Bullrush ban symptom of major physical ed failure
massey-university
Mon Sep 07 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Bullrush ban symptom of major physical ed failure
Monday, 7 September 2009, 12:15 pm
Press Release: Massey University
Monday, September 7, 2009
Bullrush ban symptom of major physical education failure
By Dennis Slade
The overwhelming support for the decision by Palmerston North's Roslyn School to overturn the ridiculous ban on bullrush in the playground should not come as a surprise to anyone. What is a surprise is that it took so long for those who run our schools to realise the error of their ways.
It is not just bullrush that has been banned from schools. Games like Leapfrog and Stuck in the Mud have also been outlawed from the playground games menu because of perceived safety concerns.
There is some irony to be found in banning games at primary school for their potential for injury when post primary school, students who play contact sports are encouraged and even required to undertake weight training and nutritional programmes to bulk up in order to deliver the ‘big-hit’ on the opponent. In fact, the positive reinforcement the ‘big-hitter’ receives from coaches and spectators is often measured by the extent that the opponent is rendered incapacitated for the next period of play.
While any debate around the value of playing games such as bull-rush or leap frog is unlikely to achieve an answer acceptable to everyone, the debate has the potential to shift the focus to what is a rather trivial matter away from a more significant one, namely the appalling lack of physical education taught in primary schools.
An aging demographic amongst primary school teachers, inadequate facilities and more recently the lack of preparedness of graduating primary teachers to teach physical education are all contributing to the lack of PE teaching and perhaps an almost grasping at straws mentality of “let them play bull-rush” as a solution towards making students competent and interested in playing games and sports. Without grounding in fundamental movement skills and tactics students typically leave primary school with a lack of ability and confidence in participating in games and sports. Such students face a games or sport competency barrier in the same way that someone unable to read does in trying to fully participate in a world dominated by the written word.
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We need, at the very least in intermediate schools, but if we could afford it, also in primary schools, physical education specialists and facilities to allow quality physical education programmes to be delivered to all children and not just those with an inclination to rush up and down a field. We need in Colleges of education an acknowledgement that to teach physical education well you need to experience the content in a way that you cannot get by sitting in a large lecture theatre or reading about it online.
The primary school years in terms of developing interest in games and sports are sometimes referred to as the sampling years. No one should be under any illusion that the reintroduction of games such as bull-rush is a solution to the problem of falling fitness levels, increased obesity and a lack of proficiency in fundamental movement skills and exposure to a wide variety of games and sports considered necessary to encourage young people to develop competence, enjoyment and a long term involvement in games, sports and recreational activities.
Dennis Slade is a senior lecturer in physical education at Massey's College of Education. His research focuses is on teaching games and sports, particularly a methodology called Teaching Games for Understanding.
ENDS
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