Miami Heat forward James Jones got students moving Tuesday at Indian Trace Elementary School in Weston.
“Sometimes when I wake up in the morning and I’m tired I run in place for 5 seconds,” he said. Then he got them to run, jump and twist.
He was hoping to motivate them to stay active.
“My main message to you guys is enjoy being athletic,” he said.
Physical Education is mandated for middle school students in Florida. A proposed bill before a Florida House subcommittee calls for deleting physical education as a requirement in grades 6 through 8.
Representative Larry Metz from Central Florida is the bill’s sponsor.
Local
“There’s an opportunity cost for a mandate when the kids might not need it. They may be trim and fit soccer players that don’t need the mandatory PE that want to take the elective that would give them some other additional interest or skill” said Metz in Tallahassee.
The American Heart Association has issued a statement strongly opposing House Bill 4057, calling it “dangerous to our children” because currently 30 per cent of Florida’s youth are overweight or obese.
“I think it’s imperative that everyone understand the long term ramifications of eliminating PE,” said Jones after learning of the bill.
It’s already very limited at the elementary school level.
“We alternate PE with Spanish. So Spanish is every other week alternating with PE which is 40 minutes every other day,” said Indian Trace principal Wanda Ross.
This spring Indian Trace will be a site for YFit by Broward’s YMCA. The after school program is an hour and a half of physical activity two days a week.
“We’re putting back in what’s been taken away from the schools which is the physical educator. So we’ve developed this in response to that and the child obesity epidemic to increase physical activity but also make it fun,” said Crystal Lockwood of YMCA Broward’s youth health initiatives.
The Rotary Club of Weston is sponsoring the ten week pilot program . After that the monthly cost is 59 dollars.
