PARENTS AND TEENS SAY THEY LIKE PHYS ED
(Cox News Service Release)

Sunday, April 2. c.2000 Cox News Service

Schools aren't providing as much physical education as most adults and teenagers want, judging from a national poll by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education:

* 81 percent of adults and 71 percent of teens agreed that "daily physical education should be mandatory in schools."

* 47 percent of teens said they don't have a daily phys ed class.

* Teens split among 47 percent who said they have "the right amount" of physical education, 42 percent who said they would take "more" if available, and 9 percent who said they would take "less" if possible.

* Teens said what they like most about phys ed class are the opportunity to have exercise (20 percent), getting fit (18 percent), having fun (16 percent) and the activities offered (16 percent). Only 6 percent said they don't like anything.

* Teens said what they dislike most about phys ed class are running (13 percent), boring activities (9 percent) and undressing and dressing for class (7 percent).

* Adults who believe they are not getting enough physical activity blamed their job (33 percent), lack of interest or motivation (27 percent), lack of time (19 percent) or health problems (13 percent).

* Teens who believe they are not getting enough physical activity blamed lack of time (24 percent), doing homework (19 percent) and lack of interest or motivation (13 percent).

* Adults who think their own children aren't getting enough physical activity blamed lack of interest or motivation (24 percent), lack of time (13 percent) and watching television (13 percent).

The phone poll of 1,017 adults and 500 teens aged 12 to 17 was conducted Feb. 3-7 by Opinion Research Corp. International of Princeton, N.J. The margin of sampling error was 3 percent for all adults, and 4 percent for the teens and for the parents (those within the adult group who had children 6 to 17).

PHYS ED ON THE INTERNET

* Worldwide trends in physical education. http://www.icsspe.org
* Arguments for federal funding of physical education. http://www.weneedpe.com
* Index of major physical education Web sites
http://www.healthfinder.gov/hottopics.htm, click on "physical activity."

PHYS ED TEACHERS FIGHT AGAINST OBSOLESCENCE

For release Sunday, April 2.

By ANDREW MOLLISON

c.2000 Cox News Service

ORLANDO, Fla. Embattled physical education teachers are leading an uphill struggle to reverse the gradual disappearance of their classes from American schools. With fewer than 30 percent of high school students now taking daily phys ed classes, many worry that the lack of activity could be making the next generation of American adults less healthy.

Last month, the U.S. Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., reported that while its new recruits are "smarter and more mentally agile," they "do not have the physical fitness foundation of their predecessors."

The California Department of Education reported in January that nearly 80 percent of the 1 million students tested in grades 5, 7 and 9 failed to meet minimum standards on the "Fitnessgram," a simple, widely used test. For example, many could not reach back with one hand over their shoulder and the other under their elbow and touch fingertips behind their back.

"I think we're paying a tremendous price for the rollback in physical education," Surgeon General David Satcher told the convention of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance here last month.

"One of the greatest contributions you can make to an adult's health is to get them started as a child on a lifetime of physical activity." "We believe that at least 300,000 people die each year in this country because of physical inactivity and poor nutrition, which go together," he said. "Others become unnecessarily dependent on others in their old age."

More than 5,000 physical educators who convened here with scholars and business leaders agreed that as a first step to reverse the trend, they will try to convince Congress to adopt the Physical Education for Progress bill.

The PEP bill would authorize grants of $400 million over five years to local school systems for equipment, support, curriculum development and training of staffs and teachers for physical education.

"It's not just to keep the next generation from becoming obese," the bill's sponsor, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said in his Washington office. "The kids who are causing all this violence and bullying, they're not getting the organized physical activity where you let off steam and learn about things like waiting your turn and not winning all the time."

Stevens, the powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, will offer the bill as an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act when it reaches the Senate floor by early May. While Stevens has 18 Senate co-sponsors for the bill, opposition by fiscal conservatives makes its prospects uncertain, supporters said.

"I'm a Republican, but there's a group of Republicans, they're very bull-headed, they say they don't want to have any new legislation on anything," lamented Jim Baugh, president of Wilson Sporting Goods Co. He said he had personally visited 20 senators on behalf of the PEP bill.

If the bill does become law and then obtains funding, it would be the first new federal law on physical education since 1989. But while such a victory would be a morale-booster for physical educators, financially it would be only a drop in the bucket, an average of about $1,125 a year for each of the nation's 88,000 public schools. So over the long haul, the physical educators and their allies hope to revise state and local priorities. They want the United States to continue producing world-class athletes. But they are more concerned about the vast bulk of our children who grow up indifferent to physical activity, passive sports fans more comfortable on the couch than on the field.

At their Orlando convention, physical educators were bombarded with warnings that physical education could follow driver's education out of the public schools and into the world of pay-your-own-way luxury. Almost all baby boomers were required to take physical education throughout their school years, when policy-makers still recalled the appalling levels of physical fitness that hampered recruiting during World War II.

Those who enjoyed physical education then are among its strongest supporters now. But it is not unusual for a school board or legislature to be dominated by boomers who hated those military-style gym classes.

"I'm in that age group, so I know what too many decision-makers are remembering, the single row, the roll calls, competition, calisthenics, getting picked last," said Jennifer Reeves of Tucson, who taught physical education to children for 20 years before moving to the University of Arizona to teach physical educators.

"Too many of them don't know that now we're exposing children to a variety of skills and activities that they can use and enjoy all of their life," she said.

After the suspension of the military draft in the Nixon administration, state enforcement of mandatory physical education laws began to slack off. Classes became shorter and rarer. Waivers allow many students to substitute varsity sports, cheerleading, or music, or work on the school newspaper or Web page.

Market research by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association indicates that participation fell below 70 percent in the 1980s and below 60 percent in the 1990s.

The decline is especially steep after children leave sixth grade, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control:

* Though 42 percent of high school students were taking daily physical education in 1991, that had dropped to 27 percent by 1997.

* Only 17 percent of middle schools and 2 percent of high schools required all students to take daily physical education in 1997.

* Illinois, cited in 1997 as the only state still vigorously enforcing a strict physical education mandate for all students in all grades, now has joined the 49 who slacked off. Chicago school officials estimate that they will save $16 million a year as the result of a recent court decision approving their plan to change physical education to an elective in 11th and 12th grades.

Those who are unswayed by the concerns of Satcher about health, Stevens about violence or the Marines about finding fit recruits might be impressed by the potential economic losses, suggested Gudrun Doll-Tepper, president of the International Council on Sport Science and Physical Education.

Her nonprofit council's worldwide study, financed by the International Olympic Committee and released last November, established that "every dollar invested in physical education saves $3.20 in medical costs."

In addition, firms ranging from ski resorts to wholesalers of athletic footwear lose potential sales. "In Britain, for example, the leisure industry employes far more people than the car industry," said Margaret Talbot, president of International Girls and Women in Sports and Physical Education. When her group mentioned that to British parents and education officials, "that woke them up," she said.

The U.S. decline reflects a global trend, according to the international report. The experts concluded that in almost all countries:
* Physical education requirements that exist on paper are feebly enforced.
* Much time is wasted in talking instead of activity in physical education classes.
* Most teachers in the primary grades have very little training.
* Morale among professional physical educators is low.

Talbot said the good news is that new approaches are probably more important than higher spending. "I think we have a lot to learn from less developed countries, because of the way they deliver with almost nothing," she said. "One of the best physical education classes I ever saw was in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with 45 children and one balloon," she said. "The children were active and involved and learning and enjoying themselves, and that is teaching at its very best."

(Andrew Mollison's e-mail address is andym@)coxnews.com)

Learn more about the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) at www.aahperd.org, the web site of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (AAHPERD). NASPE is the largest of AAHPERDís six national associations. A nonprofit membership organization of over 25,000 professionals in the fitness and physical activity fields, NASPE is the only national association dedicated to strengthening basic knowledge about sport and physical education among professionals and the general public. Putting that knowledge into action in schools and communities across the nation is critical to improved academic performance, social reform and the health of individuals.

(Information provided courtesy of www.pelinks4u.org)

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