Folk physical education strengthens children's bodies
You probably know that at school physical education lessons are called the derogatory word "fizra". "Will you go to "fizra"?" - No, we'd rather drive you to "football". An absurd dialogue? No. It's really hard to passionately want to attend lessons in a subject that is called so disgustingly: "fizra".
How did it happen that some hours allocated at school for improving the body turned into unnecessary, boring and burdensome for both teachers and students appendages to "real" subjects - the humanities and exact sciences? Let's dare to assume that it could not have happened otherwise, because the very style, content and methodology of teaching physical education at school turn most boys and girls away from it.
The paradox is that in the life for which the school prepares children, they most often will not need the knowledge that they so strenuously acquired at their desks. Not many people have become interested in chemistry, algebra, few have been able to master a foreign language or learn to sing within the framework of the school program. However, the demand for all these disciplines is high. Meanwhile, the lack of physical education makes itself felt four or five years after graduation. An even more rigid rhythm of study at the institute compared to school or a workload at work do their job and... Most of the chronic diseases that torment us all our lives, we acquire in our youth; we diligently lay the foundations of our ailments, although we could be doing the exact opposite - creating the foundation of physical health and longevity.
Let's remember how physical education is built at school. At the beginning of the year, schoolchildren pass school standards together. This is running, various kinds of jumps, gymnastic elements. Moreover, as a rule, passing the standards is delayed in the classroom for a month and a half, against the one or two lessons allocated for it. Although it is rare for someone to not receive a credit, but sometimes this one did not come, then the "dismissal" of that one, and so the bagpipes drag on.
Then the "learning process" continues throughout the year, and in physical education, by the way, too. During the year of study, children must learn to run faster, jump further, pull up more, etc. And then the end of the year comes. And again it is necessary to pass the standards, demonstrating their sports successes. But a miracle! After a year of classes, students, as a rule, show worse results compared to the beginning of the year.
You ask why? Because during the three months of summer vacation, children have time to relax, fight, run around, and get mad (especially since many go to nature - to the dacha and to the villages). By the first of September, boys and girls get into good physical shape. When passing the autumn standards, their bodies splash out the energy accumulated over the summer. And then - further, during the school year, spent in a bent position behind textbooks and TV, they completely lose contact with their body, with their children's muscles and tendons. And no amount of "fizra" saves from hypodynamia.
The personality of the physical education teacher, or "fizruk" in school terms, plays a very important role here. Becoming a "fizruk" is as simple as that. It's like a profession for those who don't know how to do anything. Now in every school there is at least one fizruk (usually three of them) - a fat uncle in a tracksuit or a woman with a whistle hanging from their belly, which they know how to whistle loudly and sharply, which is what their teaching of physical education, in fact, consists of. What can they teach? Rhetorical questions.
There are other physical education teachers – very active, with burning eyes explaining to children that life is actually movement, ready to be the first to fulfill these unfortunate standards, and even show boys and girls some amazing sports trick. As a rule, these people are athletes themselves. But unfortunately, as experience shows, there are few of them.
We should not forget that physical education is one of the few subjects traditionally taught by men (although we also know wonderful physical education teachers - women). This is especially important, because a fit, intelligent, able to demonstrate a lot by personal example, a teacher can serve as a role model for boys and form the image of a real man in girls. But how many single-parent families do we have, or families with drunken, vulgar parents! It is the man who should become an authority and protector for such children, it is he who should instill in them a taste for fair power. Unfortunately, in the minds of many parents or those who are going to become such, there is a contemptuous attitude towards the cult of bodily perfection. We consider the priority of the spiritual over the physical to be self-evident, and in our thoughts we do not allow that this rough "physical" not only can, but also should be in subtle harmony with the "spiritual" which is rather vaguely understood at this time. Hence the sayings like: "A father had three sons, two were intelligent, and the third was an athlete." Such a line of thought is one of the most disgusting variants of backwardness. Sports were glorified and practiced by the greatest sons of humanity. From the philosopher and wrestler Plato and the one who amazed his fellow soldiers during the Crimean War with his extraordinary strength to famous people of our time.
The disaster with physical education worries the minds of the highest caliber. Here is what the legendary surgeon, academician Nikolai Mikhailovich Amosov, says about this:
"We have physical education in the detachment, and school physical education is the greatest disgrace! One of the reasons why I last went to the Verkhovna Rada was the desire to improve school physical education. But I could not do anything. It is necessary to do physical education at least an hour a day, then the children will be healthy. And today half of the conscripts are "defective"!" .
What bitterness permeates the words of this strange old man! But his energy and strength of mind (he is 85 years old!) can be envied by many half his age. Yuri Petrovich Vlasov also says the same thing:
"It is obvious, there is no need for figures and explanations: people are suffering acutely from a lack of physical fitness. Physical education at school does not give an effect. In essence, it is absent, as it were, it does not exist. Schools with modern exercise machines, swimming pools, showers are still the rarest exceptions. Here one should not be deceived: one game of ball in the schoolyard (if there is one) or a warm-up in the school corridors ("hands to the sides, now sit down...") will not raise children healthy. To the same extent, this applies to the school curriculum itself - in the matter of physical education, it is probably lagging behind the requirements of the time by a good half century. The country lacks funds for truly popular, not showy physical culture. We need halls, equipment, and a staff of specialists. For an oppressive number of people, big sports are just a grandiose show, a spectacle of strength, endurance, courage, but still only a spectacle, entertainment on TV or reading the sports section in newspapers.
This is also obvious: for the health of society as a whole, big sports must be squeezed in. The values on different sides of the scales are too unequal. This is not an exaggeration. Currently, schools, and the whole country (one is inextricably linked to the other) are experiencing a deep crisis: it is no longer possible to fall below this level in physical education, and further - degeneration.
Vlasov does not mince words. Open the newspapers - three quarters of young men of draft age are diagnosed by medical commissions with "total body mass deficiency". This means - dystrophy, lack of muscles. This in turn means a sharp decrease in resistance to diseases, weakened endurance, inability to work fully. Add to this the fact that all teenagers drink, and every third has tried drugs. The picture is simply amazing. And if we recall the environment, which is polluted to the limit, then the fact that the vast majority of citizens live in conditions of catastrophic sinlessness? Where can we expect that the birth rate will exceed the death rate, that the loss of the population of Ukraine, which has been progressing at a rapid pace for the last ten years, will stop. Where can we be surprised that the average life expectancy of a man is less than sixty years?
Questions, bitter questions... One of the answers to them may be the creation of a real mass movement for health in the country. A movement that can be called "People's Physical Culture". It is necessary to involve a large number of athletes, people endowed with equal talent and ambition, in the cause of promoting physical activity. If we turn to the successful experience of others, we would like to recall the merits of Arnold Schwarzenegger in this field. In 1990, Arnold became the Chairman of the Presidential Council on Physical Culture in the George W. Bush administration. In fact, the US Minister of Sports.
He accomplished a great deal in this position. In his first speech, he stated: "About 55 percent of girls between the ages of six and seventeen and 25 percent of boys between the ages of six and twelve cannot do a pull-up.
When I was growing up in Austria, all schoolchildren did one hour of physical training every day. A philosopher once said: "Let the world be a better place, and let it start with me." Think about it. The attitude of each of us should help all young people to become physically healthier. If a child grows up in a family where the mother is fat, the father is fat, and they all sit in front of the TV and just chew hamburgers and fries, that child will grow up to do the same."
He traveled to all 50 states in America and everywhere he showed what a well-developed strong body means. In May 1990, he organized a strange event called "The Great American Warm-up." All over the country, people were doing exercises in unison, even in Washington, on the South Lawn of the White House, big and famous uncles and aunts, led by the President himself, were flexing their muscles. He carried out a reform of school physical education - from now on, every child can choose for himself what kind of physical activity to do. If he wants, he will run, if he wants, he will swim in the pool or train with dumbbells. Naturally, all these classes are held under the supervision of a teacher-trainer. Arnold also emphasizes the greater social role of mass sports. Here's what he said in an interview with Black Belt magazine:
"I'm very adamant about what I'm doing now. We started something in Los Angeles called the Inner-City Games. The Inner-City Games are a sports competition for inner-city kids who can't afford to go to a paid club. The Inner-City Games are huge - over 100,000 kids in Los Angeles alone. We've now done it in five other cities, and next year we're going to do five more. It's a fast-growing thing.
What benefits do the ICG Inner-City Games offer to underprivileged youth?
It's just giving these kids a chance. If they have nothing to do, they're hanging around the streets. They're selling drugs and doing other stupid things. The ICG gives them a chance to play sports. It's a motor to get them back and help them become a constructive part of society rather than a destructive part of society."
That's right. The only bitter difference is that our children mainly suffer not from obesity, like young Americans, but from dystrophy.
Researchers of this problem have a number of specific developments that allow significant improvements to be made to the school physical education system. Let us share at least some of the considerations. Many parents (especially those from "humanitarian" families) are afraid to subject their children to physical exertion, thinking that young humanitarians are too tender and vulnerable for such "rough" activities as sports and physical education. They also often think that physical exercises dull the sensory perception of the world. But we cannot partly disagree with this. Yes, when life passes under the sign of constant improvement of jumping skills or hitting the pear, it is somewhat dulling. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to make physical education a truly cultural discipline, combining practical classes (with the possibility of choosing a sport) within the school course with a course on the history of the Olympics, the history of Ukrainian sports, and lessons on the aesthetic perception of bodily perfection. Human anatomy, which is studied all year in the sixth grade, can also be combined with physical education lessons - both disciplines will benefit from this. Imagine how great it would be, when talking about the muscles of the human body, to bring a bodybuilder into the class who would immediately demonstrate them and then give serious advice to the guys on how to get stronger. What an impression this would make on children! And how much more informative the educational material would become if you explained to a child the circulatory system or the musculoskeletal system in a gym, where he himself could feel how his movements depend on what is happening inside him.
There is still a completely neglected topic of extracurricular, street physical education. In this area, we also have very specific proposals. "People's physical education" must be raised: physical education teachers and coaches of various sports must strive for self-improvement, promote the development of physical, strong-willed, moral, aesthetic qualities. Parents must instill a love of physical activity from an early age, because the health of your child depends on it. It is also advisable to send children to educational and training sections, especially to experienced coaches, because for harmonious development, the child must perceive only positive qualities.