Johanna Quaas: The Oldest Active Gymnast in the World

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1. Bob Shepherd says:

   July 24, 2019 at 11:31 am

   Exactly.

   Ed Deformers don’t even hide the fact that they think that testing should push out everything else. Their THEORY is that if it is done “properly,” there is no distinction between testing and learning, learning and testing. Deformers refer to this as continuous, embedded assessment, and it’s their goal to create depersonalized “education” software that will do just that.

   Yes, this is utterly insane. And yes, the opportunity costs of testing–the pushing out of instruction in civics, the arts, music, physical education, the sciences, and literature–are enormous. In many ELA classrooms in the United States, literature and writing are no longer taught. What is taught is application of items from the puerile Gates/Coleman bullet list to snippets of text in inane, meaningless exercises designed to mimic state test questions.

   All testing, all the time. An entire generation of students has had traditional education in the arts, humanities, and sciences stolen from them.

   This will stop only when the federal annual testing mandate is ended. And that will end only when the major teachers’ unions demand that it be ended and put behind that demand real action in the streets and real lobbying against political candidates who support continuing this obscene nonsense.

   High-stakes standardized testing has UTTERLY FAILED, by its own measure, test scores, to improve outcomes or to lower achievement gaps. ENOUGH OF THIS IDIOCY!

   Reply
   • Akademos says:

     July 24, 2019 at 12:00 pm

     Once it becomes a highly competitive ranking system it dramatically reduces the number of people who can truly think for themselves.

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     • Bob Shepherd says:

       July 24, 2019 at 12:10 pm

       Yes. The testing system has led to a major dumbing down of U.S. education.

     • Akademos says:

       July 24, 2019 at 1:31 pm

       Also, the emphasis constricts thinking. Students are pressured toward and rewarded for recalling and applying a very limited scope of facts and methods, as well as gaming their own preparation. It limits thinking and distorts (deforms) what everything should be about. It deforms the study of science, philosophy, art, literature, history, deforms the sense of self and the world, even clear and extended logic itself.

2. Akademos says:

   July 24, 2019 at 11:53 am

   Imagine how much she must love gymnastics.

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   • Bob Shepherd says:

     July 24, 2019 at 7:37 pm

     Yes!!! So beautiful!

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3. SomeDAM Poet says:

   July 24, 2019 at 1:13 pm

   Fred Beckey, the greatest climber/alpinist of all time (that most people — even many of today’s climbers– have never heard of), was, until he died at age 94 in 2017, probably the oldest active climber.

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4. Robert Rendo, Private Citizen says:

   July 24, 2019 at 1:38 pm

   Oh please!

   I can do everything Ms. Quaas does.

   I just would end up in a hospital bed in my privatized, for-profit, lightly regulated insurance medical care (sorry, Germany!) for over 2 years with critical back and neck injuries . . . . Incapacitated like never before.

   You go, Johanna!

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   • speduktr says:

     July 24, 2019 at 9:33 pm

     I wouldn’t get far enough in the routine to suffer such injuries!

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5. retired teacher says:

   July 24, 2019 at 1:49 pm

   Inspirational and aspirational! I am sure gymnastics has contributed to her long, healthy life.

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6. Laura H. Chapman says:

   July 24, 2019 at 5:33 pm

   Unfortunately physical education when permitted, allowed, is likely to be tested against a whole bunch of standards. These notes are from my study of all standards put on the books after the Gates-funded Common Core.

   SHAPE America, Society of Health and Physical Educators is the relatively new name (2014) for The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) a professional association of educators first formed in 1885 to support health and physical education in schools.

   The SHAPE Physical Educators Standards are fine-grained, almost to a point of offering testable items for each grade, K-8. There is some overlap between these physical education standards and those for dance, health, and for social studies. Source: SHAPE America. (2013). Grade-level outcomes for K-12 physical education. Reston, VA: Author.

   I have lightly edited the five general standards below to reduce some redundancies.

   The physically literate individual:
   Standard 1. …demonstrates competency in a variety of motor skills and movement patterns. This standard includes locomotor skills (run, hop, skip, etc.) non-locomotor skills (stability, weight transfers), and manipulative skills (throwing, catching, batting a ball, jumping rope)

   Standard 2. …applies knowledge of concepts, principles, strategies and tactics related to movement and performance. This includes space and movement paths, muscle activity for dance and gymnastics.

   Standard 3. …demonstrates the knowledge and skills to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical activity and fitness. This includes monitoring one’s physical activity, physical fitness, and nutrition.

   Standard 4. …exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others. This includes following directions; accepting corrective feedback (from teachers, peers), following rules and etiquette, especially in physical activities; working cooperatively; and safety.

   Standard 5. …recognizes the value of physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and/or social interaction. This standard includes, especially in grades 6-8, the challenges and rewards from participating in individual and team sports and games and gaining rudimentary skills in many of these through practice.

   Physical Literacy Standards (Abbreviated) K-Grade 8 Number of standards
   1. competent: motor skills & movement patterns 190
   2. knowledge related to movement & performance 75
   3. health-enhancing physical activity, fitness 88
   4. responsible personal & social behavior 60
   5. values physical activity 68

   Note: The National Consortium for Physical Education and Recreation for Individuals with Disabilities (NCPERID) offers resources for adapted physical education programs and certifications for these. See http://www.ncpeid.org/

   This is to say that the evident joy and accomplishment shown in the video is a long way from the compulsion to standardize everything and the ridiculousness in the SHAPE standards of even mentioning “college and career” about seven times as if physical wellbeing and activity has no intrinsic value.

   Akademos says:
   Imagine how much she must love gymnastics. YES, YES, YES.

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   • speduktr says:

     July 24, 2019 at 10:03 pm

     Does anyone who ever enjoyed gym/PE recognize it from these standards? Even if gym was not something you looked forward to, I can’t see how standardizing it would have made it more palatable.

     Reply