Tired of hearing excuses for why quality physical education is impossible when space is limited, class sizes large, students disinterested, and other reasons, we decided to do an “experiment”. We decided that if we could transform a “roll-out-the-ball gym class” approach in a school with plenty of barriers to quality physical education, we could honestly say that, “If you can teach quality P.E. here, you can do it anywhere!”
From the outset, we knew exactly which school to choose for our experiment. We had worked with the Storefront Academy in Harlem, New York before, and we knew that the school had teaching barriers that would be tough to overcome. They included a non-certified PE “teacher,” very limited indoor space, no playground areas, no free outdoor open space, and very little equipment. We decided to document the project in a film (directed by John Mathieu Roussell), and we called it No Excuses! We hoped that a film of this type would lead to increased awareness about quality physical education by parents and administrators, and to seeking solutions that focus on what we can do now, while continuing to work on changing the “impossible.” We wanted to help raise the bar so that all of us expect nothing less than quality in PE, for the sake of our students’ health, well-being, and academic success.
In the winter of 2011 we began working with the teachers and administrators at the Storefront Academy to retire the old ways of offering physical education and to develop a quality physical education program that fit the students’ current and future needs. We successfully sought out and obtained major support from SPARK (equipment, curriculum, technology, training), and hired a qualified credentialed physical education teacher for the next school year. At the end of summer, the teachers and most of the staff participated in SPARK training. We (Cathrine Himberg and John Roussell) spent our sabbatical that autumn in New York helping to implement the new program and documenting the process in our film. In Harlem, a coordinated school wellness initiative was in the making, with quality physical education at the center. Students started learning skills, concepts, and virtues in physical education chosen to help them now and throughout their lives. We made it safer and easier for them to choose to be physically active during recess on the blocked-off street that serves as their playground. We helped the teachers facilitate physical activity in the classrooms in the form of brain breaks. We made improvements in the cafeteria and encouraged nutrition education in the classroom. And we educated the parents about the changes and the important role they could play.
We continued working with Helen Primrose the new teacher and her assistant Renardo Pope over the next year. It was clear from the beginning that Helen was the perfect person for the challenge. She was patient and systematic in her approach as she changed the students’ expectations for physical education, putting learning was on the agenda every lesson, every day. It was not easy as the students were not used to any structure in “gym class,” and loud whole-class games, such as dodge-ball were the old norm. Helen also worked with Mr. Pope, helping him see physical education in a new light, and Renardo became instrumental in helping create all the positive changes we wanted to see. The support from Wendy Reynoso, Head of School was unwavering, and we were able to see quite significant improvement in students’ behavior and learning over that first year of implementation. The student interviews we feature throughout the film are the best indicators of this change.
A highlight of the year came in March when 12 students from the PETE and Communication Design programs at Chico State, CA came to Harlem with us. They spent four days at the school aiding Ms. Primrose and Mr. Pope in their lessons, organizing recess activities, and leading brain-breaks in the classrooms. The experience was so rich that it overshadowed the disappointment we experienced at the next leg of our fieldtrip, the 2012 AAHPERD national convention in Boston, which ended up canceled due to a transformer explosion. But we made the best of it! We also had some celebrity guests visit the Storefront Academy that month, something that impressed the teachers and staff much more than the students. Few of the students knew the world’s greatest female golfer Annika Sorenstam who came to promote physical activity. A few more did recognize celebrity chef Marcus Samuelson who visited to advocate healthy and adventurous eating.
During the two years of filming for this project, we also took some additional road trips around the country to talk to some of the leaders and unsung heroes in the physical education field. We visited several other schools and filmed the teachers’ innovative instructional approaches. We talked to principals who understood the relationship between vigorous complex movement and academic learning, and who implement practices that apply what we have learned from research on exercise and the brain. We found our star Dave Spurlock, director of Physical Education and Health in the Charleston County School District, who we gave the last word in the film. It is worth waiting for.
The film No Excuses! is an advocacy piece. We want parents, administrators, elected officials, and teacher colleagues to understand that quality physical education matters. There are no excuses for “rolling out the ball” in the name of physical education. And if we hold ourselves and others to high standards there are no excuses for allowing ROTC and band to count for physical education. Research shows that quality PE can boost academic achievement, help with discipline problems, improve students’ overall fitness and wellness, but most importantly it will help students develop the skills, knowledge, and dispositions they need to become life-long movers. We believe that anyone who understands this will support quality physical education and tolerate nothing less in its place.
To promote quality physical education, we need credentialed PE specialists like Helen Primrose whose focus is on quality teaching and learning. We need parents like Donald Driscoll who are willing to sue to ensure that their children receive quality physical education and physical activity during the day. We need administrators like Dirk Bedford who demand brain-breaks every 20 minutes in each classroom in his school and who understand the difference between physical education and physical activity. Our film features these and other champions for quality physical education along with experts in our field. We need parents, administrators, and elected officials to better understand what we do. We hope that enough of them are willing to watch a sixty-minute documentary so we can start seeing a growing wave of demands and support for quality coming from administrators, politicians, and parents.
No Excuses! is available to view and share for free on www.supportREALteachers.org. We also have a section with variety of clips from the film with related discussion questions in case you want to use the film to generate discussion to promote quality physical education, its role in our schools, and its effect on learning.
Our team is currently in the process of promoting No Excuses!, and we would love your help! Information about the documentary can be found on Instagram (noexcusesfilm), Twitter (@supportREALtchr), Facebook (supportREALteachers) and on our website, www.supportREALteachers.org.
We would feel honored if you watch No Excuses! and find it share worthy in the name of Quality Physical Education!
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