Beating Obesity by Skateboarding: Californian School Introduces Skateboarding to the PE Curriculum

Now this is interesting. I’ve recently read about a Californian school, Fillmore Middle School, that has introduced skateboarding to their P.E. curriculum. In an attempt to stem the increase in obesity amongst it’s pupils the school claims that the programme has been a roaring success.

They are not the only ones to introduce classes in skateboarding, according to officials (not mentioned in the press release) there are schools in 10 other states that have done the same. And, this isn’t just an American trend - Barnstable school, in Devon, right here in the UK has done it too, you can read more about it here.

Personally, I think this is a great innovation and a change that I would have been frothing over when I was in school (I was obsessed with skating in those days). Football and rugby were never my thing and the whole of the skater fraternity that I was involved with remember those days as being outcasts when it came to ‘mainstream’ sports - skating appears to be mainstream now, and accepted.

I fully support anyone who is promoting this idea for our schools in the UK, what’s your take on it? The way the damn health and safety squad are going this must be sending shivers up and down their spines. Pupils who already skate are going to skate either in school or out of school, which do you think would be the safer environment?

I would love to hear your opinion on this. Post your comments below.

Tags: Obesity, PE Classes, School, Skateboarding

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 2:35 pm and is filed under Other Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.