THREE DAYS A WEEK for the past 30 years, students at Somerset Elementary School in Montgomery County have gathered before and after school to exercise and play games under a teacher’s watchful supervision. It has been a wildly successful program, popular with children and parents, supported by the school’s leadership and utterly without detractors. But none of that matters to the county school bureaucracy: The program has been suspended — and seems unlikely to resume — because skittish officials are more concerned with imagined violations of their rules than with what works for students.
The Kafkaesque series of events involving Healthy Kids Workout started when a Somerset parent lauded the children’s fitness program in a letter nominating physical education teacher Richard House for a distinguished educator’s award. Claiming not to have been aware of the program, central administration officials immediately raised red flags, suggesting that Mr. House – who inherited the program 16 years ago from his predecessor — might be in violation of ethical rules that bar teachers from tutoring their own students.
No one wants teachers using their positions to take financial advantage or give special treatment, but it’s absurd to equate a program in which large groups of children play games and have fun with tutoring. Some 125 children, between 15 and 20 percent of the Chevy Chase school’s population, generally have participated in the program. It has no academic content. A small fee is charged, but Mr. House provides need-based scholarships and no child has ever been turned away. Do officials really think parents sign their kids up for this program in a sneaky bid to boost gym grades?
Mr. House has been invited to seek an opinion from the system’s ethics committee, but who can blame him for being wary of a system that seeks to investigate, rather than thank, him for putting extra effort into his work. Noting that the school system has dedicated itself to fighting childhood obesity, more than 100 parents signed a letter urging reinstatement of the program. “In a County where a paltry 30 to 50 minutes per week of PE is all kids receive and parents are typically unable to find safe before and after-school opportunities for outdoor play, HKWO is a lifesaver, literally,” the parents wrote to Superintendent Joshua P. Starr.
Let’s hope Mr. Starr has the sense to encourage a program of proven worth. Indeed, unless he’s more interested in the rule book than in results, he ought to be looking for ways to replicate this successful model at other schools throughout Montgomery.
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