14 Comments Most Columbia students remember gym class as a pre-pubescent nightmare characterized by itchy uniforms, bloody noses, changing in public, and balls flying into their groins. Steve Silverman says it doesn’t have to be that way. Silverman runs the physical education program at Teacher’s College (making him a gym teacher who teaches gym teachers how to teach gym) and studies PE for a living. Bwog sat down with the man behind the progressive curriculum last week to get his thoughts on dodgeball, Title 9, and lazy kids.
So why did you decide to become a gym teacher?
Well, I like to think of it as a physical educator more than a gym teacher…
Oh, ok, sorry…
I was interested in helping children learn about physical education in a way that would make them feel efficacious about movement. Children will only move and participate in physical activity if they’re liking it.
Gym class at my school never motivated me.
Isn’t that sad?
So how do you get kids to like PE and to keep in shape?
Well, that’s the key question isn’t it! A lot of the traditional methods that people have experienced are not the way. Children have to be in situations where they learn motor skills. Traditionally we’ve tailored PE to children who are higher skilled. For low skilled children in particular, the concentration on traditional sports does more to turn them off to physical education than it does to promote physical activity.
Do you have a PE class horror story from your past?
I feel like you want to do therapy with me here! I had junior high school teachers who were really excellent. Though it was a sports-based curriculum, they were supportive of kids. I went to a high school where it was the opposite. It was playing games and like most physical educators, I’m not really bad at those things, but I could see my friends having bad experiences with it. People getting eliminated when they pick teams, people not participating. The teachers favored the high-skilled kids so these other kids weren’t learning. That’s the antithesis of what physical education should be.
What does it take to be a physical educator?
People need a strong background in movement sciences and kinesthiology, courses in biomechanics, physiology, sports psych, and motor learning.
They have to like children. Our elite teacher certification program here requires an interview. We get tons of applicants and admit not so many. The students we want are the ones who are more interested in helping students learn about physical activity and movement, as opposed to those who want to coach. We’re very biased in that way. We want students who will naturally buy into our program’s philosophy and want to teach in a way that helps all students learn.
How has PE changed over time?
We could go back 100 years where there were trends of German gymnastics, medicine balls and pins. Certainly in the 50’s there was a big focus on fitness, more for boys and girls, so that during the Eisenhower administration they could ensure boys would be fit to enter the military. If you read those things your mother has from the sixties, how they deemed women and girls is way different from how we see it now. I mean, it was before Title 9.
What’s Title 9?
Wha..?
I mean, of course I know what Title 9 is… but, for the tape…
My heart just skipped a beat… that you didn’t know what Title 9 was… It was passed in 1972 to permit equal resources for men and women in education. The part that has received the most press is related to physical education and sport. It caused PE classes to be co-ed, universities to have equal opportunities for men and women in sports. It changed things immensely. Certainly my spouse and women friends grew up in an age that was much different – women should do physical activity to make them more desirable in the dating pool and to be better wives and mothers, and such. Title 9 has been very good for girls. Skill level defines how people experience physical education more than gender.
So, dodgeball or kickball?
Neither. I was one of those kids who loved dodgeball. It’s barbaric. If you’re a low-skilled kid, you fear having someone pound a ball on you. The kids who probably need the skill enhancement the most wind up sitting out early. The National Association of Sport and PE has listed dodgeball as one of the ten worst things PE teachers should do, and if I were czar of PE, I’d fire anyone who plays dodgeball in their class. There’s no instructional reason to do it. At all. Zero. Kickball is different, but I think the biggest problem is that it’s often done in ways that are developmentally inappropriate. Children start playing kickball at an age when they cannot do the skills. If you think about an elementary school child having to hit a relatively heavy moving red ball, that’s an intricate motor skills. In fact, most of the kids are just standing around during kickball.
– Sara Vogel
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14 Comments
@I remember the days when the only PE women participated in was bedmaking. Weren’t those the days, coach? weren’t those the days?
@yea wait so the reason women do PE isn’t so they stay in shape and are more desirable in the dating pool? what other purpose could there be
@i thought that was weird too, but the line before he prefaces it by saying that that was the thinking behind instituting PE when his mother grew up.
he likely (hopefully) doesn’t espouse such views
@12th floor ec fire alarm strikes again: Dear Resident,
You have received this e-mail because of the recent fire alarm that occurred in your residence hall.
The East Campus fire alarm on Sunday, September 24, 2006 at 2:10 P.M. was investigated by the FDNY. They determined the activation was the result of careless cooking by a resident of the 12th floor. The system was reset by a CU Public Safety supervisor.
In addition, please always remember: To prevent alarms, never leave cooking unattended. When an alarm sounds, you must evacuate your building immediately. In the event of an actual fire, every second counts.
Yours truly,
Columbia University Housing and Dining
can we get bwog to finger the jerk culprits
@Kudos I love these interviews, Bwog. You’re a classy organization, this was a fascinating interview, and I can’t wait to see what else you’ve got up your sleeve.
@douche Actually, he should be addressed as a Professor of Kinetic Studies.
@wait what’s the alternative to sports-based gym classes? yoga?
@nice This was a great post. Hoping for more interviews with professors who study things you never really think about anyone studying.
@seriously... dodgeball and kickball are just too hard. we should teach hand waving in gym classes.
and they wonder why half of us are farking obese
@no, you dont get it he’s not saying that dodgeball and kickball are too hard, but that the way they’re taught makes the people who are already good at them get better, and the people who need the most help – the obese ones – not learn. he doesn’t seem to propose an alternative, but his point is extremely on.
@no. that's utterly misidentifying the point. just because those who are already better are improving at a faster rate doesn’t mean the ‘obese’ aren’t improving as well. it may be at a much slower rate, but its still physical improvement.
this reeks of social promotion in school if all we can say is stop playing these games. a logical and obvious idea which obviously didn’t appeal to him, you, or others who’d rather make excuses is to i don’t know create two separate games and separate the kids amongst skill levels, much like honors classes and regents classes. now i know this might psycologically truamatize the ones who aren’t as advanced, but luckily their superior health will allow them to work the longer hours to pay off the shrink they’ll inevitably need.
@culpa *feet*
@great interview i still don’t understand the philosophy of gym any better now. all i remember from gym was that you had to sit out if you didn’t tie your shoes tight enough. the teacher would grab you by the fee to try and yank them off.
@Erf Editorial nitpicking: “Title 9” is usually written as “Title IX”