Outdoor Pursuits in Physical Education: Lessons from the Trenches

Outdoor Pursuits in Physical Education: Lessons from the Trenches
Summary of “Outdoor Pursuits in Physical Education: Lessons from the Trenches”
“Outdoor Pursuits in Physical Education: Lessons from the Trenches” by Jeff McNamee and Gay Timken depicts why school-based physical education does not foster a lifetime physical activity for children. In particular, learners’ physical activity behaviors are multifaceted and complex, which is why physical education cannot assist these young individuals to meet the recommended physical activity threshold (McNamee and Timken 8). The overreliance on traditional team sports is another factor that contributes to the failure of promoting physical education in schools. The article also portrays that educational institutions emphasize team games at the expense of physical activities in their lifetime.
Schools should prepare young individuals and promote engagement in lifelong physical activities. For example, physical activities for students aged 9 to 18 years influence adults (McNamee and Timken 9). However, traditional physical education does not help young people to become physically active adults. Based on McNamee and Timken, outdoor pursuits (OP) occur in natural settings and entail skills for moving from one place to another without using any motorized transportation (McNamee and Timken 9). In that light, such act...