America is nearing its darkest hour when considering the national debt and abysmal health of its citizens and especially the decreasing mental stability of our culture.
We need a Marshall Plan for implementing mandatory PE and physical fitness–NOW.
I sat down with retired physical therapist and former gymnastics coach Jake Monlux back in 2016. In his wisdom, he laid out the plan.
Here are my added points based on my over two decades of researching physical education and fitness. I’m also speaking as a credentialed teacher in PE, Health Science, and English.
- Mandate ONE HOUR of physical education per day. No excuses. No opt outs.
- Find as many retired PE teachers as possible still alive and still willing to help out and bring them out of moth balls into service at universities and schools so they can teach current PE teachers how to teach REAL PE again.
- Bring back CLASSICAL PE and dismantle every single “sport-based” PE program in America because they do not serve the student populations well. We need to teach movement and mental stability far more than ball sports. Sports should be “part” of PE but never all of it.
To learn more about “The Lost Hour” of Physical Education, please visit Jake Monlux’s website Kids Failed Fitness
Jake Monlux & Ron Jones
To learn more about the values of the “Classical PE” I recommend and teach, see our documentary film “The Motivation Factor.” I was the PE historian and archivist for the film. If you want the real stuff-watch our film.
–Ron Jones, MS, Historical Kinesiologist, Physical Educator
