Category: PHE Current Issues

This category includes essays and articles on a wide range of topics. Read what’s good and what the challenges are about current teaching and coaching practices, and what physical and health education must do to thrive in the future. It’s a place to share, discuss, and debate ideas. Read and join the conversation.

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SHAPE America Starts New Era

It’s official! The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD) is now SHAPE America. New name, new logo, new website. All of the national associations (NASPE, NDA, AAHE, NAGWS, and AAPAR) have been combined into one entity. It wasn’t easy but let’s hope the new society can refocus on what’s important to public school health and physical educators, and try to capture the support of the many thousands of should-be-but-aren’t-members.

Why aren’t they? That’s the Society’s challenge going forward: Giving people a reason to join and then continue as member-supporters. All of us are sometimes guilty of letting others do the heavy lifting for us when we should get involved. It can’t continue. Has anyone not noticed the threats to cut health and physical education programs and positions? In honesty, we probably deserve what we get if we don’t support our national and state professional associations.

But being a member-supporter has a cost. It’s not much, but SHAPE America needs to come up with a membership reason-we-can’t-refuse. It’s a challenge that’s just become more personal. At the recent national convention in St. Louis, voters selected me as SHAPE America’s President Elect. My son’s response? “Remember Dad, with great power comes great responsibility!” Impressive huh? Well it was until he confessed it came from an old Spiderman movie.

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Celebrating Physical Education in 2014

Given that we are able to watch sports all day every day, one must still appreciate Olympians for their pursuit of perfection, desire to better their personal best, and the dedication it takes to get there. After the classy ceremonies, breathtaking performances, and personal vignettes of athletes ended, I expected thoughts about the 2014 Olympics would end too. But, then some of the champions found their way back in the spotlight when Dancing with the Stars returned to the air. It was an eye-opener when they introduced the USA gold medal ice-dancers, Davis and White, a twosome who had been a dance team since childhood as competitors instead of partners. Then the mold was broken altogether when Amy Purdy, a double leg amputee snow-boarder who took the bronze medal in the Para-Olympics was introduced too.

The entire line-up got me thinking of physical education, where it was when I started teaching, the good things that have changed in our field, and what we should be celebrating today. Ann Purdy should be celebrated not only for what she has done but for what she can teach others. She lost her legs but not her spirit. She will probably be motived to test her limits until the end of her days because she embodies the philosophy of taking what you have and learning to use it to the best of your ability. Much of her spirit is inside, but someone had to teach her and they did.

Watching her deal with her limitations as she learned a fabulous dance routine, watching her perform it – and she was good – reminded me of my quandary when I started out teaching. My school district would not allow kids with disabilities to participate – period! Physical educators were told to have the kids sit out. At the time – and I am not ancient – I simply assumed that we didn’t have a disabilities program because my administrators were not up on educational law and just didn’t know better. Boy was I naïve.

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Celebrating PE & Sport

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month and May 1-7 celebrates National Physical Education and Sport Week. My feelings are many on celebrating PE and sports. After nearly twenty-five years of teaching and coaching, my emotions have run the gamut from excited to disheartened, energized to deflated, motivated to total despair. I’ve worked for administrators who knew the value and importance of physical health and wellness as well as those who looked upon “gym” as the irksome and intrusive mandated break in between “real” teaching blocks. I wish I had a quarter for every time a classroom teacher or administrator has said on a bright sunny day, “Why aren’t you outside? It’s so beautiful out! Just take them out and run them!” – I’d be a zillionaire, and probably very tanned!

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The reality is, it can be very hard to celebrate PE and sports when you don’t feel you have the support or positive attitudes necessary to feel relevant and appreciated. For me, it’s the students that keep me going, the occasional parent who lets me know how much I’ve made a difference in her child’s life, the student teacher who tells me that the many other programs that he or she has observed don’t offer what I do, or the colleague who once gave me a backhanded compliment by saying, “You work too hard and do too much.”

How To Celebrate

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Are Physical Educators On the Way to Extinction?

“Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later: Ten Years Later and Have We Seen Any Change?” was the title of an article I wrote 10 years ago. It appeared in a monograph issue of the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education that presented multiple perspectives on the 1996 Surgeon General’s report (USDHHS, 1996). It was my attempt to optimistically capture the history and future of the Physical Educator’s role. Now, 10 years later I once again find myself in that same reflective space, except I am even more guarded in my optimism. Yes, change does take time but my patience grows thin.

In the 1970’s, there was a FRAM oil filter commercial in which a mechanic holds an inexpensive oil filter and then points to an expensive engine repair job. The tag line was “Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later.” This tag line reflects attitudes toward physical education and physical activity. Our profession offers ways to stay healthy, but society seems content to pay for expensive repairs (Cone, 2004).

Today, I still believe that we are like the oil filter, yet we are confronted with a structure and reward system that make it increasingly more difficult to become the solution. Principals and superintendents are rewarded for grades, STEM, and standardized test scores, not for health promotion. Instead, it’s the medical profession, the engine repairers that get the respect. Surveys have shown that the general public believes that physical education should be part of the curriculum. But when decision makers see programs that don’t offer quality physical education experiences, it leaves them wondering whether we truly are a contributing partner. And this leads me to contemplate, “Are physical educators on the road to extinction?”

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The Future of SHAPE America

(This speech was given as candidate for President Elect at the 2014 AAHPERD/SHAPE America Convention in St. Louis. It has been edited for publication.)

“I’ve been asked to share with you a few thoughts on my favorite topic – the future – and especially what I think lies ahead for SHAPE America and the professions we represent.

First however, I am going to share with you some exciting personal news. If I appear to be glowing, it’s not just because I’m proud of the nomination to be your next President Elect or convention excitement. This week, while I’ve been here in St. Louis I became the grandfather of a healthy young girl named Harlow. Those of you who are grandparents know how I feel. As a grandparent, you go through a period of anticipation, concern, and finally relief then joy when this new tiny human arrives into your world. You realize that with decent parenting, good decision-making, and a little luck this child will live into the next century. And then it occurs to you, “What’s life going to be like for this child?” “What’s in her future?”

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The Health Hut: A Step toward Healthy Eating in Schools and Promoting Health Literacy!

When health and physical educators strive to teach students about active, healthy living, it becomes troublesome when there are unhealthy alternatives confronting them as they leave the school building. For example, what messages are students receiving if they can leave the gymnasium and at lunch time walk across the road to stores to purchase unhealthy food choices such as soda, chips and candy?

As schools move to become health-promoting environments and develop health literacy in students, it’s important to give students the knowledge of how to live healthy lifestyles. For years, vending machines have been placed in schools, perhaps even placed strategically in schools, so that students are sure to walk by them and be tempted to buy something. Similarly, stores often place snacks close to the checkout counters hoping that customers will be tempted to buy them, and food establishments often ask if customers want to add another food item to their order. These business style tactics to encourage purchasing can lead to unhealthy food choices or overeating.

The issue of vending machines, school concessions, fast food establishments, corner stores, prepackaged food items, etc. have been discussed and debated for some time. In this article, we’ll introduce you to an innovative and practical strategy aimed to help educate students and school communities on healthy food choices and support their health literacy.

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2013 Dr. Bob Frederick Sport Leadership Lecture Series, Part 3

Five leaders in sport are featured in the final part of a three-issue series of presentations shared by PHE America from the Dr. Bob Frederick Sport Leadership Lecture Series. The five sport leaders include the City of Lewiston, Idaho Parks and Recreation Director, Tim Barker; Washington State University Executive Director for University Recreation, Kathleen Hatch; Washington State University Director of Facilities and Finance for University Recreation, Jeff Elbracht; University of Idaho Director of Intramural Sports, Butch Fealy; and University of Idaho Aquatic Manager, Dan Lawson.

Dr. Bob Frederick

 

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