2006 Salt Lake City AAHPERD Convention

Although now back home in Pacific Northwest, I’m writing this from Salt Lake City, the site of this year’s AAHPERD national convention. Together with several thousand colleagues in the allied fields of health, physical education, recreation, and dance, many of the pelinks4u editors and contributors spent the last week of April attending presentations and catching up with new developments in our area. Here’s a sampling of what I learned from just a few of the presentations I attended, plus some thoughts on where technology belongs in physical education teaching.

Physical Activity – How Much is Enough?

Two presentations, one by Cooper Institute CEO Steve Blair, the other by Harvard Medical School researcher I Min-Lee; addressed the amount of physical activity (PA) needed to reduce the risk of heart disease. Apparently, the evidence is now pretty clear that 30 minutes daily of moderate intensity PA is sufficient for normal weight adults to reduce the risk of heart disease and related chronic diseases. Both Blair and Lee also noted that research showed that it was okay to accumulate the total of 30 minutes in shorter bouts spread throughout the day. Increases in total activity duration and intensity seemed to show even greater risk reduction, but the simple message of both presenters was that doing something active was better than doing nothing! One important caveat however, was that formerly overweight individuals probably needed 60-90minutes of daily PA to prevent weight gain.

Blair added that he believed resistance training brought added benefits, noting that strong muscles were important for sustaining good health. Blair also posed the question of whether it was better to be fat and fit, or lean and unfit. The data he suggested supported the former, adding that for many people weight control was a far tougher challenge than staying physically active. He concluded by pointing out our tendency to “engineer” physical activity out of our daily lives through technological innovations that are increasingly eliminating the need for physical exertion.

Janet Fulton from the CDC, and Jim Morrow from the University of North Texas, responded to Blair’s presentation with observations of their own. Fulton pointed out that the reduction of participation in school physical education seemed to have leveled out and she believed that we needed to examine “environmental interventions” to increase participation in PA. Morrow added a more disquieting note by stating that while research clearly showed that efforts to reduce smoking were succeeding, there was no evidence to indicate similar progress in promoting greater participation in PA. Adults continue to spend most of their leisure time in sedentary activities. Even worse, there is evidence that not only is children’s obesity continuing to increase, but proportionately it is growing faster among students in the lower school grades. Morrow’s observations are of course supported by recently reported predications that by 2010, approximately 50% of our students will be overweight.

For more information on the latest findings about physical activity see the newly updated report on the Shape of the Nation scheduled for release this month.

Active & Healthy Schools: A New Role for Physical Educators?

Earlier this year (see January Editorial), I suggested it was unrealistic for physical educators to assume responsibility for solving the obesity crisis. There’s simply not enough time available in PE. An hour a week (elementary schools) or even an hour a day (middle and high schools) is insufficient to counter the behavioral trends responsible for causing more and more of our students to become obese. I suggested that we needed to rethink the role of the school physical educator. At the convention I was therefore excited to learn about a new program entitled, Active & Healthy Schools that recently retired Arizona State University Professor, Bob Pangrazi is now promoting.

Over the years I’ve discovered that a Pangrazi presentation – regardless of topic – is always worth attending. Bob has a passion for physical education that is addictive. For many years, Bob has vigorously advocated refocusing our efforts away from measuring physical fitness and instead towards increasing children’s physical activity. Repeatedly, he has stated that research clearly shows fitness to be mostly genetically determined, and pointed out that it was unfair for children to suffer for poorly choosing their parents! In this presentation, he pointed to evidence that shows physical activity habits in childhood to be accurate predictors of adult physical activity patterns. He stated, “We have marginalized activity that is not of a high enough intensity…consequently activities such as walking are not encouraged.” This, he noted, was unfortunate because moderate level activity clearly DOES have a positive health benefit. To expect more, he noted, was unrealistic because most people are simply not interested or motivated towards high intensity physical activities. Because it’s possible for everyone to be active, when physical activity rather than physical fitness becomes the goal, ALL children can be successful.

Although Active & Healthy Schools is a commercial program, the concept was simple and adaptable to any school environment. In his Active & Healthy Schools presentation, Pangrazi outlined a program that targets increasing student physical activity before, during, and after school hours. I’m convinced that transforming the role of our public school physical educators is an idea whose time has come! We need to expand our role in schools to become not just activity leaders but more importantly, as physical activity facilitators. As stated in NASPE Standard 3 (and by Clark Hetherington 84 years ago!), it’s not what our students do when they are with us that is most important, but rather what they are doing when we are not around.

Technology in PE: Where Does IT Belong?

One of the thrills of attending a national convention is finding out what’s new in our profession. For the past few years I’ve become especially intrigued with the ways that technology is impacting PE teaching. In cynical moments, I wonder who technology is benefiting most – the commercial companies producing it, or physical education teachers and public school students. It puzzles me how much of this gadgetry can truly be implemented into PE classes without reducing the time students spend being physical active. Arguments that various types of technology motivate students to be more physically active are persuasive, but I fear that our students may end up becoming so addicted to this artificial support that they will become unable to stay active without it. This fear was most recently highlighted to me when my college-aged freshman son claimed he was not able to work out until (with Dad’s help) he could purchase an Apple ipod. He viewed music (and of course an ipod), as essential to distract him from the monotony of exercise. My suggestion that part of the joy of exercise was feeling its impact on the body was soundly rejected.

Perhaps the simple fact that technology motivates some students to engage in physical activity who would otherwise choose to be sedentary is sufficient reason to embrace its inclusion in PE. And certainly some types of technology are now providing us with objective data to validate the impact we are truly having on kids. Dr. Kevin Taylor, from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, suggested to me that in this era of obesity obsession, and widely expressed doubts about the effectiveness of school PE programs, technology offered us the greatest hope for justifying our presence in schools.

What do you think? Like a double-edged sword, in the wrong hands some kinds of technology can reduce activity time. And with our elementary students only getting about an hour of PE weekly we simply can’t afford to waste time and limited financial resources on gadgets and gizmos that provide our students with little more than short-term entertainment. Let’s face it; running laps to begin every PE class hardly becomes much more inspiring when wearing a heart rate monitor or pedometer. The PEP grants have presented many districts with wonderful opportunities to create PE programs that truly impact student health. But I wonder how much of the expensive technology that is being purchased is actually being used and is making a difference to our students? And what’s going to happen when grants run out and the equipment needs replacing? Grant or no grant, we need to remain vigilant about focusing on what’s best for our students and what will cause them to truly embrace active and healthy lifestyles long after they leave our programs.

Renewal

Today, leaving the awards event that celebrated student Majors-of-the-Year from 211 colleges and universities nationwide, one of my PE majors asked me what motivated me to regularly attend conventions and workshops. As this month’s musings perhaps reflect, the Salt Lake City convention, like other conventions and workshops, provided those of us who were fortunate enough to attend with the opportunity to reflect both upon our own professional beliefs and upon the direction that Physical Education appears headed. It’s inconceivable to me how I could remain excited about physical education teaching if I didn’t get outside my classroom, listen to others, and spend time in the company of fellow teaching professionals. Conventions and workshops are a vital part of the process of renewal that we all need to schedule into our school year to counter the challenges we face daily in our schools and in our profession. Thanks to everyone who helped to host the convention and to those who attended. And if you weren’t able to attend this year’s national convention I encourage you to begin figuring out ways you can participate next year in Baltimore, March 13-17.

Sincerely,

Steve, pelinks4u publisher