Everybody Wins

Get a group of PE teachers together and the conversation naturally turns to jock talk. They compare win-loss records for adult softball leagues, share training tips for upcoming marathon races, talk about their golf scores and tennis matches.

"There's nothing wrong with competition," says Bud Turner, coordinator of K-12 physical education for Seattle Public Schools and a weekend warrior himself on the coed softball circuit. Indeed, many PE teachers are first attracted to the field because they've had positive experiences in sports.

But when it's time for PE class, competition's best left outside the gym. "Athletics involves only 10 to 15 percent of the student population," says Turner, but PE is for everyone.

Turning the school gym into a place where everybody wins doesn't mean that games have to be eliminated.

"We can modify games and manage competition," Turner explains. Instead of nine-person softball teams, for instance, students can break into three-player teams for "coneball," played on a scaled-down diamond where everybody gets more chances to hone fielding and hitting skills. Instead of training one or two students to be pitchers, everybody learns and practices the fundamentals of throwing and catching. Turner also suggests structuring games so that competition is added gradually, as students acquire new skills. They can progress from warm-up, to individual competition, to competition against a partner, to team games.

Although there are plenty of PE specialists who enjoy competing on their own time, "You don't have to be a great athlete to be a good PE teacher," stresses Turner, who trains future generations of PE teachers as an adjunct faculty member at four universities in Washington. "We want great teachers to go into this field—people who like kids and know how to be innovative."

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