District Administration - April 2010 - (Page 31)

hen Saul leRneR became director of physical education, athletics and health for the BellmoreMerrick (n.y.) School District 14 years ago, football, soccer, basketball and floor hockey were the staples of most physical education classes on long Island and around the rest of the country. “The emphasis was on sports you would watch on tV. That was the mindset of physical educators,” lerner explains. But mindset has begun to change—spurred by students’ reduced appetite for team-oriented sports, their increased appetite for junk food, and their shifting redefinition of “activity” to mean surfing the Web and running their fingers over the message pads of mobile phones. There don’t appear to be any statistics that prove fewer students are interested in team-oriented sports, but anecdotally, physical education and wellness directors indicate that they’re seeing more kids drawn to activities other than conventional sports. “Fewer and fewer kids today are playing sports, and more are obese,” lerner says. “Kids have great thumbs now but can’t run three steps.” The fact that our nation’s youth are in worse shape now than a generation ago is widely known. a landmark study in 2007 by the u.S. centers for Disease control found that almost 17 percent of american children ages 6 to 19 were obese, triple the number from 1980, although a subsequent report released last July found that the percentage of obese youngsters and teens had dipped slightly to just below 15 percent. lerner and his district have responded with plenty of steps of their own, turning the conventional definition of phys ed on its head. nowadays students www.DistrictAdministration.com W Sports for Life By Ron SchachteR Physical education classes incorporate alternative activities for students to lead healthier lives. at Bellmore-Merrick’s three high schools and one of the district’s middle schools take classes in everything from Pilates to step aerobics, clamber up and down climbing walls, go cycling, and lately have taken to skateboarding in school—activities available as electives to satisfy new york state’s weekly two-hour physical education requirement. The Long Haul “There are so many kids today interested in being physically active but not interested in competitive sports, and there’s a recognition that our job in physical education is to motivate all kids to be physically active for a lifetime,” notes Steve Jeffries, who directs the graduate program in physical education at central Washington university and serves as president of the national association for Sport and Physical education (naSPe). Jeffries is leading by example, having added an outdoor class to the cWu graduate curriculum focused on rock climbing, hiking, inline skating and even juggling. The university has run a physical education Summer camp for the past 20 years, from which children around Washington state attend. In addition, when most student athletes leave high school, they don’t return to playing team sports elsewhere. “ninety-seven percent of our athletes will complete their athletics when they graduate high school,” adds chris Mccarthy, who created a health club for students at the Katonah-lewisboro (n.y.) School District and is a big proponent of alternative sports and fitness. of course, students in the Bellmore-Merrick district reporting for physical education class can still choose from an assortment of more traditional sports. But lerner is hoping that more students choose activities that will last them a lifetime. “an adult basket- April 2010 31 http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - April 2010

District Administration - April 2010
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Health
Standards
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Conversations
Sports for Life
Reaching Digital Natives on Their Terms
RTI Goes Mainstream
Double Duty: Schools as Community Centers
Online Edge
Tech Disruptions
Product Focus
New Products
Student Counsel

District Administration - April 2010