Tag Archives: PE

When I was a kid back in the 1970s, we had physical education (PE) class once a day. We filled a full hour running around playing dodge ball, red rover and tag. We ate our share of junk food, but few of us were overweight, and almost none of us struggled with lifestyle-induced diseases. It’s no secret that during the past two decades, physical education in schools has been drastically cut back. Today my fourth-grade son has gym class once a week, and recess – the one chance to get moving – has been cut back to fewer than 20 minutes a day. The shift away from PE was intended to save money and allow school systems to dedicate more time and resources to “important” core subjects like math, science and English.