If you are not an ESPN fan then I am sure you missed the report on Outside the Lines this morning about childhood obesity. People will ridicule me all the time because I only watch certain channels and certain shows. I watch WGN because of the Cubs, I watch Sci-Fi for Ghost Hunters, and I watch the CW for Supernatural. Of course, there are always shows on the regular networks that I watch as well. ESPN is the one channel that I spend more time watching than any other. Whether it is catching up on a days worth of sports after a day at school, watching a ballgame, or just listening to something as I doze off in my recliner, I enjoy the product that ESPN puts out. The personalities they have, and the way they combine those personalities, make it must see tv. Now before this turns into any more of an ESPN love fest, to the topic at hand.
I grew up watching the news on ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC. How is it that a show on ESPN, on Sunday morning, is the one that caught my attention? PE Left Behind – Finally, a story that is important to me. This is an important piece of media that advocates for my profession. Now before people come back and say, “But the other stations put out information about childhood obesity all the time.” That is true, and I am not denying that point. Why has it taken NFL Players and ESPN doing a story on this topic for the other networks to pick up this news again? Searching articles about Physical Education and Childhood Obesity, shows that there were a ton of articles on each of the networks 3-5 years ago, and then they were gone. If there is so much research out there, and there is, why is it that this fight is not something that is talked about EVERY day until something happens? I am asking that question of ESPN right now as well, but it is a sports news network…And that is why they pushed it this morning. The NFL players and their advocacy group are bringing to light something important.
Please take a moment and read this article before moving on to the next paragraph. Active Education
Why is it that everyday classroom instruction is in the news daily? I can tell you why…Testing. If scores are not up to par, then the teachers in those classes are seen as weak links. In schools that the test scores are continuously low, and not showing signs of improvement, I challenge you to check out that schools Physical Education department. Kids at my school do not like to take the advanced Physical Education classes because they represent a challenge. The ones that sign up and accept the challenge are the ones that I know perform at a higher level in the classroom. Notice, I didn’t say that every person that is in the advanced classes performed well, only the ones that accept the challenge. So what does this tell us about the importance of a student being physically active, and its’ effect on performance in the classroom? Why not put that in the news daily like we do test scores? Why not check into the ones performing well in PE and their test scores? This post is no reflection on school administrators, or even county/city level administrators. They are doing what is handed down to them from higher authorities. With all the research out there detailing the strengths of a good physical education program, and the effect it has on academic performance, why is it always pushed to the side? Why are kids taken OUT of PE to go for their tutoring for EOC’s/EOG’s? Principals have told me time after time that they do not want to take kids out of their PE class, but they have no choice. Why are they put in position to have no choice?
Here is that quote that my wife hates more than anything….”I am just a PE teacher.” So testing is a little foreign to me. But there are some things in life that aren’t foreign to me, and that is physical activiy. If a person has a stressful day at work what do they do to wind down? For me, I will shoot some basketball, lift some weights, or throw some football. Being active is an important way for me to relieve stress. I challenge you all to do the same. Read a book while walking on a treadmill, listen to music while taking a stroll at the park/beach/downtown, or just do something active while combining it with something that you enjoy. I think you will find that you will feel even better than before when you only would read a book, or listen to music.
I see 100+ students per semester. I can tell when they are stressed and when they are relaxed. A student that is stressed will come into class and get emotionally upset when they can’t get a weight up, or reach a good mark in one of their running or jumping classifications. Ones that are relaxed may become a little irked that they can’t get up a certain weight, but they leave there feeling that they have tried their best and it just wasn’t good enough that day. Why would a kid get so stressed out that they flip out because they can’t get their goals in weight lifting class? They will tell me, “It is coming from this or that…It has nothing to do with this class.”
I push them to work as hard as they can. To compete against themselves, not against others. My philosophy is, If you spend your time trying to keep up with everyone else, then you will never be the best that YOU can be. You will always be chasing, when you could be leading. Once my students bought into that, they have continued to make great progress in their weight lifting classes. They are not concerned about what everyone else is doing, their only concern is to do the best they can do. When did we get away from that in the regular ed. classrooms? When did it become wrong to just do the best you can do? Again, I can’t say that I understand the whole testing thing, but I know that my children are in Kindergarten and we do our best not to stress them out with expectations. This is especially hard when you know your children are special, and have gifts that you want to enhance. Right now we preach to them, just as our parents did to us, to just do the best they can do.
My boys love sports, and are pretty darn good at multiple sports. They are also very advanced in their studies. My wife and I have to be very careful about when we push them, and when we don’t. One thing I know is that if one of them was taken out of their PE class it would really bother them. I could honestly see them being defiant about it. How is them getting upset about not being in a certain class going to help them want to use that time doing something else? Especially when they are growing up learning how important Physical Education is to a student.
I know this post is long, but I can only hope that it reaches some people that will continue to advocate for a cause that is special to my heart.
I could write all day on this topic….Please leave your thoughts…..
