D.C. schools to teach bike-riding in 2nd grade – IOTW Report

D.C. schools to teach bike-riding in 2nd grade

Despite low reading proficiency rates.

bicycle stolen

EAG: WASHINGTON, D.C. – District of Columbia Public Schools officials are embarking on a bold new education initiative: teaching all second-graders how to ride a bicycle.

As student proficiency continues to languish, district officials added the requirement as part of a joint program with the District Department of Transportation and private donors, who provided 1,000 bicycles for the initiative, The Washington Post reports.

The plan is to spend an hour a week for a month showing the elementary students how to ride as a memorable “cornerstone” learning experience, district officials said. The District currently boasts a growing percentage of bicycle commuters – among the top five in the country – while an opposite trend is occurring with low-income students in wards 7 and 8.

“We decided second grade is the foundational year,” Walker-Hones Elementary School physical education teacher David Gesualdi told the Post. “A kid needs this experience before second grade, and if they don’t receive it by this age, we are going to provide it.”  more here

18 Comments on D.C. schools to teach bike-riding in 2nd grade

  1. I imagine that the educationists will use operant conditioning to train the kids to ride two or three abreast on the wrong side of the street and that it is OK for bicyclists to ignore street lights and stop signs. That’s how the educationists ride, after all.

    Some of us cyclists don’t do that sort of crap, conventional iOTW wisdom notwithstanding.

  2. And how long will it be before some wildabeast finds a gutter dwelling lawyer to sue because either:

    Her child of color did not get a nice bike like the white kid

    The kid gets hurt while learning to ride

    The kid gets beat up and gets his bike stolen

    One of the kids uses a bike in a drive by shooting

    The kid gets run over by a D.C. Bus and the city gets sued

    We can’t teach them to add or subtract, to read and write, but we can teach them how to ride a bike to look for recyclables so they can by smokes and booze….

  3. Yep. Since candy is out of the question, they will probably give the kids their drugs of choice for reinforcement of behavior. With any luck though maybe the trainers will only have Moo lunch coupons to give out as rewards.

  4. I taught all of my kids how to ride a bike. I can’t think of many other things worth living for on earth that are better than those times. When this most basic staple of parenthood is turned over to the state it’s over. When God sends that meteor to finally destroy this planet I’m sure DC will be ground zero.

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