a gym that raises test scores...

Amidst the firing of teachers and the refusal to tax millionaires and corporations to finance education, a bit of hands-on common sense shows up on occasion. A school nurse in Colorado converted unused classrooms into learning gyms, in which physical activities are connected with reading, geography and math. What should be rocking the core of the educational establishment is that the addition of the gyms dramatically increased test scores. According to the article, A gym that raises test scores,

"taking time away, or rather time out, from being in a classroom led to students’ state standardized test scores increasing, from 55 percent to 68.5 percent."

Researchers state:

“These data indicate that when carefully designed physical education programs are put into place, children’s academic achievement does not suffer.”

“There is growing substantial evidence that this kind of physical activity may help improve academic behavior, cognitive skills and attitudes.”

In a nation of nincompoops and during budgetary crises, physical education, the arts and libraries are the first to be cut. Parents and teachers as a last line of defense should know that those cuts are the clear path to stupidity.

Let's aim instead for the following:Mens sana in corpore sano, “a healthy mind in a healthy body.”

Make, fix and create.