American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD
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PrintCEO Paul Roetert Responds to Comments Made By Joel Klein on The View
Yesterday, NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein appeared on the television program The View to discuss how to improve his city's schools.
When asked about the situation of merit pay and compensating teachers he made an unfortunate comment saying that, "Math and Science teachers receive the same pay as physical educators." This indicates lack of recognition for what physical education provides for students. Below is a summary of CEO Paul Roetert's response to Mr. Klein:
"This week New York City is hosting Education Nation in partnership with NBC News, which has resulted in heightened media attention of the status of education in the United States, and scrutiny and debate on topics such as teachers unions, equitable pay and merit pay for teachers, and teacher tenure.
As a leading nonprofit education membership organization representing close to 20,000 educators, we at the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) are pleased to see a plea for improving our nation’s schools and improving teacher pay. However, we were disappointed to hear you tell the nation on yesterday’s The View that math and science teachers should earn more than physical education teachers. We believe, and scientific research supports, that educating the “whole child” is vital to a child’s overall academic success. Studies have shown that regular physical activity improves academic performance. The solution to improving our nation’s public education system is not to pit one teacher against another by claiming that one is more important than the other, and should thus earn more. The solution is creating an environment that motivates all teachers to be the best they can be, that honors and rewards our outstanding teachers, that improves the status of the teaching profession, and that acknowledges that academic success is built from achievement in all subjects, including physical education.
We hope your future policy and remarks will better represent the importance of physical education in educating the whole child and that in the future we can count you as a supporter of physical education and its impact on our children’s academic success, health, and well-being."