Some Thoughts on Adaptive Physical Education

Some Thoughts on Adaptive Physical Education

Future Reflections Fall 1989, Vol. 8 No. 3
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SOME THOUGHTS ON ADAPTIVE
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
by Allen Harris
Editor's Note: This article is taken from an interview
I once conducted with Mr. Allen Harris. Mr.
Harris is the president of the NFB of Michigan (he
is blind). He is also a social studies teacher and a
wrestling and swimming coach. He has coached at
least six high school wrestling teams that have won
league championships and one high school state
championship team. His age group swimming
teams have won five state conference championships,
and his age group wrestling teams have won
six. He has headed up the Social Studies Department
at the Edsel Ford High School in Dearborn
since 1984, and consequently has had to give up
many coaching responsibilities in recent years. In 1985 he was selected by the National Council on
Social Studies as one of two outstanding teachers
of social studies in the state of Michigan.
Now, what about adaptive P.E.? Adaptive physical
education very often is just a way to keep blind
youngsters out of regular physical education classes.
Regular physical education teachers think
they can't teach blind kids. All adaptive P.E. does
for a lot of blind kids is keep them out of the way.
Sometimes they do some physical activity, but it
isn't really equivalent to what the other kids are
expected to do. Other times they just sit and read
or do homework. Parents need to know that blind
kids can participate in regular P.E., and demand
it for their child.
Adaptive P.E. can be appropriate in those cases
where the alternative is to exclude the child.
Sometimes, especially in the elementary level, all
the kids may do in regular P.E. is play baseball all
the time. Then, if I were a parent, I might opt for
a more varied program. I think that those instances,
frankly, are really very limited. It can also be
appropriate for the child that has been delayed
in physical development, as long as the goal is to
integrate into the regular program as soon as possible.
What's
true in the schools is also true in the community.
That is, blind kids can participate in
regular P.E. in school and they participate in
regular recreational programs in your town.
Some parents who live in my community called
me because they had a four year old blind
daughter and they wanted her to take swimming
lessons. They thought they would have to have
pay for private lessons, or get her in a special
program. I said, "Baloney. Everyone else here
goes over to the local swimming pool and they
can take free lessons. So, let's do that." It so happened
that a student of mine (who also happened
to be my neighbor) was a swimming instructor at
the local pool. I took these parents to her and we
got their daughter lined up for swimming lessons
--just like the other kids.
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