webist

The question referred to teaching cycling in school. Driving is taught by some schools. In our area it is at extra cost and is done outside normal school hours. I do not subscribe to the theory advanced by some educators or union members associated with the education industry or bureaucracy that everything we learn in life needs to be taught in a school. Neither do I think that vaccinatons, medical exams, meals, babysitting and any of hundreds of other "services" need actually be supplied by schools at taxpayer expense. That's my personal view.

Roody

Well, anti-union sentiments notwithstanding, everybody thinks that schools should teach Phys Ed, and they do in fact teach Phys Ed. When I was in school, Phys Ed centered on team sports. Team sports are great for athletes, schools and parents, but they pretty much end (for most people) at the time of graduation. Also, many students don't want to be in team sports, so they're locked out of Phys Ed in some sense.

There are other non-competetive sports that are easily made part of an active adult life style. Like cycling, obviously. This is an activity that can be continued through adult life. Would it not make sense for schools to offer cycling as an option for students? My hope would be that they would keep at it later in life, something they're unlikely to do with football, for example.

trackhub

Well,, I'm class of '75. I went to a large suburban high school. Yeah, they had team sports, but other options as well. I chose gymnastics. Was I good at it? No, not very. But did I enjoy it? Hoo yeah! Why?
It's a no-brainer. Take gymnastics, with a class full of pretty girls in shorts, and a very hot female teacher, or take team sports with a bunch of smelly guys. Nope, no problem with that decision.

On a more serious note, what could be wrong with having some stationary exercise bikes? Kids would certainly get a much better workout than they get from standing around while attendance is taken, followed by about 20 minutes of jumping after a ball and yelling a lot.

I think the problems would be...

-Getting school districts to re-design the traditional Phys-Ed class would be a challenge. The kids would not think it was "cool", and there would be strong resistance from macho-dad types. (i.e. "That's not what we did when I went to school!! We played REAL SPORTS!")

-The expense of the bikes. Budgets are a big concern for all but the most affluent school districts.

But basically, I agree.

sgtsmile

Well actually....

This is a great idea.

"Spin" classes are in atm. It would not take too long for the cyclists in the school to show up many of the school's more traditional team sport athletes in the fitness department if the classes were done right (proper interval drills to REALLY GOOD dance music with a driving beat you can pedal to) and if it was spun (haha) well when "sold" to the kids - you have to get them on board or forget it. Material costs would be half a class set of good exercise bikes (half does a spin class, half does some other aerobic class, then switch) and a good boom box (zero cost - most schools have those anyway - do the teacher trick and "steal" one from someone not using it...)

Selling it to the powers that be in Ontario would not be too hard. atm, we have DPA in the schools (Daily Physical Activity) which is organized fitness classes for ALL students on days when they do not already have phys ed scheduled; there is a major ministry push to promote healthy living and beat back obesity. I would think that a gym teacher that wanted to do this and was concerned about the fitness of his or her students would be able to convince a school to go for it since minute for minute spent on the classes, spin classes can generate more cardiovascular health and lung capacity than anything I have ever tried. The way I would sell it is as a year long fitness project where they would do spin classes throughout the year while they are working on learning other more traditional sports. The reason behind this is that it takes a while for the benefits of spin classes to be noticeable (I am 6 ft tall, and managed during a 5 month stint of doing some killer spin classes at a local gym to get down to about 8% body fat and 166 lbs - I have never been so fit.) It would not fit in as a typical "unit" in phys ed - and if it was sold that way, good luck getting the investment on the equipment.

Cyclepath

Nobody rode a bike to our high school. Everyone "wanted" a car & i believe bike-riding was regarded as a Communist activity. I walked to school as there was no safe place to lock up a bike.

rajman

I am not a can-bike instructor, unfortunately. I am not sure about the curriculum either, but you can check their website at https://www.canadian-cycling.com/Engl...e/canintro.htm.

Bekologist

the kids in shop class could maintain the bikes, learn how to work on simple mechanical devices like bikes, and the phys ed classes could use those bikes.

it would be a shift in the current auto shop/wood working programs, and perhaps get some of the shop rats into biking as well. Wean high schoolers off cars. Bike maintence and upkeep could taught just as easily, even easier, than car repair. a paradigm shift could be enacted in high school cirriculum.

genec

LOL "shop classes" here were eliminated because they were not politically correct. Turns out some parents felt that their kids attending certain shop classes was "stereotyping" and the parents felt that kids took "shop" vice more "academic" classes, so shop is no more. There are movements to bring it back.

Oddly enough, in more affluent areas, shop classes remain. The results of those shop classes can be viewed as beautiful furniture in the State Fair shows.

Personally, I am strongly for shop classes. In fact I wouldn't mind "industry sponsored" shop classes to teach immediately usable industrial skills. Can you imagine Trek sponsored bike mechanic classes? Let's face it, Apple sponsored plenty of computer classes.

MarkS

I didn't know Shop had been eliminated. My wife's father used to teach shop. I know I didn't enjoy shop since it was the class where they had stuck the FTA members (Future Thugs of America). Its a shame that shop is presented as an either-or thing. When I got to college, one of my instructors suggested that his students try to fit in a shop class! College-bound kids going into robotics, engineering, chemistry, etc. will find being able to make and adjust their own equipment invaluable.

It makes more sense to teach bike mechanics than auto mechanics these days. The way things are going, you will need a PhD to tune a car. The biggest, most expensive problem on 2 of the vehicles we've owned has been the computer

I'm not sure if I would trust Biking instructors to give good advice. Or worse, advice designed by a committee (like everything is these days): "You! Over there! Get back in the gutter!"

Bekologist

Gene, I think you are onto something!!

sbhikes

Shop class was required for all of us when I went to Jr. high. Sewing was, too. As far as hands-on skills classes, they still do have them. They are called ROP classes and are outside the curriculum.

I think cycling poses a bit of a logistical problem in that unless you're going to mindlessly ride around in circles, you have to actually go somewhere off campus and far away. But I agree that teaching bicycle mechanics would be great. Then kids would need a bike to work on, and the easiest way to get it to school each day would be to ride it. If it worked, of course.

genec

That "FTA" situation was probably exactly why shop was eliminated.

I have several friends that teach and are school administrators... they feel that the loss of shop class is also outlandish.

However the wheels of progress turn slowly... it may be quite a while before shop comes back.

sggoodri

In the 1980s, my high school in New Hampshire had a variety of "vocational education" classes that were electives. I took them instead of the study hall, typing, business, and psychology classes that the other college-bound students preferred.

The one-semester classes I took were:
Drafting
Architectural drafting
Metals (metal fabrication - machining and welding)
Power and energy (mostly engines and applied physics)
Electricity and electronics (electricity fundamentals, household wiring, and some microelectronics)

I feel that these classes prepared me well for my pursuit of a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, specializing in robotics.

Our phys ed classes were awful. The dodgeball episode of Freaks and Geeks says it all. My favorite classes were two days of archery and two days of rope climbing. A bicycling class in high school would have been wonderful - I did a lot of cycling for transportation, and maybe I would have discovered better clothing and technique much sooner.

Feldman

Maybe what high schools should do is to stop subsidizing driving--if they alow students to drive to school they should not provide free parking. The parking rate should be equal to the highest prime downtown parking in the region; Portland downtown parking rates in Vancouver high schools, for instance.

TRaffic Jammer

I had some shop classes in my school as well.
It does seem to be a travesty that the idea that "trades" are no longer a reasonable career move in most schools. Which is ridiculous. I'd love to a return to the concepts of mentoring, apprenticeships, and becoming a Master at something over the years. Our gym teacher ran a football player to a heart attack once. Gym was a terrible time for a glasses wearing computer/science geek our school was quite athletic.

slagjumper

In Pittsburgh, where the average age is 42 there is no money, (very little) for Art, Music or GYM so the kids just walk around the building humming and drawing lines in the dirt. The school board regularly buys out expensive contracts and is fond of de facto segregation. The crappy lunch programs are in full swing as well.

I think that it is a great idea to teach bike skills, but think that the schools just are not the ones to do it. I am not so sure that my schools really are teaching. They mandate tons of homework, much of it new material, and more or less compel parents to help all but the brightest kids, as they puzzle through hours of make work.

I've seen some school officials flat out say that cycling is dangerous and do not want to encourage that kind of risky behavior.

I talked to my kids' elementary principal and she was thrilled at the idea of someone coming in and doing a bike safety thing.

Keith99

Normal gym class was not always fun for hard core, but wrong body type jocks either. I managed to aviod P.E. class for all of high school. I played football for 2 years and swam for 3. P.E. is ok if you are a quarterback type. That is not me. Pulling guard or defensive end. Protect or destroy quarterbacks, but not be one. But regular P.E. seemed to only care how far you could throw a football, not how far you could throw a quarterback.

Roody

Amen. Unfortunately, many school districts are locating new high schools way the hell out in the cornfields. With long travel distances, no bus service and busy rural access roads, students have little choice but to drive.

genec

In the late '60s I took drafting, metal shop and wood shop in junior high school. Later I took electronics and a separate computer class (used 300 baud modems to communicate with a computer in Ohio) while I was in high school in the early '70s.

I was quite angry that my son could not even take wood shop any time during his education. The elementary school offered music.

The funny thing was, later in college (in the 90's), I took a series of CAD classes... which they started with hand drawing on boards... including hand lettering. I laughed knowing that I had "drafting" in jr high (unlike many of the other students) and that I would never do anything by hand while in industry. (I was already working full time in industry while attending college part time)

MarkS

Well, they didn't have a problem with making us run mindlessly in circles. I'd way rather ride mindlessly in circles ... do it all the time

They could make it more trendy or sports-like by using school-supplied track bikes which should be cheaper to maintain. They could teach skills like bunny-hopping and jumping, which the kids would probably find more interesting than the parallel bars, which I viewed as some medieval torture device.

Funny how cycling is viewed as dangerous. But they can make kids scale a 30 foot rope, swing upside down overhead on parallel and unparallel bars, pole vault, trampoline flips, high dive, etc. and no one even thinks about it. And of course, no one ever gets hurt playing football or basketball.

Roody

They made us run off-campus in inner-city Detroit when I was a kid. And I still see boys and girls running in the streets around the Lansing high schools. Would cycling be any different?

Da Tinker

Hmmm, it's called physical education, isn't it? Can't ever recall anyone getting killed because they did not know how to dribble a basketball or field a hot grounder.

joejack951

For lacrosse, we did our long distance runs off the school grounds around the local town. I think that as long as we were accompanied by a coach, we were allowed to leave and return to campus. I see other local cross country teams running along the main roads where I live now too (which just so happens to be right near my high school).

There have been some really great ideas discussed in this thread about ways to increase cycling at a very impressionable age where kids are usually turning to cars. I would add that in addition to cycling being done as it's own PE class, any student who plays a sport where physical conditioning plays a part (soccer, lacrosse, football, swimming, cross country, etc., NOT baseball ) could benefit from cycling as well. I wish I had known about the benefits of cycling while I was in high school playing team sports. I loathed running for the sake of running and cycling would have given me a lot of the conditioning I was looking for.

hotbike

The Public schools should have a half mile oval track on school grounds for everyone to practice spinning.

I took shop class in junior high school (now middle school) and I was the only one who could tear down a Briggs & Stratton 5 horse engine and rebuild it so it would start when the rope was pulled.

There was a terrible dilemma when an exchange student from Israel got both his hands cut off on the band saw.

Then I went to a Catholic High School, which has no shop class.


Then I went to New York Institute of Technology to study Mechanical Engineering.

Then I built a ramjet and sent a proposal for research and development to NASA, the USAF, and the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (still in business, office was NOT destroyed on 9-11-01).

Then I joined the Navy and went aboard a carrier for over eight months, to conduct a study for carrier launch hypersonic aircraft.





When I came back stateside, the Soviet Union was kaput, so I let my Daughter have total artistic liscense in the design of an Electric Moped:

MarkS

They allow you to take photos like that?

What is the purple/pink stuff on the bike?