Essay on stereotype physical education system

There is one stereotype that seems to plague secondary-school physical education the teacher coach who “throws out the ball” during physical education class and spends his or her time on the sidelines working on plays for that afternoon’s interscholastic team practice.

Then, at 3:30 P.M., this unenthusiastic teacher turns into a dynamic coach, with a well-prepared practice plan. During the physical education class, our stereotypic teacher coach does little interacting, except to reprimand students who misbehave.

During the afternoon practice, the same person is highly interactive, providing specific skill feedback and encouragement to players. Have anyone met a teacher coach like this? Certainly, this is the stereotype often portrayed in films and books.

This stereotype is unfair to the many women and men who try hard to teach physical education well, along with performing admirably in their coaching assignments. Sadly, however, the stereotype is probably closer to the truth for some physical educators than any of us want to believe.

Many physical-education teachers also coach after school in the interscholastic sport program. In fact, many women and men who enter the physical-education teaching profession do so because this is the most direct route to achieve their real career goal, that of being a high-school coach.

Teachers who also coach in the after school program tend- to put in a very long day, especially when weekend games or mid-week scouting trips are also often part of their workload.

A physical educator might arrive at school at 7:45 A.M., teach six classes during the day, conduct a team practice from 4:00 to 6:00 P.M., and finally arrive home at 7:15 after supervising the after-practice locker room and seeing that all the equipment has been put away.

On some nights, the coach follows a quick meal by a trip to scout an upcoming opponent, getting home finally at 10:30 P.M., only to have it get up the next morning and do it all again.

There is substantial evidence that a number of men and women who teach and coach suffer from role conflict. Teaching is one role. Coaching is another role. Each has its demands. Each has its pressures Trying to perform well in several roles can produce both role strain and role conflict.

Role strain exists when demands require more energy or time than a person has to give. Role conflict exists when there are strongly incompatible expectations for different roles. All the evidence suggests that doing both teaching and coaching produces role strain and role conflict.

The daily schedule is sufficient to produce strain, especially when extended over a long period of time. Role conflict builds because the expectations and rewards for coaching are so much stronger than are those for teaching.

Coaches are public persons what the teacher coaches do is under the scrutiny of parents, school administrators, and the community. Performing well as a coach is greatly admired, widely noted, and subject to many different kinds of social reinforcement. Teaching, on the other hand, is more private. Teaching has neither the same expectations nor the rewards that coaching does.

When role strain occurs, something eventually has to give. Usually, teacher coaches gradually devote more of their time and energy to the coaching role and less to the teaching role.

The sad result is that the teacher stops trying to teach well on a day-to-day basis, eventually becoming the stereotype described at the beginning of this section.

There is no simple solution to this problem. Some people have suggested that coaching become part of the teaching assignment, thus allowing coaches to have a much lighter teaching load during their seasons.

Some school administrators prefer to hire coaches who are classroom teachers, thus avoiding this problem, or, perhaps, shifting it to another group of people. Still others have suggested that a second teaching staff should be employed.

Those people would begin their work in mid-after-noon, would continue through the evening hours, staffing recreational and community programs in schools, as well as coaching. If secondary-school physical education is to thrive, this problem must be solved.