A fresh focus on fitness
Educators are trying new approaches to activate students
and
combat obesity among the young
August 20, 2006, Kansas City Star
- Just when you thought video games and all that academic
pressure in schools were sure to spawn a generation
of gym lightweights…
Here comes the new school physical fitness
regimen.
Reinvigorated.
More efficient.
And wired.
Advocates of physical education classes
are fighting the temptation in schools to steal time
from the gym so students can concentrate on reading,
math and science — the subjects that the federal
No Child Left Behind law tests to measure school success.
Schools are trying to get more students concerned with
their fitness, and a few — with more to come —
are bringing high tech to the fight.
P.E. is important, its supporters say,
because it’s away to tackle the childhood obesity
epidemic. They’re pushing fitness programs that
focus less on sports and more on developing healthy
lifestyles.
In many cases, video gaming technology,
once the enemy, is now a friend.
Instead of playing kickball or standing
around while others do, more students like Kansas City
fifth-grader Brian Goines will be running, dancing and
climbing through high-tech programs that literally have
bells and whistles.
Brian loves the dance pad video machines
that a nonprofit advocate group, PE4life, helped bring
to Woodland Elementary School in the Kansas City School
District. Pupils can ride stationary bikes hooked to
video games, swim with heart monitors, and throw balls
against brightly colored panels that sound off and light
up when hit.
"I dance, I climb the wall, then
I go out and work on themachines," Brian said.
"I keep busy, and I sweat a lot."
That’s good. More than 9 million
U.S. children ages 6 to 19 are overweight, according
to the 2006 Shape of the Nation Report by the National
Association for Sport and Physical Education and the
American Heart Association.
The U.S. surgeon general reports that
nearly half of Americans age 12 to 21 are not vigorously
active on a regular basis, and 14 percent report no
recent physical activity.
Few if any question the importance of
health and fitness, but surveys show most elementary
schools are providing P.E. two days a week, rather than
three days a week or daily, as a minority
of schools do.
And when schools aren’t taking away
time from P.E., they’re often taking time from
recess. A Missouri survey found that barely half of
elementary schools still offer recess the traditional
twice a day, with many going to once a day.
Missouri created a health and physical
fitness state exam in 2001 as part of its measure of
schools in its Missouri Assessment Program. But it dropped
the test a year later when funds were cut. Neither Missouri
nor Kansas includes P.E. performance in their school
report cards.
"What we're really after is getting
students to be active the rest of their lives,"
said James Herauf, executive director of the Missouri
Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation
and Dance, an organization of mostly public school and
college teachers. But "it's really going to be
difficult to get schools to increase. Where can they
get the time?"
Woodland's principal, Craig Rupert, would
argue that better physical education and more of it
strengthen academic performance.
Pupils have been more focused in the classroom
since the school launched its PE4life program a year
ago. Discipline referrals dropped 59 percent, he said,
and out-of-school suspensions plummeted from 1,177 to
392.
The school went to daily P.E., kept recess,
and used children’s affinity for high-tech games
to spur interest in regular fitness.
"This isn’t your grandfather's
or even your father's P.E.," said Brenda VanLengen,
vice president of operations for Kansas City-based PE4life.
"The days of those traditional sports like kickball
and basketball, where basically the jocks are enjoying
the game but everyone else just stands around, are gone."
Every student uses a heart monitor in
class, Woodland teacher Elaine Alexander said, and that
helps her give each student personal feedback on how
hard they are working and how their stamina is growing.
PE4life, which runs programs in five schools
nationwide, is adding a program at the Lincoln College
Preparatory Academy middle school this year. A recent
grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation will
enable PE4life to expand into five more area schools.
"If money were no object, I'd promise
you that every school in the country would be doing
this," Rupert said.
Costs, starting with heart monitors, can
run from several thousand dollars to more than $100,000
for an assortment of high-tech bikes, dance pads and
climbing wall. Woodland added a second P.E. teacher
to be able to offer the class every day.
But just a change in philosophy emphasizing
P.E. can go a long way, VanLengen said. And part of
PE4life's outreach helps schools connect with local
donors and community organizations that can lend financial
support to boost P.E. programming.
A majority of schools, however, schedule
P.E. and activities closer to the states' minimum requirements.
Missouri requires some P.E. at all levels
from kindergarten through high school, including roughly
a minimum of one class period a week at elementary and
middle school, and a graduation requirement of at least
one P.E. unit and health in high school.
Kansas has similar P.E. requirements for
elementary and high school, but none in middle school.
Neither state sets any guidelines for
recess.
A survey by the Missouri Association for
Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance found
that most elementary and middle schools are providing
P.E. just twice a week. Most elementary schools, eight
of 10, still have recess, but nearly half of them offer
it only once a day.
Playgrounds aren’t the priority they
once were in many school districts, where schools either
don't update aging equipment or ask PTAs or community
groups to raise some or all of the funds for them.
When Topeka parent Ellen Baeten moved
from a twice-a-day recess school to a once-aday school,
her frustration led her to join paths with the American
Association for the Child's Right to Play.
She's now Kansas' state recess advocate.
Her child's school in the Seaman School
District had P.E. every day, "but P.E. is not a
replacement for recess," she said. "P.E. is
a controlled environment. It's another teacher directed
activity."
Children need open, creative time, recess
advocates say. They need the socialization of recess.
And most of all, Baeten said, they need the breaks,
whether they use that time to play or just to relax
and daydream.
"As an adult, I need that time,"
she said. "Kids need that, too."
Besides pressure from time for class instruction,
recess has been set back by another national trend —
a concern over bullying.
Playgrounds, especially when lightly supervised,
are one of the bullying hot spots.
At Anthony Elementary School in Leavenworth,
the answer isn’t less time on the playground, but
something principal Janine Kempker calls "structured
activities" rather than recess.
In addition to three days a week of P.E.,
children head out every day for 45 minutes. Every child
rotates between three games such as kickball or relay
races, every child participates, and all activities
are supervised.
Office referrals have been cut in half,
academic performance is up, "and we've stopped
bullying dead in its tracks," she said.
If schools can get all children moving
and make fitness a habit, the benefits will be farreaching,
said VanLengen of PE4life.
"We know," she said, "that
healthy kids are happier kids and do better in school."
By the numbers
•Among U.S. children ages 6 to 19,
almost half are overweight or at risk of being overweight,
meaning their body mass index measure of body fat is
above normal for their gender and height. (Overweight:
16 percent. At risk: 31 percent.)
•Children and adolescents who are
overweight by age 8 are 80 percent more likely to become
overweight or obese as adults.
•More than 60 percent of adults are
overweight or obese.
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