myself this week doing the exact thing the study talks about. Lila came home crying last Tuesday because she got picked last for kickball, and said she never wanted to go to PE again. I hugged her, gave her a popsicle, told her that getting picked last sucks and it’s okay to hate it that day. I texted her homeroom teacher to check in. But I never thought to email the PE teacher to ask why they’re still doing the whole “kids pick teams in front of everyone” thing that we all hated when we were kids. I just assumed that’s just how PE goes. It’s not a “real” class, right? It’s just a break from the real classes.
I still don’t have this all figured out. I still worry about Jax’s algebra prep next year when he gets to middle school. I still get stressed when I see Lila’s reading test scores a little below grade level. If someone forced me to choose between 20 more minutes of PE a day or 20 more minutes of reading help for Lila, I still don’t know what I’d pick. That’s the part no one talks about, right? It’s not a clear good vs bad, it’s just choosing between two things that both matter, when you don’t have enough of either to go around.
I got an email from the PTA tonight, actually. They’re voting on whether to use 10% of this year’s fundraiser money to buy new PE equipment and add one extra 40 minute PE period a week for K-2. It’s a tiny change, won’t fix the funding gaps or the crummy team-picking tradition or any of the big stuff. I used to just skip these random PTA votes, check whatever the board recommends and move on. Tonight I logged in and voted yes. It’s not a big grand gesture. I still won’t go to the next school board meeting. I still burn cookies and forget to sign homework and worry more about test scores than I should. But for the first time, I stopped and thought: PE is a real class. It matters, even if it doesn’t show up on a report card. That’s more than I had before, I guess. I don’t need a perfect answer to know that much.
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