Thursday, 4:30 PM
City councilor wants exercise in curriculum
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff
Saying that Boston’s public school system has all but eliminated physical exercise as a priority for students even as concerns over obesity have mounted, a city councilor wants to mandate physical education in city schools.
Councilor Michael P. Ross plans to file a measure Tuesday urging the School Committee to require the city’s middle and high schools to devote at least 225 minutes a week to physical education as an antidote to students’ weight and behavior problems.
"Young people need to blow off steam, they need to recreate, and they need to clear their heads, particularly in an urban environment," Ross said. "To deprive them of that is, I believe, unfair."
Boston schools, like many schools across the country, have largely sacrificed physical education requirements in recent years as budgets have tightened and as mandates, including the federal No Child Left Behind Act and the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, divert resources and time.
The Boston public schools established a new wellness policy last year that offers guidelines on fitness and promotes walk-to-school initiatives, television moratoriums, and nutrition education. It also calls for 90 hours of physical education a year, about 30 minutes each day, to be incorporated into the school day and after-school programs "to the extent possible."
The policy consists largely of recommendations, and it is up to each school to decide how to implement it. Ross said the measure doesn’t go far enough.
Christopher Horan, spokesman for the Boston public schools, conceded that "there’s probably some unevenness in how schools implement that policy."
"In Boston, as in most places, physical education and the arts may not be as robust as they once were as a result of returning to the basics of math and English," Horan said. "Sometimes gym time and arts time has suffered. No one’s happy about that, but that’s the times we’re in."
Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.
