“My Philosophy of Physical Education”

By:  Jeremy Noyes

             As a child, I always enjoyed watching and participating in athletics.  It did not take me long to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up.  I wanted to be a high school basketball coach.  It took a few years to figure out that I would also have to be a teacher.  It was a tough decision, but I finally decided that I wanted to be a health and physical education teacher.  Now, I am starting to become more interested in teaching than I am in coaching.  I believe that it is very important to be a good teacher as well as a good coach.

            I realized the importance of staying physically fit later than most children in life.  I was quite overweight from the end of elementary school until about my sophomore year in high school.  I always knew that I was overweight; I just never thought it was a problem.  After I lost the weight, I discovered the true value of maintaining physical fitness.  I hate to see children going through what I did but unfortunately it is quite easy to see just by driving by a school playground at recess time.  This helped me make my decision in choosing this career field. 

            For as long as I can remember, I always looked forward to physical education during the school day.  I hope my students feel the same way about my class.  I believe that physical education should be a fun, yet beneficial, break from the every day classroom.  I also hope that my students realize how much they can benefit from this class.  If  not for physical education, many students would receive little to no exercise during a normal week.  I want to get through to my students the importance of physical activity.  I believe that we are raising a “Nintendo generation” and because of this, children need ways to become physically active.  This all starts in our school systems. 

Many people think that physical education is nothing more than just fun and games.  Some school districts in other states have completely done away with physical education programs.  Many times a regular classroom teacher will have to take his or her students outside for recess time.  I do not think this is right.  This would be a total deprivation to the students and their bodies.  The students need somebody who is physically educated and understands what activities must be taught at the proper grade levels.  If school boards and administrators do support physical education programs, the students will view it as unimportant as well.

We as physical educators must do everything in our power to show the community and school districts that we play an important role in the education of children.  If physical educators simply roll the ball out and do not teach, many people will not understand the value of teaching.  This will hurt the field, but even more importantly it will hurt the children.  A lot of physical educators that I had simply rolled the ball out and that was not a problem for me.  I always enjoyed participating in athletics, but there are always those children who do not.  This creates a poor environment for those students, and they are likely to develop hatred towards physical education.  Unfortunately, that is what many people think of physical educators, and we must do everything in our power to change that image.

I believe that the image of physical education can be greatly changed by just having a positive learning environment.  John Dewey believed that a lot of learning could be achieved through interaction with the environment.  Dewey believed that educators must take advantage of learner’s interests[1].   I find this to be very true.  If children are not interested in what is being taught, it probably will not be a good learning environment.  That is why we must be reflective teachers and make the appropriate changes. 

            I do not expect this to be an easy area to teach in.  It will be very difficult, especially at the elementary level, to keep all of the students happy, while improving their fitness and teaching them new skills.  There will probably always be the few students in each class who do not want to be there and do not want to participate in the activities.  I hope to find ways to motivate these children and teach them the importance of physical education.   Often if a student enjoys physical education, he/she will be more active outside of school.  This needs to be done in order to maintain a high level of physical fitness.