Darrington PE teacher seeks donations for bike education

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Penny Ortiz brought her bright pink helmet, with bumps mimicking cat ears, for physical education recently at Darrington Elementary School.

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On a recent weekday morning, Gavin Gladsjo, one of the small district’s PE teachers, rounded up Kim Wiersma’s 20 or so students for a lesson to practice road safety. Gladsjo unloaded the black-and-orange Specialized city bikes from a trailer just outside the ballfields, each with a taped number so students remember which one fits them best, and had the class run through their ABCs: checking air pressure, brakes and chains.

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The bikes, which fit the 10- and 11-year-olds, aren’t suitable for younger students. Gladsjo hopes to fix that with a fundraiser to buy 24 balance bikes that could adapt to students as they grow and being to use pedals.

The goal is to get $6,000 in donations by next year. For comparison, his annual classroom budget is $250 across all five classes between kindergarten and 12th grade.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/darrington-pe-teacher-seeks-donations-for-bike-education/

[Jilly_in_VA]

1. This was part of our PE

in 4th and 5th grade in Madison, WI. Traffic cones. stop signs, and "lights" were set up on the playground of our school and a school safety cop (I remember him as Officer Graves) came to instruct us. Of course these were the days before helmets, but anyway. If you didn't pass the test, which was all practical, not written, you weren't allowed to ride your bike to school. And since almost every kid in my (upper middle-class) school had a bike, that was a Very Big Deal. Of course these were the days before Stranger Danger, when kids were allowed to walk or ride bikes to school independent of their parents from an early age. /s