Balance between ‘hard skills’ and PE

Our column last week on physical education (PE) and its place and role in the long-delayed K+12 program, elicited reactions, a number of them from parents who take their role in parent-teacher’s associations (PTA) seriously. Another reaction came from “Mr PE” himself, former Philippine Sports Commission chairman, Dr Aparicio Mequi, Dean of the College of Physical Education of Foundation University (FU) in Dumaguete.

It will be recalled that we wrote last week about the proposal of London Mayor, Boris Johnson, just before the 2012. Johnson had stated that introducing the change in the schools’ curriculum would be one of the major legacies of the London Olympics.

One comment we received was that the proposal to make two hours daily of PE mandatory is another good reason for the issuance of the proposed Presidential Proclamation on the “Decade of the Child’s Right to Play” which has been drafted by the DepEd under the leadership of Br. Armin Luistro, FSC, Secretary of Education. The Proclamation could be a shot in the arm for the huge effort to implement the two-hour daily PE policy.

The concern aired by parents revolves around priorities and maintaining the healthy balance between hours to be devoted to “hard” skills like the sciences and the “less practical” PE. The parents stated that the demands of the new world order require skill in both human relations and the sciences, the world being pushed to greater heights by innovations. And very often, such innovations are science- and technology-driven as is obvious in, among others, the electronics, IT, telecommunications and even sports and leisure industries.

PE proponents, on the other hand, insist that physical wellbeing is both essential and necessary in pursuing any endeavor, whether it is academics, laboratory research or in highly physical and manual activities. In fact, maintaining the balance has been an age-old concern dating back from the Olympics as conceptualized in Athens, Greece and is clearly obvious in the adage (which has its equivalent in many languages), “a healthy mind in a healthy body.”

Mequi, as part of his lifelong and continuing advocacy of promoting a healthy and active lifestyle especially among our computer-mesmerized youth, is working on a proposal for college PE to be taken up everyday, instead of the traditional twice a week, at the FU.

There’s nothing magical about where Mequi is coming from: daily PE could engender a habit of daily indulgence in physical activity which is the present-day recommendation of medical and wellness professionals for the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle. The proposal, if accepted by higher FU authorities, could trigger a radical change in higher educational institutions’ policy and practice in tertiary level education.

The proposal to increase PE hours has already been recommended by a Department of Health official in a TV interview. The official recommended to the DepEd to increase PE class periods from the current 40 minutes per week to 150 minutes. The proposal was based on the alarming number of obese Filipino children where eight out of 10 five years old and below are classified as “obese” and six out of 10 among 10 years old and under. It was also revealed that 80 percent of Filipino children are obese, despite the commonly held belief that malnutrition is widespread.

Mequi states that current policy and practices in PE in colleges and universities in the Philippines had their genesis in the University of the Philippines (UP), founded in 1908. The introduction of PE, organized and school sports were introduced by academicians and Protestant missionaries at the turn of the century soon after the Americans ran the Spaniards out of the country (with the help of Filipino forces who were promised some kind of self-rule by the new colonizers). These missionaries and educators were on board the USS St. Thomas, because of which they were collectively called “The Thomasites”.

The evangelical and proselytizing passion of the Thomasites spread far and wide into the northern and southern parts of the country, notably the Mountain Province and Negros Oriental in the South, respectively. Living proof of the work of the Thomasites is seen in, among others, the establishment of the Siliman University.

It is no surprise therefore that early PE teachers in the UP were educated in America, and coming back they brought with them the idea that PE should be required for college students at least twice a week. The educators had hoped that the twice a week routine would serve as a cathartic break from the rigors of “academics”.

Thus, as Mequi continues, “PE was not considered an ‘academic’ subject but just a refreshing break from classes, a perception which through the years relegated PE to a low status in the spectrum of subjects consisting the ‘liberal arts’ curriculum.”

Next week, the World Health Organization speaks out in support of PE.