While there are those who feel that a school's athletic program is physical education's best public relations tool, I am not one of them. Call me a dinosaur, but I loved when interscholastic athletic programs were for a school's athletic elite who needed an extra zing to continue to grow. And I loved having an after school intramural program for everyone so they could play what they were learning to love in physical education.

Over the years, the interscholastic program has usurped intramurals. Intramural programs have disappeared. I venture to say that many readers do not know what they are, nor do they know what it is like to start a new unit where most everyone in class is a neophyte and few are really good at what they are about to teach. The growth of interscholastic and home grown sports leagues has lead to the great divide.

Many of our students come to school as specialists in one sport, and they are either wary of trying something new, or so humbled by the perceived ability of their classmates that they fear not meeting expectations - theirs, their classmates and their teachers - and simply become too afraid to participate. If we are not sensitive, if we do not have methods to put our students' fear to rest, whether their fears are warranted or not, we wind up with lackluster class participation and a total lack of enthusiasm for what is going on in class.

We want our program to speak for itself. Kids should be active. They should love what they are doing. They should walk out of the gym talking about the activity they just did, the play they made for their team - an assist, a block, a score - how everyone applauded them, and how excited they are. They should be singing the songs they just exercised or danced to. They should be patting each other on the back for each other's achievements, growing their skills, their social network, and their self confidence, and they should be bugging their family and friends to be active so they can be healthy and lead long and happy lives.

Clearly, they should walk into gym happy to be coming and sad to be leaving. If we get this from our kids, we have already done most of the work of promoting our program. Promoting starts at the grass roots - with the kids. After that is in place, we should let parents see that their kids are active, happy, and learning.

Here are suggestions for showcasing your program and encouraging parents to become your promoters.

	On Open School Night give a mini participation class to parents who come.
	Conclude your dance and gymnastics units with a Gym Show, involving most of the kids in a way that makes them and their parents proud.
	Hold an endurance activity that includes parents and kids. Give access to measurement tools and statistical charts.
	Share current information with your classes, at least once a week, that illustrates the health values of being active. Ask the kids to share the info with their parents.
	Inform boards, administrators, and parents of the general fitness and health issues afflicting the student population.
	Make yourself and your program a model of professionalism and humanism.

Isobel Kleinman
Secondary Section Editor

Kids and Their Bones: A Guide for Parents

Typically, when parents think about their children’s health, they don’t think about their bones. But building healthy bones by adopting healthy nutritional and lifestyle habits in childhood is important to help prevent osteoporosis and fractures later in life.

Osteoporosis, the disease that causes bones to become less dense and more prone to fractures, has been called “a pediatric disease with geriatric consequences,” because the bone mass attained in childhood and adolescence is an important determinant of lifelong skeletal health. The health habits your kids are forming now can make, or literally break, their bones as they age. Read more.

What Are the Bones and What Do They Do?
The human skeleton has 206 bones. Our bones begin to develop before birth. When the skeleton first forms, it is made of flexible cartilage, but within a few weeks it begins the process of ossification (pronounced: ah-suh-fuh-kay-shun). Ossification is when the cartilage is replaced by hard deposits of calcium phosphate and stretchy collagen, the two main components of bone. It takes about 20 years for this process to be completed. Find out more. ALSO, read Growth Plate Injuries. Find out all about growth plates. This is a very interesting article!

Calcium, cardio key to kids' bone growth - Calcium is needed for bone formation, and weight-bearing exercise strengthens bones. You can take all the calcium you want, but if you don’t do any weight-bearing activity, you don't have good bone health. Read more.

WEIGH YOUR WORDS

GUARD YOUR TEMPERAMENT

COUNT TO TEN BEFORE SPEAKING IF YOU ARE ANGRY

TAKE CARE WHEN YOU’RE KIDDING AROUND THAT NO CHILD IS THE OBJECT OF YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR

We have no script. Actors, commentators, and presidents do. They have said some incredible things. As teachers we say so many things, but there is no telling how much slips out that is not meant to.

THEY SAID WHAT?
(You have to laugh, but it makes you wonder what might have slipped out of your mouth)

Top nine comments made by NBC sports commentators during the 2004 Summer Olympics that they would like to take back:

SHOULD YOU EXERCISE WHEN HURT?

According to Dr. James Weinstein of Dartmouth College, and other leading sports medicine specialists, the typical advice of resting to treat injuries is "outdated and counterproductive." It is better to use common sense. If an injury is a result of doing too much, cut back or cross train until the pain is gone. If the injury is a serious one, like a torn ligament or muscle or a broken bone, stopping altogether makes no sense and can be the worst thing to do.

In "When it is OK to Exercise Hurt" (NY Times, 1/1/07) Dr. William Roberts says that "injured tissue heals better if it's under some sort of stress." While the typical advice of rest is safe, if the injury is not serious, resting usually prolongs recovery time.

Doctors find that forcing athletes to rest by casting them for two or three months results in atrophy and stiffness that requires months of therapy for their strength and range of motion to return. And the pain from inflammation actually improves if the sufferer keeps moving.

EXERCISE AT ANY AGE

Studies of people aged 66-94, who either walked and/or did resistance training twice a week for 16 weeks, showed improved systolic blood pressure, upper and lower body strength, hip and shoulder flexibility, agility, balance, and coordination. This was true of even the participants who used canes and walkers.

CONFRONT OBESITY AND LACK OF EXERCISE

Did you know that babies born in the United States "are less likely to survive their first year than babies born in Slovenia?" In "Take a Hike" (NY Times, 1/31/06) Nicholas Kristof suggests that we confront obesity and a lack of exercise by building on ideas found in "Prescription for a Healthy Nation" (Farley T, Cohen DA, 2005). Among other things, some of the ideas include encouraging exercise breaks during the work day and expanding Physical Education. He says it is "ridiculous that schools have been cutting back on P.E. when students need more of it." Well said, don't you think?

Staying power puts fun back into fitness - Poor endurance can take all the fun out of physical activity for many children. Children can be helped to reverse this cycle. The key is improving endurance. Find out how.

A java jolt may boost, not wreck, your workout - Good news for java junkies: You don't have to skip your caffeine fix to get in a good workout - even in the hot summer months when coffee's widely believed to promote dehydration. What's more, a caffeinated beverage may actually help you exercise longer.

Little-known purging disorder is often missed - An Iowa researcher is studying a little-known eating disorder that some doctors may miss: purging disorder. Though similar to women with bulimia, patients who fit this description don't binge-eat. Yet they feel compelled to purge, usually by vomiting, even after eating only a small or normal amount of food. Find out more.

Powerful Girls Have Powerful bones - Lots of information on how to have strong bones. A great site for young people to learn about bone health. Also read Exercise and Stress Fractures in Teen Girls.

Why Some Kids Don't Like Teams - Team sports can help a child gain self-esteem, coordination, and general fitness, and help them learn how to work with other kids and adults. But some kids aren't natural athletes and they may tell you - directly or indirectly - that they just don't like sports. What then?

Inhalant Abuse is on the Rise - How many adults would bat an eyelash if they saw a teenager purchasing a can of air freshener or computer screen cleaner? How unusual is it on any given day to see a couple of 12-year-old girls in a grocery store, shelling out small change for a bottle of nail polish remover? Sadly, these actions are not always as innocent as they seem. American children and teenagers are abusing these and other everyday substances in numbers that should worry parents, teachers and others who care about kids. Find out more.

More Girls Try Taking Steroids to Tone Up - An alarming number of American girls, some as young as 9, are using bodybuilding steroids - not necessarily to get an edge on the playing field, but to get the toned, sculpted look of models and movie stars, experts say. Read more.

Explaining a Learning Disability to Parents and Teens

A learning disability is a difficulty learning certain specific kinds of information even though the ability to learn in general remains intact. A learning disability affects how language is processed in the brain, both the words we hear and the ones we say. And it affects how pictures are handled, both the ones we read and the ones we write.

A disability can create difficulty for kids in school. Reading, writing, spelling, math, and any number of other subjects can be arduous with a learning disability. Out of school, they interfere with learning on the job and with oral and written communication. Find out more.

Violence and Teenagers: What Should Parents Know? Parents often ask me what can be done to protect their children from the potential effects of violence. As the father of four, I share their worry. This is a complex topic, involving socioeconomic, political, behavioral and religious aspects of life. In this article, I will share concepts about violence and teenagers for you to consider as you raise your teens in a hostile world.

Charles Caleb Colton: Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied.

Jean Paul: No rest is worth anything except the rest that is earned.

Hippocrates: Old people have fewer diseases than the young, but their diseases never leave them.

Robert Orben: Older people shouldn't eat health food, they need all the preservatives they can get.

Voltaire: Rest is a good thing, but boredom is its brother.

Ashleigh Brilliant: Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest.

Fred Perry: Tactics, fitness, stroke ability, adaptability, experience, and sportsmanship are all necessary for winning.

Goethe: Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity.