District's physical-education curriculum a national benchmark
staff writer
FYIP.E.4LIFE will be the featured presentation at the Naperville Education Foundation's annual breakfast, "Building a Passion," at 7:30 a.m. May 12 at the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville. Tickets are $65. For reservations or information, call Maureen Dvorak at (630) 420-6475. |
Naperville has received a lot of media attention recently about being the best place to raise kids. If Phil Lawler has his way, the city would have a new distinction: "The No. 1 community in the United States to raise a healthy child."
Lawler, the director of the P.E.4LIFE Institute in Naperville School District 203 and a physical-education teacher at Madison Junior High School in Naperville, bases his proposed motto on data that compared District 203 ninth-graders with ninth-graders in California. The results of a 2001 study by the California Department of Education showed 33 percent of freshmen in California were overweight or obese. When District 203 gathered its own data in a 2002study of its own freshmen, only 3 percent were overweight or obese.
Lawler pointed to a main factor leading to the difference: Illinois is the only state to require daily physical education in its schools.
"Quality, daily physical education is the answer to the health care crisis," Lawler said.
In District 203, the switch from a sports-based curriculum to one that focuses on health, wellness and lifestyle management began more than a decade ago.Lawler called it the "new PE."
He said the old curriculum focused on team sports, but research showed less than 5 percent of the population older than 24 uses team sports as a form of physical activity.
"We need to ensure that every child in the nation is equipped with a way to take care of themselves," he said. "If we're going to reform PE, it's going to be community-driven."
As the curriculum changed, Lawler began receiving national attention and was featured in a May 2000 article in USA Today talking about the new PE.
Anne Flannery, president and chief executive officer of P.E.4LIFE, contacted Lawler after she read the article, and the two worked together to develop an alliance. In 2001, District 203 formed a partnership with P.E.4LIFE, a national nonprofit organization based in Kansas City, Mo., that is dedicated to promoting a healthful and fit lifestyle for children.
The organization's closest institute, housed at Madison, is a training ground for other school districts to develop similar programs. It has been joined recently by two other institutes: one in Grundy Center, Iowa, which was launched in 2003; and the newest institute in Titusville, Pa., which was announced this year.
Growth has continued fiscally as well. U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Hinsdale, recently secured $200,000 in federal funding to expand the P.E.4LIFE Instituteat Madison. And the District 203 school board recently approved extending the agreement with P.E.4LIFE through 2005 and in exchange will receive $80,000 in financial support from the nonprofit to pay for its administrative costs.
A steady stream of visitors from across the country visit the institute at Madison every week. In March, representatives from communities and school districts in Indiana and Wisconsin took a tour of the physical education program at both Madison and Naperville Central High School.
Jennifer Brown, associate director of teen and family programs for the YMCA in Vincennes, Ind., said a coalition was formed in Knox County, Ind., that includes public and Catholic school districts, a hospital and the YMCA.
Brown said the hospital started seeing high rates of childhood obesity and childhood diabetes. She said in Indiana, 25 percent of the population is overweight. The coalition was trying to address ways to prevent obesity.
To that end, the coalition had applied for a physical-education grant, which it did not receive. When Brown contacted organizations that had received the grant, they suggested the group observe the P.E.4LIFE Instituteto better understand what needed to be done to make sure children and adults lead a healthful lifestyle.
"Going to the institute really gave us a clear understanding of where our physical education needs to go and how to help our kids become physically fit," Brown said.
Brown said Knox County, in the southwestern part of the state, is the poorest county in Indiana, but a lack of funding won't stop it from making changes to improve the health its youngest residents.
"We just need to start working toward the goal and that's to get our kids healthy and to give them the knowledge to have lifelong fitness in their lives and the understanding of why they need to do it," she said.
A group from Neenah, Wis., also visited the P.E.4LIFE Institute in March. Eileen Hare, physical-education department chairwoman at Neenah High School, said students in Wisconsin don't have to take physical education every day.
She said the high school's physical-education program needs to be more standards-based and have more data-based information. She wants to use heart-rate monitors and other technology so information can be sent home to parents about their children's health.
"We just need to get our kids moving more, emphasizing cardiovascular health," Hare said.
When District 203 made the shift in its physical-education philosophy about 12 years ago,data from cardiologist Dr. Vincent Bufalino, presidentof Midwest Heart Specialists, supported the change.
Fifteen years ago, Bufalino measured the cholesterol levels of 5,000 children ages 5 to 17 in DuPage County and found 35 percent had high cholesterol.
Lawler and Paul Zientarski, physical-education coordinator at Naperville Central High School, presented Bufalino's study to physical-education teachersfrom throughout DuPage County during an annual Institute Day.
At that time, Lawler and Zientarski began to change the physical-education program, which would raise the fitness levels of students in District 203.
Bufalino, who is also director of cardiovascular services at Edward Heart Hospital in Naperville, said the P.E.4LIFE program is phenomenal.
"The real challenge is we haven't gotten the rest of the country to pick it up," he said. "It's a lifelong project here of trying to spread the word."
He said obesity and diabetes are on the rise and there is an epidemic of heart disease in the country.
"Every 32 seconds someone dies of heart disease in America," he said.
A variety of factors has contributed to the health crisis, he said, including increased fat consumption, eating out more and a more sedentary lifestyle.
Bufalino said it's important to reach children at a young age to change their habits.
Zientarski said research has shown students who are physically fit also perform better on tests. He referred to a 2002 California Department of Education study that showed the more physical-education classes students took, the higher their level of academic achievement.
"Anytime you do an aerobic activity, you manufacture new brain cells," he said.
Students must take four years of physical education in high school in District 203. Throughout those years, students must take 28 four-week courses in physical education over seven semesters in their high school career. Of that, 20 classes are required, including fitness, dance, aquatics and gymnastics. Other options students can choose include a high ropes course, rock climbing and kayaking in the pool.
"Our kids are really enjoying what they're doing because we've empowered them to make those choices," he said.
Zientarski and Lawler were also innovators in implementing technology to measure students' progress, such as heart-rate monitors.
Another assessment tool is a computer-based system called TriFit, which can be used to perform complete fitness assessments and design custom exercise and nutrition plans for students of all abilities.
When Zientarski first broached the idea of heart-rate monitors with administrators, they balked at the cost. So he started his own fund-raising efforts, selling bagels and juice in the cafeteria at Naperville Central. He raised enough money to purchase a monitor and soon received help from Naperville Central's Home and School Association. The new program also received support from the Naperville Education Foundation.
On several occasions, the monitors caught health problems in students that would have otherwise gone undetected.
"Heart-rate monitors are expensive, but what's the price of being healthy?" he asked.
Contact staff writer Donna DeFalco at ddefalco@scn1.com or (630) 416-5279.
03/31/04