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Reflections of the Past, Visions for the Future
Written by: Steve
Jefferies, NASPE President
(Presented at the 125th AAHPERD national
convention in Indianapolis, March 2010)
First, let me
say how much I appreciate this opportunity
to reflect on the physical education
and sport professions since 1985. Second,
I have to admit that I find it rather
depressing that I am now old enough
to qualify to speak on this historical
topic. But, as my still functioning
portfolio testifies, I did attend the
100th convention. Today, I will do my
best to briefly address the three questions
we were posed.
1. How consistent are current conditions in relation to the predictions of the national association presidents in 1985 at the 100th anniversary of the Alliance? (published in JOPERD, April 1985)
In 1985, then
NASPE President Mary Lou Thornburg suggested
that relationships between the national
associations were the predominant Alliance
problem that needed refining. Well,
Mary Lou, we may be slow, but I think
we are getting there!
Mary Lou pointed
out many challenges in the1985 Alliance
that persist today. It reminds me of
the way school PE curriculums typically
evolve. Physical educators love to introduce
their students to new physical activities,
so they continually add more and more
different activities but never take
any out. They end up spending less and
less time trying to do more and more.
But they then discover that in trying
to do all things, they risk failing
at their main mission - preparing kids
to be physically active for a lifetime.
The same is
true with today’s Alliance. We
are attempting to serve multiple audiences
from birth to death. We are attempting
to represent multiple professions. It
is an admirable goal, but one that is
difficult if not impossible to achieve
in an era of diminishing resources and
competing organizations, many of which
are attempting to service the professional
needs of individuals who in the past
chose to be members of the Alliance.
In trying to do so much, we find ourselves
frustrated, dissatisfied with our overall
success, and witnessing a decline in
membership. Like Mary Lou, I believe
it is timely for members of the Alliance
to engage in retrospection. The good
news is that this is presently occurring
both in the Alliance and also in the
national associations.
2. What
do you think will be the trends, issues,
and professional needs in your profession
in 2035?
Most of us recognize
that the world is changing faster than
ever before. The last 25 years have
witnessed monumental political, social,
economic, scientific, medical, and technological
change. Changes around the world make
it highly unlikely that the United States
will return to the level of dominance
that it enjoyed 25 years ago. Simultaneously,
health problems, mostly due to poor
diets and sedentary lifestyles will
continue to worsen in this country and
worldwide.
The current
economic recession has severely exacerbated
these challenges, and it’s uncertain
when or even if we will return to the
relative stability Americans enjoyed
for much of the past 25 years. Today,
all of the Alliance professions face
the paradox of declining financial support
for their work, while their programs
have never been so urgently needed.
After thousands of years of development,
one conclusion is clear: The human body
was designed to move. The unfortunate
“good” news is that today’s
crisis is only going to get worse until
lifestyles change. Declining health
will eventually result in a security
crisis among military and police services
that the government will not be able
to ignore.
We know that
young people today are less healthy
than their parents were at the same
age. We also know that 2/3 of today’s
adults are overweight or obese. As today’s
youth become adults the train is accelerating
towards the end of the track. Tomorrow’s
young adults will be less able to provide
service to the growing and aging baby-boomer
population, and older adults will find
themselves called to care for their
ailing middle-aged children.
There will be
social chaos among families and an escalation
of health care costs that will trivialize
numbers fretted upon in current debates.
But - as I noted - the worse things
get, the more vital our professional
services will become. Someday soon,
it will be acknowledged that prevention
is vital to stopping this social and
economic derailment. Someday soon, it
will be proposed that the focus of health
improvement needs to begin with children.
And someday soon, it will be recognized
that school physical and health educators
are best qualified to lead the charge
in getting kids to lead healthier and
more physically active lifestyles.
3. What
will the Alliance and your association
need to do to meet the needs of the
profession in 25-years.
As I noted earlier,
as we continue to engage in professional
soul searching, it seems logical that
the Alliance must consider narrowing
its focus on whom it is representing
and whom it is trying to influence.
As a national association, NASPE’s
current focus is primarily on children
and young people in K-12 schools and
higher education. Responding to changing
educational trends will remain an ongoing
professional challenge for NASPE. Peter
Cortese of AAHE noted 25 years ago the
threat to health education posed by
the “back to the basics”
movement in public education. Since
then, we have witnessed growing pressure
for academic accountability that school
administrators have used to justify
program cuts to physical and health
education and sports.
Currently, we
remain hopeful that the new enactment
of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act (called “No Child Left Behind”
by the previous Administration) will
allow our professions the chance to
reestablish the value that we bring
to schools, not only for health reasons,
but for the benefits we contribute to
children’s academic learning and
social and emotional development. A
relatively new trend that has been emerging,
primarily in response to obesity concerns,
is the creation of a school climate
that embraces healthy living and physical
activity as integral to the school day.
Because most K-12 public schools have
a physical educator on staff, these
individuals are uniquely positioned
to provide leadership for such programs.
However, to do so will require a change
in the expectations that schools currently
have for physical educators and the
way we prepare them.
It may also
change the way that schools, the public,
and we in the profession think about
“physical education.” Instead
of a class taught in a gym, physical
education may be re-conceptualized as
the “process” by which students
become educated physically. As such
the new “physical education”
will embrace physical activity, dance,
sports, health concepts, and the instructional
movement class that students receive
currently known as physical education.
Interestingly, a 28-year old physical
educator from Stanford University, Thomas
Wood, said much the same thing in 1893:
Physical education must have an
aim as broad as education itself and
as noble and inspiring as human life.
The great thought in physical education
is…to make the physical contribute
its full share to the life of the individual.
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