Today’s gym classes don’t really focus on these activities because, frankly, there aren’t really many physical education classes to begin with. I’m sure most of you are aware of the cutting of PE classes and recess time due to budget constraints and more class time needed in order to focus on passing standardized tests. Cutting PE classes is not only detrimental to students’ health, but also negatively affects students’ performances in the classroom.

Some schools only allow 15 minutes for recess time and 30 minutes of PE several times a week. That 30 minutes starts not when all the children have their equipment and are ready to do the activities, but when they walk in the door. The PE teacher often has to take several classes at a time, sometimes an entire grade level, get them organized, warmed up, and instructed in the activities for the day. That, by itself, can take up to 15 minutes of assigned PE time. By the time everything is good to go, that 30 minutes is over and the next class is rushing in.

The way that public education is currently designed, there is not enough time in the school day to let children take a break, run around, and get rid of their anxious energy. It is well documented that exercise helps people to be calmer, more relaxed, and more focused. Allowing students to take breaks and participate in PE and recess can help students perform better in the classroom and on standardized tests.

How can more PE be added to the already crowded school day?

Well, until No Child Left Behind is repealed and teachers can spend less time trying to teach to a test, it is going to be difficult to get children more active. The school day can be made slightly longer, but that could stress teachers that are already overworked and underpaid. Students could be required to participate in after-school activities, but that could bust the tight budgets schools are currently facing.

For now, until changes in the educational environment occur, teachers can learn how to incorporate quick 5-minute physical activities in their classrooms. These activities act as both a way to give children a break, but also a way to get them moving. These activities don’t even have to be a part of a break, since teachers are already pressed for time.

Health professionals should teach teachers how to incorporate physical education into their lesson plans. Teaching about biology? Demonstrate the uses of the different energy systems and muscle types in the body through exercises that use predominately one system over another. Teaching a non-science course? Integrate movement into your lesson plan by acting out a scene or relating the subject to health.

So, until the environment in the educational system changes, we’re going to have to be a little creative when it comes to teaching about and encouraging physical education.

Thoughts?

To me, health goes beyond the absence of disease. Health is also the ability to perform, whether that performance is defined as one’s ability to endure meeting after meeting at work, chase after the children at home, or just even the ability to walk up a flight of stairs or a city block without getting out of breath. People would argue that this definition describes “wellness” more than health, but I would argue that wellness is a term that some equate with leisure time activities. In health promotion, there is an emphasis on wellness that encompasses mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. I think, however, that wellness can be seen by some people as a collection of activities that people with leisure time and money do, and that wellness just doesn’t matter to one’s health, since health is really seen by a number of people as simply an absence of disease.

Maybe if we reframe the argument a bit, people will understand how health goes beyond that. Being healthy with an ability to perform will bring about a higher quality of life. Healthier people get promotions. Healthier people get dates. Healthier people have more money in the long run because they are able to work with vitality and energy and therefore are more productive, and save money since they develop debilitating chronic diseases, such as diabetes, at lower rates.

If we can make communities, as a whole, healthier, can we also improve other aspects of their lives? Can improving community health help close the achievement gap? Help people earn more money? If we begin to look at health as something that impacts every aspect of our quality of life (which it does), perhaps we can look at improving health as a foundation for tackling other problems persistent in some communities. Of course, there are other strong factors that contribute to community problems, but perhaps rethinking how we define and look at health and how health impacts our lives can lead to using health as a tool to tackle some social issues.

So why the name, Beyond the Hoodie?

I am currently a graduate student, working on a Master’s of Science degree and will soon be applying to PhD programs.  Throughout my academic career, I have received and read advice on making myself “look” more professional in order to gain favor with my professors and to have them see me as a potential academic. I’ve received comments on my looks because I go to class wearing jeans and usually a hoodie. I sit in the back of the class. I spend time on my laptop during class. Oh, and I happen to be an African-American young woman who likes to have my headphones on under my hoodie when I first come to class or visit my professors. Not exactly a picture of professionalism in the academic world.

Yet when I do speak in class, or spend time with my professors, people act like they’re surprised that I’m articulate, I do my homework, and am actually engaged in the class. Sometimes I get bored; we all do. But I guess what I’m saying is I just do not want to be judged based on how I look, or where I sit in the classroom. There’s more to me than the different hoodies I wear to class. Yes, there’s actually a bright, working brain in the head of the woman who likes to sit near the back of class.

So, that’s the skinny on the name. Hopefully, I’ll have some posts up soon. I just have to finish my homework first.