Another School is Cool – Hayes Elementary School, Minn

Minn. School Adds Skateboarding To Curriculum

Schools Buys 30 Sets Of Skateboards, Helmets

"There’s no, ‘I can’t,’ anymore," he said. "They just want to do it."

At Hayes Elementary School in Fridley, students have been clattering around atop skateboards, swinging around corners and flying up ramps.

The reaction from their teachers is hardly what you’d expect.

Instead of scowling and muttering about "kids these days," the educators find themselves in awe. The students are the first in the state to learn to skateboard as part of their physical-education classes.

The students in Craig Coleman’s gym classes at Hayes are taking to it with glee. Even those who used to beg off the tougher exercises are getting excited, he said.

Battling a national childhood obesity crisis, educators and curriculum creators alike saw a need to structure physical education around activities kids can take home with them and do after school in lieu of spending hours texting and surfing Web sites like Facebook.

Kids are more likely to stay active if they’re introduced to a sport or activity they like, said Eric Klassen, who co-founded Skate Pass, the Colorado-based firm that helped start the skating curriculum program.

"If you drive down the street and you see kids just screwing around with their friends, being active, (skateboards and bikes) are the two things you normally see," he said.

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