Moving into the Future: Updating Physical Education

My Students: Basketball, volleyball, softball, and soccer are not meeting the needs or interests of today's student. We need core classes, yoga, pilates, kickboxing, and aerobics to promot...

My Project: Nearly daily we hear our children are becoming more overweight, obese, and sedentary. This message has reached Washington with Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, the allocati... more»

My Students: Basketball, volleyball, softball, and soccer are not meeting the needs or interests of today's student. We need core classes, yoga, pilates, kickboxing, and aerobics to promote a healthy and active lifestyle in today’s world.

My students are a dynamic mix of cultures and ethnicities. Being near a large military base in the middle of the Pacific Ocean my student’s converge on Oahu for a variety of reasons. My classes are made up of Filipino, Samoan, Hawaiian, Japanese, and Caucasian young men and women who were brought in the search of a better life, more opportunity, the military, and their homeland. This mix of people creates a unique, and at times challenging, opportunity to bring people together. One young man who stands out is PJ, not his real name. Brought here to Oahu from a small Polynesian Island for a major surgery to lengthen one of his femurs by 5 inches, he has grown equally in character to match his now balanced 6’3” frame. The diversity of students was never more apparent than when my newest student, all 5’1” of him, walked into the classroom as a military transfer from Missouri. There are just two examples of the students who make up our school.

My Project: Nearly daily we hear our children are becoming more overweight, obese, and sedentary. This message has reached Washington with Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, the allocation of 16 million dollars to the Prevention of Obesity and Fitness as announced by the Secretary of HHS Ms. Sebelius. The time has come to transform our current out of date PE curriculum that is based on team sports to a more modern and appropriate curriculum based around promoting physical activity and individualizing activity to the student. My students need a variety of exercise tools (med balls, body balls, exer. tubes) to match each student’s ability and needs with the goal to promote activity. Current research shows us that only 3% of adults over the age of 25 participate in regular team sports, clearly teaching “The Big 5” sports in PE are not helping our students lead a active and healthy life. By helping us, the donor will aid in our transition from the lacking “old school” PE to the motivating “NEW PE.”

PE has the unique opportunity to impact every student through class, intramural, afterschool fitness programs, and sports nights. This donation will not only improve the students’ physical well being but their mental well being too. Dr. John J. Ratey’s book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, lays out the startling and significant benefits of exercise on brain function. The positive effects of a quality PE will be exercised throughout the entire school community. hide»