Educators must make PE a bigger priority
By Chick Hess
The remedy for our children's lack of physical fitness and overall good health continues to be enigmatic for some. The solution to the obesity riddle doesn't need more research. The key is this: we simply must get our children moving.
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Sir Isaac Newton proved that an object in motion was more likely to stay moving, and an object at rest was more likely to remain at rest. Thus, the obesity problem and accompanying maladies can be solved with Newton's laws.
Activities such as the American Youth Soccer Organization's Diamond Head Division Under-6 League help children develop physical as well as mental skills.
Listen up, politicians and Board of Education members, because the future of Hawai'i is in your hands.
Nascent candidates for heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis receive their head start in our elementary schools where they begin their grooming for a sedentary lifestyle.
Youngsters deprived of physical education are arriving en masse at the intermediate level when puberty, peer pressure, TV and computers are making the odds slim for increasing their physical activity. Today, when you try to get an out-of-shape and unskilled 13-year-old to do something physically exerting, you are likely to be asked to explain why, and all too frequently, they will refuse.
Children deprived of physical education are not the only factor here. Another obstacle is a shrouded DOE tactic that separates the students' "cognitive domain" instruction from their "physical domain" instruction. This educational faux pas has been exacerbated by the fact that PE programs are being eliminated or rendered less effective. Learning takes place best when both domains are addressed.
The focus of elementary school education is on raising SAT scores. That focus has intensified with the federal government's "No Child Left Behind" law.
Last November, The Advertiser ran a story headlined "State may lower P.E. requirement." The rationale behind this tentative curriculum change was to produce a more academically educated student, not a healthier one.
Meanwhile, physical educators struggle as they confront the realities of childhood obesity. Students need time to learn movement skills, and usurping practice time for skill development defeats the purpose of trying to develop more physically active youngsters because most fitness-related activity takes place during skill-related activities.
Restrooms without toilet tissue and school renovations concern politicians more than the critical mass of students who are unfit and overweight. However, heart disease and diabetes in the long run will cost more than new buildings and elementary school PE teachers' salaries.
If you want to improve education, make students healthier. Studies reveal that physically active students learn better because the physically fit feel better about themselves and are more alert (not falling asleep) and less fidgety in class. Academic achievement can become a byproduct of good health and fitness. Additionally, more physically fit students create fewer discipline problems.
Have you ever heard a secondary school teacher commenting about how much easier his job would be if his students had a better grasp of the basics? When children enter intermediate school without the fundamentals in language arts or mathematics, teachers struggle to make up the deficit. In the case of the secondary PE teachers, the situation is more challenging.
As an intermediate PE teacher who once taught the same subject in elementary school, I am frequently forced to lower expectations for my students. The truth of the matter is that students who have been deprived of physical education lack the sports-related skills and conditioning necessary to function physically on grade level.
Could it be that those who influence or make policy do not comprehend the problem? We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic, and all you hear about are standards. Standards in the core areas are necessary guides to follow, but in PE, they need to be prioritized. This epidemic is now responsible for producing more deaths than the tobacco industry.
A root of the problem can be traced to the elementary schools where 90 percent are without licensed PE teachers. You have to feel for most elementary school teachers because they come ill equipped in preparation, background experience, facilities, and administrative leadership to fill in as PE teachers, not to mention their responsibility to teach the entire school curriculum.
An elementary school student is fortunate if he can get his jack-of-all-trades teacher to organize a game of kickball.
Do you think our children deserve the best? At a time when there is more than an ample supply of health and physical education teachers, the DOE does not require their district resource teachers to be licensed (K-12) in health and physical education.
All in all, in the "War Against Obesity," our public schools are shooting blanks with the Tobacco Settlement monies earmarked for producing healthier bodies. If those holding positions of leadership had a working knowledge of anatomy, physiology, psychology of physical activities, and common sense, this epidemic could be eliminated.
In reference to the causes of obesity, a wise man once said that he couldn't change the lifestyle of grandma and grandpa, but he could change the lifestyle of their grandkids. Only by changing the lifestyle of children can a long-term impact be made. By design, or lack thereof, our youngsters are expeditiously evolving into the heart disease and diabetic patients of tomorrow.
Our former surgeon general, Dr. David Satcher, frequently said that it was a simple matter of paying now or paying more later. The price tag for healthcare in the future may be an impossible sum. If we don't implement an effective elementary physical education program, tomorrow's medical costs will be astronomical.
Healthcare premiums are rising. Elementary PE programs taught by licensed physical education teachers could be the door-buster sale of the century.
Chic Hess is vice president of the Division of Physical Education in the Southwest District of American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and teaches health and physical education at Kailua Intermediate School.
