Grade school was clearly traumatic for the baby boomers.
First there was new math, in which children learned the principles of mathematics instead of memorizing results. Ask someone who studied new math what 6 x 4 is and they might answer 30 because with new math they might have been working in base 8 instead of base 10, in which the answer would be 24.
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| (Anita Dufalla, Post-Gazette) |
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Now that their children have been spared new math, there are movements under way for a "New P.E."
Seems the same people who were traumatized by math were also disturbed by dodge ball, a once-popular game that is only educational if players have to stone someone to death later in life.
Gym class, as it used to be called, is relatively new to America's schools. Laura Ingalls Wilder was not out on the prairie playing kickball.
When the Presidential Physical Fitness Awards began in the schools in 1966, students were suddenly being timed running 600 yards, hanging by their hands from bars and doing as many sit-ups as they could in 2 minutes. Gym class, for much of the time, was a steady regimen of mindless calisthenics.
"We would line up for roll call, man, it was just like being in the military," said Tim McCord, 45, of Titusville in Crawford County. In those days gym class was geared toward the more athletic students. "We did a wide range of things. Either you were good at them or you weren't."
Although he was short, he was one of the more athletic members of his high school class and was on the golf team.
Then he became a gym teacher -- one modeled on the way he was taught. He graded students on their skills in various sports and gave physical fitness tests.
"Our whole curriculum basically catered to the athletes in our schools," he said. "I know that some of the things that I did caused ridicule for some of my students."
He became the Health and Physical Education Department Chair for the Titusville schools in 1997 and was attending a lecture on the use of heart monitors in PE when he realized there was a better way to teach gym.
By using heart monitors "we can level the playing field in our classes so that every student could be assessed based on their efforts," he said.
He went to Naperville, Ill., which was the first school district to institute a new curriculum called P.E. 4 Life, a program backed by a national nonprofit organization aimed at encouraging children to develop healthy, lifelong habits. The focus is on effort, not performance.
Then the Titusville school district agreed to spend $30,000 to convert a storage area in the middle school into a wellness center with exercise bikes, stair climbers, rowing machines, elliptical trainers and weight-lifting equipment. Thirty-five heart rate monitors also were purchased.
The first day with the new equipment McCord sent a class out for a jog with the heart monitors. He told the children to keep their heart rates at 140 beats per minute to ensure an aerobic workout.
One athletic student ignored McCord's instructions, running around the track and lapping a heavier student. McCord, who previously would have chided the slower student, instead yelled at the faster student because he was bringing his heart rate up too high. The slower student had kept his monitor at 140 beats per minute. McCord patted him on the back and told him to keep up the good work.
"The look on that kid's face when I told him he was doing a good job. . . " McCord said. "I knew we were on the right track."
Information from the heart monitors can be downloaded onto computers to monitor their fitness levels. They have also alerted McCord to students with potential heart problems that needed medical attention.
The program expanded to the high school the next year and the schools may include the fitness training down to fourth grade in the elementary levels. PE also is available every day.
Students are graded on effort not their ability. New software provides reports on their cardiovascular endurance, blood pressure, strength, flexibility and body composition.
P.E. 4 Life, was started by Jim Baugh, the chief executive officer of Wilson Sporting Goods. The organization is working with parents and teachers to change PE curriculums and is lobbying state governments to require daily PE classes. Representatives from more than 200 schools have visited the Naperville schools.
Pennsylvania has no specific requirements for how much time children should spend in physical education. Instead the state is finalizing a list of standards for health and fitness.
"State guidelines are general and school districts make them specific to their populations," said Sarah Jameela Martin, who is in charge of the physical education curriculum for the Pittsburgh Public Schools
"P.E. is for everyone and that is what makes it different from competitive sports, which are for the athletes," said Brenda VanLengen, the P.E. 4 Life spokeswoman.
In trying to get PE incorporated in schools every day, "one of the biggest hurdles we face is there are so many people who had bad experiences" when they were in gym class.
Montour and West Mifflin are among local school districts moving toward the P.E. 4 Life model.
Debbie Hunter, the department chair for health and physical education at Montour High School, has visited Titusville to see if it can replicate the program.
Montour has 24 heart monitors that the students use in aerobics, step aerobics, cardio kick-boxing and power walking.
Even though Montour is moving toward fitness, it won't eliminate teaching baseball and basketball, Hunter said, because some students enjoy competition.
The district is trying to include more in the curriculum so that everyone can participate at their highest level.
"It's a whole new idea," she said. "It's very exciting to me."
Ann Belser can be reached at abelser@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699.
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