Anonymous wrote:To PP, I bet your kid is a gem and takes after you. Great to tell people you don't agree with to "suck it." I bet that is a good skill for you at work, and that vocabulary must have gotten you into a prestigious college and grad school.

Please continue to suck it, please. Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids seem to have no trouble riding away with stolen bikes in our neighborhood. Perhaps DCPS should also offer hockey as there seems to be some interest after a group assaulted two kids at Watkins and tried to steal their gear. Either way, seven seems to be a bit old. And this presumably will take away valuable playground time, space and manpower. How many kids will ride at a time and what will the rest be doing? I just don't get it. And why this isn't this being offered through DPR?

When did this happen? During school hours?

It happened earlier this week on the Watkins skating area.

Goodness! So kids should not learn how to ride bikes because SOME might steel bikes at a future date. I'm all for kids learning as much as possible. This is great IMO. I am an adult who never learned how to ride and I wish we had this at school. I doubt they will fail anyone who doesn't actually learn how to ride, so why is trying something so bad. Some of you are crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids seem to have no trouble riding away with stolen bikes in our neighborhood. Perhaps DCPS should also offer hockey as there seems to be some interest after a group assaulted two kids at Watkins and tried to steal their gear. Either way, seven seems to be a bit old. And this presumably will take away valuable playground time, space and manpower. How many kids will ride at a time and what will the rest be doing? I just don't get it. And why this isn't this being offered through DPR?

When did this happen? During school hours?

It happened earlier this week on the Watkins skating area.

Anonymous wrote:In an email we received from DCPS, Kaya Henderson spent considerable time talking about some new curriculum initiative. The only concrete example she pointed to was that the curriculum would include teaching second graders to ride bikes.

Really? This is for school time? No wonder DCPS scores so low. This is not a "curriculum." This is what kids have done for ages on their own time at home.

Self-defense would probably make more sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids seem to have no trouble riding away with stolen bikes in our neighborhood. Perhaps DCPS should also offer hockey as there seems to be some interest after a group assaulted two kids at Watkins and tried to steal their gear. Either way, seven seems to be a bit old. And this presumably will take away valuable playground time, space and manpower. How many kids will ride at a time and what will the rest be doing? I just don't get it. And why this isn't this being offered through DPR?

But that's the point. They are 7 or 8 and don't yet know how to ride a bike.

Isn't the point that their neighborhood isn't conducive to riding a bike and/or their parent don't give a crap if the child is seven or eight and doesn't get know how to ride a bike? It's not like there is some initiative to give kids a bike and helmet to use outside of a PE setting. Odds are at least 1/3 of the bikes are missing or broken by Spring. I can't image where our school is going to store 20 or 30 bikes that is readily accessible and not overly tempting to a thief.

[img]https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/11202803_10153223282915547_3483656805759954557_n.jpg?oh=3dc52384d520f1be11118aca8e10dca1&oe=563634E3
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https://www.facebook.com/dcpublicschools/photos/a.391093185546.172062.205950220546/10153223282915547/?type=1

My public elementary school used to have an annual "learn how to ride a bike" day - a ton of parent volunteers would come in and man all the streets around the school. We had to learn basic biking skills, plus the hand signs and rules of the road for bikes. It was a pretty quiet suburb, so I think most kids knew how to ride and had bikes from home. I suspect they would have also had the parent volunteers bring in some extra bikes for those kids who didn't have their own. This was 1983-ish.

My private school used to bus us to the local public swimming pool for weekly synchronized swim lessons. It was my idea of hell. The indoor pool was cold and it was just gross. I was only 10 or so, but legitimately got a stomach ache just thinking about it every morning before we went and so I used to sit out most of the time.

Sounds like a great idea to me. Much better than most of the PE they do in our ES. And as the mom of a 9-year old who still can't ride a bike, I wish I were in the DC district!

Goodness even the PE classes are geared towards the kids already falling behind academically.

Personally, I wish they'd add tying shoes (our current challenge). Can't they add that somewhere?

Could you paste the email?

My 7 year old just learned this summer.

I think bike-riding is a great skill to teach!

Gross motor skill development has always been part of the school curriculum.

To PP, I bet your kid is a gem and takes after you. Great to tell people you don't agree with to "suck it." I bet that is a good skill for you at work, and that vocabulary must have gotten you into a prestigious college and grad school.