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School sport has accompanied me for most of my life. First when I was a pupil myself and in the last years as a mother of two sports-mad boys. During my own time at school there were only three types of sports teachers: the ones who had to teach due to the lack of sports teachers (they didn’t even change clothes), female sports teachers who were sure that all girls are only interested in either gymnastics or dancing and last but not least the “drill masters”, who gave you the feeling of being somewhere in the army
Over the last years I have come to the conclusion that unfortunately – especially with younger kids – the situation has not changed or improved. It is little wonder that there are more and more voices that ask to cancel grades in sports or even to cancel all sports activities at school. On the one hand there are so-called experts who try to explain us continuously that kids move less due to all the electrical devices. On the other hand school sports should fall away – where will this all lead to?
In my opinion we should not make any miserable tries or make some little, barely noticeable changes which we will surely reverse in a few years. We definitely need a concept. And this may not be created by politicians or officials, it must be developed by a brain pool. Its input should be drawn from sports scientists, sports educationalists as well as parents. They should all have different kinds of sports backgrounds, but they share the same goal: sports must become more present at school. Sports may not only be a subject, in which kids get grades for things that are more or less fun. Sports must be integrated into everyday school life. There must be guidelines for breaks, for school programs in the afternoon as well as for extracurricular activities such as sports days or excursions
I myself belong to a group of adults, whose life has been formed by sports for a long time. I can only hope that the responsible people will realise, what most of us already know: more movement means less diseases and so relieves our health and social system. More movement means more interaction with others and so promotes social skills. Hopefully my wish will come true one day!
Betty