Kids need play

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Published in the Deseret News, June 6, 2013
 
Prof. H. Kohl points out that there is less time for PE because of increased academic pressure (“Physical activity at school might boost grades, study shows,” June 2).
Instead of squeezing PE into academics, how about relieving the academic pressure, allowing more time for students to do physical activities they choose themselves and that they really like, including old-fashioned “playing”?
The increased academic pressure, due to the common core movement, not only bleeds time from physical activity, it bleeds time from activities that research shows help children improve in school (e.g. self-selected reading). There is no evidence that increasing academic pressure improves academic performance.
Stephen Krashen

Original article: http://www.deseretnews.com/user/comments/865581038/Physical-activity-at-school-might-boost-grades-study-shows.html
The article includes these bizarre ideas for integrating PE into school:
“First-graders learning about rhyming words might spend 10 minutes doing the ‘Conga-Line Rhyme’ activity, a goofy dance that reinforces rhyming concepts. In a science lesson about seasons, they might act out a story that includes a character who jumps up and down in a big pile of leaves that have changed color, and skips home quickly because the days are getting shorter.”