Schools grapple with the issues of nutrition, exercise

Think back to physical education or gym class and images of dodgeball, basketball, kickball and other sports might come to mind.

But that is changing — drastically — as physical education teachers and experts are trying to find ways to help their students become active.

“Those kinds of activities are really inappropriate,” said Jim Brown, physical education teacher at Slate Creek Elementary in Newton. “We don’t want activities that leave kids on the sidelines or waiting in line.”

For Brown, it’s not about political correctness. It’s not about whether his student will grow up to be a star basketball player or the team manager.

“We want everyone out there and active,” Brown said. “We want to help young people enjoy physical activity now and for a lifetime. We have a saying — ‘No child left on their behind.’”

The No Child Left Behind Act, which tests kids in academic areas, has led to some schools cutting physical education programs — even recess.

According to the National Parent Teacher Association during the past decade, the number of U.S. high school students attending daily physical education classes dropped from 42 percent to 29 percent. Suite101.com reports 7 percent of U.S. schools have no recess for students as young as second grade and 13 percent of schools have no recess for students in sixth grade.

“Sadly enough, a lot of school districts don’t provide PE daily for students,” said Vicky Worrell of Emporia State University, one of a team who has created a new PE curriculum. “The CDC says kids need to be active for up to 60 minutes per day.”

At the elementary school level in Newton, students do get P.E. classes and recess on a daily basis.

But at Newton High School, things change dramatically. The school requires 1.5 credits of physical education during a four-year span. That translates into five semesters during the eight semesters a student is at NHS.

“That’s been in place for about 10 years,” said school nurse and wellness committee member Karen Lehman. “It is possible that with electives a student could take PE all four years.”

Lehman said she considers physical education part of academics — and the wellness committee at the high school has begun offering Seminar Exercise Time, a period when students can go to the gym or weight room and use exercise equipment during seminar time.

This year, between 50 and 60 students have been participating in “SET time” each week.

“And kids are not going in there and chatting,” Lehman said. “They are working and exercising.”

The No Child Left Behind Act has no requirements for physical education within it — at least not yet.

There is a movement in Washington to tie physical education to the act.

“That would be huge,” Brown said. “Right now the entire focus is on reading and math. We don’t have any testing or benchmarks for physical education within No Child Left Behind.”

So much so that part of a physical education teacher’s job also is to find ways to teach reading and math during physical education.

During a normal PE time at Slate Creek, students spend the first few moments reading the directions of what they are going to be doing during PE. Reading and math are front and center during PE.

“It’s not just roll out the balls and tell kids to go play anymore,” Brown said. “And that’s a good thing.”

But Brown and Worrell say the reverse needs to be true as well — classroom teachers need to incorporate physical education in their reading and mathematics instruction.

Brown pointed out that during physical activity, the entire brain is engaged — rather than only the right or left half.

“We know from research that a student who has physical activity associated with teaching will remember concepts better,” Worrell said. “It’s juggling balls, bouncing balls on the ground. It’s having them up out of their chairs. That’s huge, especially for kids that have reading issues.”

Worrell said some teachers are doing more than others to incorporate activity into classroom instruction and, in her classes, she teaches future teachers it’s an important aspect of education.

“I am stressing kids learn better when they are physically active,” Worrell said. “They remember things better than when they only sit there working on a worksheet.”

And it can be what looks easy. For example, take your left hand and put it on your nose, and right hand on your left ear. Now switch the two, right hand to nose, left hand to right ear, several times in succession.

That action engages both sides of the brain, creating blood flow, which helps fuel memory and learning, Brown said.

“And it’s not as easy as it looks,” Brown said. “It helps wake up the brain.”

Slate Creek Principal Kevin Neuenswander said he tries to help teachers remember that simple action for when students are starting to tire and lose focus.

He also said the school has a full recess schedule and tries to make sure students have access to as much of that schedule as possible.

“If a student didn’t finish their homework, we try and get them to at least half of recess,” Neuenswander said. “Physical activity is important — it wakes up the brain.”

But just like everything else schools are trying to teach students, help needs to come from home when it comes to physical activity.

“That can be a challenge,” Worrell said. “We know that sometimes being outside is not safe without an adult. I think you can challenge kids to, when they are watching television, to do jumping jacks during commercials. We need to get people to incorporate physical activity in their daily life, and we have to get people to think differently.”