Word: pe
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...PE enthusiasts feel their approach is the best hope for the future, and it's easy to see why. Teachers don't discourage competitive team sports, but they don't allow any kid to sit and watch either. A lesson on basketball skills might involve groups of two-on-two. High schoolers can choose from such activities as Ultimate Frisbee, mountain biking and white-water rafting. Sportsmanship is rewarded; humiliation is unacceptable. Whereas old gym teachers often saw PE as a way to scout varsity jocks, new ones teach a range of cognitive and physical topics, including muscle development, nutrition...
...Jersey PE teacher Andy Schmidt, named a 2000 Teacher of the Year by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), pioneered the "movement education" program for younger kids at the A.B. Smith School in Hillsdale, N.J. (Think giggling nine-year-olds chasing one another around the room, checking their pulses, flexing biceps at a wellness "station," then chatting about everything from cholesterol to protein to hamstrings.) Now at the area's middle school, he asks older kids to take the same skills further. "I have the best job in the world," says Schmidt. "Not everyone is going...
...benefits can go beyond fun. Ryan Cooper, a seventh-grader in Gardner, Kans., used to get teased by classmates for being shy and overweight. During his four years with grade-school PE teacher KaCee Chambers, whom he credits with encouraging and motivating him, he went from not being able to do a single pull-up to setting the school record. Says Ryan, who also lost 10% of his body fat: "I don't take anything from anyone now!" In Naperville, Lawler recently detected unusually high cholesterol levels in one three-sport middle school athlete, who got medical attention and altered...
Despite the obvious need for and benefit of PE, the battle to restore it to schools is still very much uphill. "There are only six hours in the average student's day," says NASPE's executive director, Judith Young. "We're often considered an elective, so now we find ourselves competing with technology and language...
Furthermore, schools are generally not held accountable for their students' physical fitness. Some states, like Missouri, New York and South Carolina, are beginning to implement assessments of PE skills that would be part of the public report card. "What are most schools now rewarded for?" asks CDC health scientist Howell Wechsler, a contributor to the President's report. "Achievement in language arts, math, social studies...