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Taking care of PE business… 
Taking care of business every day,
Taking care
of business every way;
I've been taking care of business, it's all
mine,
Taking care of business and working overtime.
Work out! - (Bachman-Turner
Overdrive - no.2)
If you've been in the physical education business
for some time you're pretty familiar with issues
that continue to thwart our effectiveness: lack
of respect from administrators and fellow teachers;
big classes and small budgets; reductions in
staffing and teaching time; scheduling conflicts,
and more. Some teachers confront these challenges
and seek solutions; others resign themselves
to a second-rate status, apparently accepting
that physical educators simply "don’t
get NO respect."
It's been many years since I was full time
in a public school, and easy for me to be critical.
"Walk in my shoes!" would probably
be a fair response to criticisms I choose to
cast. However, it puzzles me to see physical
educators clearly disillusioned with their jobs,
and yet willing to endure years of dissatisfaction
without at least attempting to do something
about it. Which leads me to the point of this
start-of-the-new-academic-year editorial, "Who
is responsible for taking care of PE 'business'?"
Some years ago I interviewed Don Hellison,
and we talked about exemplary physical education
programs. Don observed that - with rare exceptions
- "good" physical education programs
would always be supported. His point was that
school administrators would be foolish not to
support physical education programs that kids
love and parents believe are important. Among
the many outstanding qualities of the teachers
in these programs is that they understand they
have to be more than energetic, motivated, and
knowledgeable teachers. They also have to be
physical education advocates.
We don't do much in our professional preparation
programs to prepare our graduates to promote
physical education. They probably start out
with enough to think about, rather than taking
on responsibility for professional advocacy.
But what about the rest of us; those of us who
have several years of teaching under our belts
and now have time to recognize the professional
challenges noted earlier? What if anything are
we doing?
Advocacy begins in our schools. If we aren't
advocating for quality physical education practices
in our schools, who do we think is going to
do it for us? If administrators aren't supportive
of our programs, surely it's naïve for
us to expect something different unless we educate
them? It may not be an easy task, especially
in the current No-Child-Left-Behind
climate of academic testing and score reporting.
But unless we promote our programs, and the
academic as well as the health, social, and
emotional benefits of physical education, it
shouldn't surprise anyone to see us left behind.
Like it or not it's all about politics, and
simply complaining about a lack of respect,
while doing little to gain it, is not going
to get us anywhere.
But professional advocacy has to go beyond
our schools too. Decisions affecting our schools,
and our physical education programs, are being
made at state and national levels. And, similar
to our schools, at both of these levels we have
to be participants not passive spectators. Somebody
has to be right there, when legislation is being
discussed and voted on, that has potential to
positively or negatively impact physical education.
As an example of one of our greatest successes
consider the PEP grants. From 2001-2007 more
than $275 million has been awarded, and every
state in the union has benefited. Hundreds of
school districts nationwide have enjoyed grants
averaging more than a quarter of a million dollars
each. How many of the teachers in the recipient
schools paused to wonder how this happened?
Well, it sure wasn't luck! Members of Congress didn't wake-up one morning 8 years ago, and come
up with the idea to invest millions in school physical education.
We benefited because professional and business
groups worked together to persuade legislators
that physical education was worth supporting.
Among the individuals involved were physical
education teachers who have chosen to become
involved with our state and national professional
associations.
If you are interested enough to be reading
this, I suspect you are probably one of those
physical educators whose professionalism extends
beyond your local school. But if not, I encourage
you to recognize that the future of our profession
depends on us all becoming better advocates.
It's neither fair nor effective to assume that
in our absence someone else will step in and
take care of our business. A lack of respect
for physical education in our schools is not
only likely, but inevitable if we don't support
advocacy.
 In
June, I had the opportunity to be part of our
national advocacy efforts. Representatives from
each of the 50 state AHPERD organizations spent
a day on Capital Hill meeting with senators
and representatives. Our mission was primarily
to ask them to consider supporting three key
physical education related bills: Extending
support for the PEP grants, including physical
education in the language of No
Child Left Behind through a bill called
the FIT
Kids Act, and passing a bill entitled
the PLAY
Every Day Act.
For many state AHPERD representatives it began
as a daunting task. With little or no previous
experience, entering the Senate and House chambers
charged with a political mission was intimidating.
But it turned out great. We all soon came to
realize that the power of our legislators comes
from the people they serve. They depend on us,
and want to do what they can to earn our continued
support. Fortunately, selling kids' health and
well-being is not a difficult task!
Of course, depending on personal and party
affiliation, the legislators were not all equally
receptive to the proposed legislation, but we
left them at least now aware of bills with the
potential to impact what eventually goes on
in our local school physical education programs.
And that was well worth doing.
If you are a member of our state and national
association you were a part of this advocacy
effort, because your membership dues supported
our efforts. Unfortunately, what's too bad is
that, nationwide, so many physical educators
don't support advocacy for their profession
through professional memberships. Why is this?
Our state membership dues are $25 a year and
national (NASPE) membership is only $125. It
can't be the cost. Heck, you can even pay national
dues quarterly, so it’s only $30+ every
three months. Every physical educator can afford
this, and yet the vast majority choose not to.
About 400,000 individuals are teaching physical
education classes in the nation's schools. Only
about 1 in 20 support physical education advocacy
through joining NASPE. State support, through
the AHPERD organizations, is probably a little
higher but still low. My guess is that too many
physical educators decide professional membership
based on what they get rather than what they
give…and then get in return. Professional
membership is much like gift giving: The value
comes in seeing what your participation brings
to our entire profession. Of course, poet Langston
Hughes said it much better:
I stay cool, and dig all jive,
That's the way I stay alive.
My motto,
as I live and learn,
is
"Dig and be dug In return."
We face challenging times in our profession.
Knowing that what we do for kids is one of the
best things they get in school, it's simply
not enough. We need to quit complaining about
a lack of respect and either become advocates,
or support others who are interested in advocating
for us. If you haven't yet been part of your
state or national association give it some serious
thought. We need to stick together and let everyone
know that what we do is truly worth supporting.
Steve Jefferies,
Publisher pelinks4u
Some of the AAHPERD members advocating for physical education on Capital Hill, June 2008
Last month, Daryl Siedentop shared some thoughts
on ways to "tweak" physical education
teacher eduction. If you missed them, remember
you can see all past issues of pelinks4u
in our archives.
Readers were invited to contribute their own
thoughts on this topic through posts to the
NASPE Forum. S. Alan Lephart from Eastern New
Mexico U and others shared their ideas. Take
a look... | 
