In 2014, Chinese authorities introduced physical-education requirements that included a national jump-rope exam for boys and girls from first through sixth grades.
To pass, students must complete minimum numbers of skips a minute, and failure can trip up an otherwise promising academic trajectory. Top officials see the activity as an accessible, low-cost way to help build national sports excellence, a priority of China’s leader Xi Jinping.
Every school in China must administer annual jump-rope tests, issuing one of four grades: Fail, Pass, Good and Excellent. Only students who receive a Good or Excellent are eligible for scholarships.
First-grade boys and girls must be able to skip 17 times in a minute to pass and 87 to receive a Good rating. Boys have to skip 99 times in a minute for an Excellent mark but girls need to hit 103.
If this were the U.S., a natural response would be a capitalist one – entrepreneurs popping up to offer jump rope lessons. Interestingly enough, that is what is happening in China.
Jump-rope schools charge as much as $50 an hour to teach children as young as 3 the mechanics of what has traditionally been a carefree childhood pastime.
Authorities seem OK with such a response. Beijing has called for the opening of hundreds of thousands of fitness centers and earlier this year launched a five-year nationwide fitness program.
I like the idea of implementing fitness standards and would be happy to see the U.S. do so.
I am not sure if I like the idea of tying such standards to scholarship eligibility. If a student excels academically, then that should be the key criterion for an academic scholarship.
If you are going to tie jump roping ability to scholarships, then the cutoff should be the passing grade; not good or excellent.
I think I could jump 17 times in a minute.
Of course, another U.S. response would be to try and bribe your way into the college of your choice…
source:: Wall Street Journal
*image from verywell family
I would so flunk the skipping test and bribing is certainly out of the budget. Good thing I’m Canadian eh!
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I think I could bribe my way into an online course..
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What if you have only one leg? Will half the mark win you the scholarship?
I’m thinking maybe this is why the Wuhan lab leak occurred. The lab workers were so jumpy that they spilled a bunch of petri dishes.
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maybe you get to borrow bionic leg for the test.
that’s as good as any other explanation I’ve heard of how the virus spread…
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Well, I would have been doomed back in first grade. For some reason, my coordination and skills were “slow” when it came to jump roping.
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some people are born with slow twitch fibers; life just isn’t fair…
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I used to have to give the physical fitness test to my students in 5th and 6th grade. It wasn’t like anything happened to them if they didn’t pass, but kids received an award if they passed all six events. I thought the test was biased toward kids with smaller builds, I recall the events were usually easier for lighter/thinner kids. I remember them doing the mile run, pull-ups, sit-ups, the side shuttle which was really an agility test moving from side to side, and a flexibility test. I’m missing one more, but my memory can’t seem to recall what it was. No jump rope, although one year I had a jump rope team at school.
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the test sounds little biased; I am sure there would have been events the bigger kids would have done better at, like tire flipping and shot put 🙂
was the jump rope team for events like double dutch and the like?
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Tying academic scholarships to physical ability is a stupid idea IMHO. I always assumed that at least elementary and high school were free in China. If there is private education, I’m sure the state controls it. People with disabilities are out of luck it seems. To improve the gene pool and get a more athletic population, maybe China will institute a physical ability test before people are allowed to have sex. I’d like to see Xi and his cronies take the test.
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I’d be curious to know what happens to students with disabilities. and I think older people should be required to take a fitness test every five years – maybe you lose your driver’s license if you fail…
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A fitness test for adults would be great. It would be nice to tie it to health insurance premiums somehow.
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that seems to make too much sense…
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I like the idea of adults having to pass a skipping test to get that executive job…
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I like that idea as well…
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I would have failed for sure, never was a good jump roper
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my head would start to hurt after about 15 seconds…
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Yes!
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This thinking is so egregiously flawed that I don’t no where to begin. When it comes to intelligence and academic achievement, I only have two words: Stephen Hawking.
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your two words say it all. I remember trying to read his best-selling book, and I gave up quickly; I had no idea what he was talking about…
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I’m still ploughing through that one..only because I don’t like to quit…sigh
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when you finish, please provide me with a summary 🙂
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It will be a long while yet as its hard going.. But I greatly admire Stephen Hawking x
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yes, he is amazing. I’ll always remember his appearances on the Simpsons…
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I must have missed that.. I will check it out.. I’m sure there is a video… 😀
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yes, there is…
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So what about getting a scholarship just based on how well you jump rope and not on academics? I may have been able to get a scholarship that way. 🙂
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I guess that would be fine if you are planning to pursue a career as a rope jumper…
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LOL! Guess I missed my chance!
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it’s never too late… 🙂
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Haha! My body says it is. 🙂
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it’s all in your head…
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😂
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My first thought was what about children with disabilities?
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I had the same thought…
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They could call that bribery the Trump Jump 😉
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he wouldn’t need to bribe, because he is probably the best rope jumper in the world…
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Even if he weren’t, he’d tell everyone he was.
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we can be sure of that…
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I think this is a bit unfair, Jim, not everyone has good coordination and can jump rope. Academics and physical achievements should not be linked.
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I agree wholeheartedly, but at the same time, there are many students at college on an athletic scholarship that enables them to get a free education…
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Yes, so they already get their opportunity. Academics also need to have opportunities, after all, universities are supposed to be primarily about academics.
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I wish more people would realize what the primary purpose of a university is!
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Were you around in the days of the annual Presidential Fitness Test? I usually failed because, though able to do everything else, I couldn’t do even 1 pullup. I still recall the year I did 4… no idea how!… and got my silver medal patch!! That has to have been almost 50yrs ago!!
I think there’d be a LOT less diagnoses of ADHD if PE was resumed in school. There is literally NO mandatory PE anymore.
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I do remember that award, but our school did not participate. I would be a big fan of mandatory phys ed classes…
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I remember those tests and that I probably failed them every time! I don’t remember if they included jumping rope but I doubt it since I could probably have performed at least up to the minimum standard on that one!
I went to college at USC (So Cal) home of what used to be the country’s (or at least the Pac-8’s then followed by -10 to now -12) best (semi-pro) football team. They told the regular students (as opposed to those “student-athletes”) that they wanted to produce well-rounded individuals so for my PE elective there I took horseback riding. That ruined my back almost forever, until it was replaced by the arthritis in my hip which was replaced with a titanium one!
If Mom didn’t have Alzheimer’s, she would probably remember Lynn Swann telling us at orientation he was the best paid student on campus. That was one of the highlights for her of my time there!
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that would have been cool to have Lynn Swann talk at your orientation, and what a great line..
I remembering college we had to take three 1-credit courses in phys ed. I took yoga, fencing, and racquetball. I loved all three of them…
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What about scholarships for people who fail rope jumping?
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I could have used such a scholarship…
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I cannot skip using a rope as I get distracted too easily, so it might be a fail for me.
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I used to do it a little bit in my workouts, but I was never good at it either
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And when jump roping is introduced in the olympics, the Chinese will be miles ahead of everyone else
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I think I’d rather seem jump roping as an event than some of the other events that have made their way into the Olympics. But you are right, the Chinese would likely dominate such an event, given this mandate…
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This is terrible on so many levels. Any physical activity should be encouraged and praised.
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