Yoga, hip-hop ... this is P.E.?

Meanwhile, physical education as a whole appears to be in decline in American schools. While experts recommend that children get at least an hour of exercise a day, fewer than one in three students attended a daily physical education class in 2003, down from 42 percent in 1991, according to federal figures.

Burgeson says the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind program is pushing schools to focus on subjects that are routinely tested, leaving little time for P.E. "There's a crowded school day with a lot of important subject areas, and schools are trying to figure out how to fit it all in," she says.

Only about one-third of states require physical education for elementary and middle school students, according to a new report by NASPE and the American Heart Association.

At the same time, health officials are warning of an increase in obesity in children. According to the report, an estimated 17 percent of American kids ages 6 to 19 are overweight, and another 31 percent are at risk.

What to do? The report, which says states are failing to adequately support physical education, urges all states to set P.E. standards and require students to meet those standards in order to graduate.

The report also recommends that all schools allocate adequate time (150 minutes per week in elementary school and 225 minutes per week in both middle and high school) for physical education.

"We're going to have to justify our own existence," says Joseph Culhane, an assistant professor of physical education at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., and a former P.E. teacher, "and show the public that we actually can get results, not just by increasing P.E. time, but by increasing it with quality programs."

For some Americans, memories of physical education classes are less than rosy. Plenty can remember getting smacked in the head during dodgeball, being picked last on the playground, and taking showers in the locker room in front of classmates.

But younger Americans have escaped these humiliations. In an effort to make physical education more enjoyable, teachers are chipping away at some long- standing traditions.

Take picking teams, for instance. No longer are the most uncoordinated students – or the skinniest or fattest – left standing alone after everyone else has been chosen. Nowadays, teams are chosen randomly, by odd- or even-numbered birth date, or by the number of letters in each student's first name. "We have been emphasizing enjoying [P.E.] at whatever level rather than being turned off because they're the worst one in the class," says Holly Guntermann, a physical education teacher in Idyllwild, Calif.

Locker-room showers are another rare sight. Thanks to concerns about privacy and lawsuits, many schools don't require students to take showers, even though many P.E. classes now last longer than an hour, plenty of time to build up a sweat.

In fact, some newly built high schools only make space for a handful of showers in their locker rooms because so few students use them. Teens often slap on perfume or extra deodorant, although some teachers complain they need only sniff to determine who just came out of P.E.

Most controversial of all, dodgeball has found itself on the chopping block. A number of schools have banned the game, with critics calling it a dangerous activity that fails to teach fitness skills and victimizes weaker players.

The naysayers are "New Age whiners," scoffed Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly in 2001. He wrote: "You mean there's weak in the world? There's strong? Of course there is, and dodgeball is one of the first opportunities in life to figure out which one you are and how you're going to deal with it."

Dodgeball's defenders point out that the sport can be fun and safe if the right precautions are taken. The game also teaches competition, says Bill DePue, vice president of the National Amateur Dodgeball Association.

"Kids need to have some form or level of competitiveness in their lives," he says.

But Joseph Culhane, an assistant professor of physical education at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., thinks there are more important things to learn. "As I tell our students here, you need to promote cooperation more than competition," he says, pointing out that bosses want employees who can work with each other. "They have to make the decision where they stand on that."

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