|
Illinois school sets pace as PE model
By Tom Weir, USA TODAY
Students leave high school in Naperville, Ill., with a second kind of transcript besides the one that tracks classes and
grades.
It is a fitness profile dating to the sixth grade, and it provides a personal history on blood pressure, cholesterol levels,
body fat percentage and the student's cardiovascular performance.
The Naperville school district's approach to physical education has led to it being named a model program by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Naperville decided to modernize its approach to PE about 15 years ago after making the painful realization that its gym
classes were failing to serve the community.
"We had a staff meeting, and someone brought in an article on the trend of obesity and kids," says Phil Lawler, the
district's PE coordinator. "We said, 'Is this a reflection on us?' That day, we made a decision. We went through our
whole curriculum and said let's put all of our emphasis on cardiovascular fitness."
One of the first steps forward was realizing that in this age of technology, children react best to a computer-driven PE
system.
"We have computers hooked up to every weight machine," Lawler says of the 40-station fitness centers his district has
at five junior highs. "A kid punches in his ID, and computers measure everything. They can push a button and get an
exact readout on their workout."
In the first year of cholesterol screening, Naperville teachers could determine that 50% of their students had elevated
levels.
"This is the kind of thing that could be happening nationwide," says Lawler, who established his first fitness center
without tax dollars, entirely through community support.
But money shouldn't be the deciding issue, Lawler says. "What does a heart attack cost?" he asks.
One answer is provided by the American Heart Association, whose most recent figures show that in 1995 alone
573,000 Americans had coronary artery bypass surgery at an average cost of $44,820, a total of $25.7 billion.
Target-rate zone
Naperville makes extensive use of heart-rate monitors, teaching children to exercise in a "target-rate zone" that raises
the pulse but doesn't exhaust the student.
"We grade kids on how well they stay in their target-rate zone," Lawler says.
Says Naperville seventh-grader Jacqueline Garretson: "I've learned it's not always the easiest thing to do, going to a
fitness center, but I've learned things about how I can be healthy when I'm older. And I'm having fun while I'm doing it."
She's also developing an awareness of the health mistakes many Americans make.
"There are people in my family who have had health problems and high blood pressure," she says. "I think they could
have avoided some of those things if they had learned this when they were young."
For Jenny Mayor, a high school senior in Naperville, the most important thing she has learned is that her school's
program "tailors everything to what each student needs, and that way you work on what you need most. That helps me
personalize my goals."
Without instruction on physical education, Mayor says, some teenagers don't understand what fitness really means.
"A lot of kids just look at looks," she says. "You could be really thin and think you're in good shape, but when you start
to exercise you realize you're not. By learning this now, maybe it will help you throughout your life."
Mayor ran the mile in 13 minutes in junior high, last year got down to the nine-minute range and this year has improved
to 8:10. She says she wouldn't have taken up the activity without PE classes and believes her improvement has carried
over into her academics.
"You see yourself improving, and it gives you more confidence," Mayor says. "I think that confidence helps me with
studying, just because you feel better about yourself and you want to do better and you want to try harder."
Sophomore Nadine Youssef also has benefited in self-esteem. "It makes me happier with myself that I'm exercising
regularly and taking care of myself," Youssef says.
Overcoming the past
The Naperville schools use the computerized TriFIT health management system, made by HealthFirst. The software
analyzes the students' performances and provides specific suggestions for continued improvement.
"That's so new and different," Youssef says. "You put in statistics about yourself and it can tell you what you need to
exercise, what you need to work on individually. "
Over the last two years, 40 schools have sent representatives to study Naperville's program.
But before the philosophy can spread, Lawler says, some built-in resistance has to be overcome.
"Probably 60% of our population had real bad experiences in PE, and those people are now our legislators,
administrators and teachers," Lawler says. "I think there has to be a revolution at the university level to prepare teachers
to teach 'the new PE.' "
One state where that's happening is Kansas.
In 1992 the Kansas Health Foundation challenged the state department of education to implement a curriculum that
would teach skills for healthy lifestyles. It also has provided $1.5 million in grants to the Physical Dimensions program
now used at 148 middle schools and 152 high schools.
"It does take a lot of work to train teachers who have been out in the field for 20 years," Physical Dimensions director
Bobbie Harris says. "It's hard to get them to change. But we haven't gotten anybody who has gone through the training
and come back and said it doesn't work."
Some of the games might make a Vince Lombardi-style football coach wince.
There's lots of rope-jumping, Frisbee-throwing, scarf-juggling, hula hoops and even games of catch with rubber
chickens.
"The whole time you're running and you're working as a team," Harris says. "Then we say, 'Oops, look, your heart rate
is up.' We did line dancing at a high school the other day. Heart rates were up over 140 for 12 minutes, and it was fun
and it was non-threatening."
The only criticism Harris has encountered is "some people think we're being soft on kids, but every kid is participating
with his heart rate up."
As for the old, drill-sergeant approach to PE, Harris says, "The boot-camp thing didn't work, with push-ups as
punishment or having them run a lap. 'Wait a minute. You want me to run, and yet you punish me with it?' "
Community involvement
For schools seeking modern equipment, the Bay Shore Union Free School District on Long Island, N.Y., suggests
starting where health interests are highest: hospitals.
Bay Shore received $20,000 grants from the Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip and from
Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, plus $15,000 worth of equipment.
Bay Shore educators have stressed overlapping their fitness efforts into other areas of academic study.
Use of computers and heart-rate monitors involves math; diet instruction involves science and nutrition; lessons on
cardiovascular improvement deal with anatomy and physiology.
"We bring the real world into the classroom," Bay Shore athletic director Gene Gyer says. "What can be more real to a
young person than their wellness?"
|
