General News
UFT VP: Tweed neglects phys ed
Feb 14, 2008 10:43 AM
UFT Vice President for Academic High Schools Leo Casey testifies at a Jan. 31 state Assembly hearing to examine compliance with state regulations on physical education by school districts.
Despite a national epidemic of childhood obesity and the many benefits of organized physical activity for students, New York City’s schools are routinely neglecting physical education, a UFT vice president told members of the state Assembly in January.
In fact, for all the concern Tweed administrators have shown about the obesity crisis, he said, “the attitude of the New York City school system … might as well be ‘Let ’em eat cake.’ ”
Leo Casey, vice president for academic high schools, told the Assembly Education Committee that just like art and music, physical education is considered a “peripheral subject,” of secondary importance because it doesn’t contribute to higher math and English test scores.
Moreover, he said, even with the relatively few classes that are scheduled — an average of 21/2 periods per week in middle and high schools and just one period per week in elementary schools — students are often pulled out for other purposes, like remediations, conferences or test preparation.
“And, on top of this,” Casey said, “the New York City Department of Education has now mandated more of the excessive testing being done in the physical education classroom. Intent on collecting tons of data for the Department of Health, the DOE has mandated a project which requires days of testing simply for the purpose of recording and reporting fitness data — all in place of actual physical education.”
The Education Committee, chaired by Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, held its Jan. 31 hearing to examine compliance with state regulations on physical education by school districts in the state.
Casey said that in addition to there being too few physical education classes, school gymnasiums frequently were overcrowded and poorly equipped. He noted that the breakup of large high schools into several smaller ones meant that scheduling for the one gym shared by the schools was necessarily inadequate.
But the basic problem, he said, is that physical education is being given “short shrift.” Like so many other subjects, he said, “physical education is constantly being sacrificed on the altar of test prep. You have heard this before but the malady goes on: We are teaching to the test. We are not educating the whole child.”
Casey’s complete testimony is available on the UFT Web site, www.uft.org, under “News and Issues.”
