Ohio Senate Bill 311, also known as the Ohio Core Bill, has passed through the state Senate and is now in the House.

The Columbus Dispatch/Ohio News Network discusses a provision in the bill that allows students involved in sports, band, or cheerleading to get out of the one-semester physical education requirement.

Not everyone at Pickerington Central, however, supports the change. Principal Chuck Kemper, a former coach and physical-education teacher, said he worries about the long-term ramifications for today’s young people.

“If we allow children to be excluded from physical education and these activities, later in life what are they going to do to be active? ” Kemper asked.

I think they’ll get by, even if they never go bowling or square dance again.

If we get to the point where Scholar Bowl, Speech and Debate, Science Olympiad, and similar competitions get classified as sports, I can see why people would be concerned about kids getting out of gym. The present (and future) requirement itself is goofy. One class, half a year, with just a little exposure to basketball, olympic sports, and flag football if you’re lucky, provides more jokes than it does fitness. After that semester is done, they’re not exercising anyway. A P.E. class should carry more lessons that are useful later, such as how to operate equipment, how to determine your “max” so that you can exercise without hurting yourself, establishing a good cross-training workout, and what to do when you gain the “Freshman 15″ in college (at UMR I think it was higher :) ).

SB 311 also looks to raise the math requirement up to four units, essentially teaching math all four years of high school, with one class being Algebra II or higher. Maybe I had a really good Algebra II teacher, but Algebra II was insanely easy. Completing the square, the quadratic equation, conic sections, and proofs taught procedural thinking and lengthened attention spans beyond the plug-and-chug of most physics classes. Graduating high school should mean that one can think through simple situations.

I do like the provision that requires that students get a dose of economics and financial literacy in their social studies classes, but I cringe to think how it will be watered down. :) I would hate for people to be learning economics while studying Nixon, unless it’s clearly presented as a “how not to” situation. :)

I know we would like to send all kids to college, but one has to wonder whether it should be necessary. Our President who tells us that we need immigrants to do that jobs Americans won’t do, but is that (accepting his nasty premise for the moment) because we are overqualifying ourselves out of the market? Will the attempts by Democrats to force college to be cheaper actually worsen the problem of illegal immigration?

At least I don’t see outcome-based education in this bill. Thank you, Ohio legislators. :)