Ellen Jean
Proud Parent
My DD is in 6th grade and a level 8 gymnast. She trains 23 hours a week. She is a straight "A" student and takes her studies very serious, including her PE grade. This was her first year in middle school and she is having all sorts of knee and foot pain. I realize some might be related to growing but when I contacted her teacher about the excessive running she does in PE I was told to buy her better shoes. I bought a $150 pair of running shoes (for middle school PE class mind you) and still she is having issues. Here is the problem as I see it.......
They run an "aerobic run" every Wednesday. For full credit it is 2.5 miles. If you finish early you must continue to walk, or run, as sitting out is not an option. Routinely my daughter has been doing 3.5 miles on these runs. Once a month, in place of this run, they are required to do a timed mile. For 12 year old girls it must be 7 minutes or less for an "A". When you miss a Wednesday for illness, you must make this run up on the scheduled make up day, which also happens to be Wednesday. So, for the one Wednesday she was out, she had to run her regular 3.5 in the am PE class and then stay after and run the 3.5 make-up run, then go to a 4 hour gymnastics practice. My attempt to get her out of PE has been unsuccessful so I am not sure where to go from here.
I went to the district office who told me I needed to go directly to the VP at her school as it would be a "site" decision, not a district one since she is only in 6th grade. The VP was somewhat understanding but relented when the PE teacher got upset that he talked to me without consulting her first. Needless to say, we got nowhere and the school was not understanding about the heavy load of physical activity on my daughter. She did tell her she could take a break the week of a meet but would still be required to make it up, so another 7 mile day was her answer.....no thank you. Also, medical releases have to be made up as well. So if she has a medical release for 4 weeks, yep she has to make up all 4 weeks of aerobic runs......ridiculous. So she never turned in her doctor note and who could blame her.
Does anyone have any advice on where I go from here???? I live in California so I know the rules are different on independent study in PE depending on state, but I think this is beyond crazy requirements even for those not doing 20+ hours of gymnastics a week. Help!!!
They run an "aerobic run" every Wednesday. For full credit it is 2.5 miles. If you finish early you must continue to walk, or run, as sitting out is not an option. Routinely my daughter has been doing 3.5 miles on these runs. Once a month, in place of this run, they are required to do a timed mile. For 12 year old girls it must be 7 minutes or less for an "A". When you miss a Wednesday for illness, you must make this run up on the scheduled make up day, which also happens to be Wednesday. So, for the one Wednesday she was out, she had to run her regular 3.5 in the am PE class and then stay after and run the 3.5 make-up run, then go to a 4 hour gymnastics practice. My attempt to get her out of PE has been unsuccessful so I am not sure where to go from here.
I went to the district office who told me I needed to go directly to the VP at her school as it would be a "site" decision, not a district one since she is only in 6th grade. The VP was somewhat understanding but relented when the PE teacher got upset that he talked to me without consulting her first. Needless to say, we got nowhere and the school was not understanding about the heavy load of physical activity on my daughter. She did tell her she could take a break the week of a meet but would still be required to make it up, so another 7 mile day was her answer.....no thank you. Also, medical releases have to be made up as well. So if she has a medical release for 4 weeks, yep she has to make up all 4 weeks of aerobic runs......ridiculous. So she never turned in her doctor note and who could blame her.
Does anyone have any advice on where I go from here???? I live in California so I know the rules are different on independent study in PE depending on state, but I think this is beyond crazy requirements even for those not doing 20+ hours of gymnastics a week. Help!!!