Just Phy-Ed Majors

1-30-89

Perspective:

Just Phy-Ed Majors

It was a pretty good week for Cobber sports. There were outstanding athletic performances by a host of Concordia student-athletes. Those student-athletes also went to classes and wrote papers and frequently studied late into the night. And that included the student-athletes seeking physical education degrees and coaching credentials.

All this activity took place amidst the public debate over the NCAA's endless attempt to maximize two variables, fielding the best possible athletic teams and maintaining high college admission standards.

There were, to be sure, plenty of meaty issues to be tossed around in this debate. The unreliability and cultural bias of college entrance exams got some needed attention. And big-time college administrators took their lumps for trying to simultaneously run profitable semi-pro athletic teams, pay less-than-market-value for the athletic talent they employ and run institutions committed to academic excellence.

Throughout this sometimes-thoughtful debate students pursuing physical education degrees endured the customary cheap-shots. Press stories about the problems in college athletics seem almost incomplete without a reference to some bonehead-sounding physical education class taken by an apparently-illiterate athlete.

But it is time that we considered giving a little more respect to the thousands of dedicated college educators who train our children's coaches and physical education teachers. They are educating the college students who, as future teachers and coaches, are most apt to instill healthy values and teach healthy living to our children. Coaches and "phy-ed" teachers, particularly in our nation's public schools, are given a uniquely free hand in conveying values about right and wrong ways to live. They are charged with, among other things, teaching our children how to understand and care for their bodies, cooperate with others in stressful endeavors, behave honorably under public scrutiny, and cope graciously with life's victories and defeats. They teach our children to strive for excellence, extend their potential, and budget their time. They teach fair play and grit and the value of hard work. That, it seems to me, is a pretty honorable and challenging set of vocational objectives.

A college physical education department frequently gets treated as the ugly stepchild of academia. And that is wrong.

Yes, some institutions offer bonehead phy-ed classes as a scam to keep their athletes eligible. But those same institutions also offer bonehead sociology or psychology or math courses for the same reason. Breeches of academic integrity are wrong in whatever department they occur.

A serious physical education degree, like that offered at Concordia and many other colleges, involves a rigorous interdisciplinary program of courses, including a healthy dose of biology, physiology, and psychology. And only those students deemed capable of handling the multiple challenges of a teaching and coaching profession are awarded their degrees.

For a nation that suffers from a good deal of unhealthy living patterns, both morally and physically, we might want to have a little more respect for educators who are working to change that. Coaches, physical education instructors and health teachers are in that category. They don't need to be worshiped. Just a little more respect would be nice.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu . These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

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