Author: Steve Jefferies

Reaching Your Number

(This essay was originally published on SHAPE America’s member Exchange [August, 2015] and is reprinted with permission.)

Last month I suggested the best way for us to achieve SHAPE America’s goal of “50 Million Strong by 2029 was for each of us to ask ourselves, “What’s my number?” Instead of letting the immensity of changing the physical activity and health habits of 50 million students overwhelm us, let’s focus on how you personally can contribute. If we all do our part, we will succeed.

Not long ago, Mark Zuckerberg, the young Facebook creator, set about wiring the world — or more specifically, getting every person on the planet connected to the Internet. A 7.325 billion-person challenge! As you can imagine, he had some immense problems to overcome. But he saw it as doable and convinced others to join the enterprise. If interested, you can learn more at internet.org. It’s an interesting project but what I found especially intriguing is the approach being taken. The problems that need to be solved have been clearly identified and strategies are being developed to resolve them. In other words, the way to solve big challenges is through taking small steps and not giving up.

This is exactly how the health and physical education profession can succeed. It’s not only about getting every school-aged student physically active and healthy, but also about earning public respect for what we contribute to public education. But we need evidence! It is not sufficient to talk about the value of health and physical education. We need to prove it. And this is why it is so important for each of us to seize the opportunity that “50 Million Strong by 2029” is offering.

Old Dogs and New Tricks

As some of you know, in addition to writing editorials for pelinks4u, since May I’ve also written a monthly blog on SHAPE America’s Exchange. I’ve focused almost exclusively on promoting SHAPE America’s 50 Million Strong by 2029 goal. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I encourage you to take a look because this goal represents a significant change in thinking about health and physical education teaching.

50millionStrongSuperBowl

For too long we have been the school underdogs. And too often we’ve felt like whipped puppies. We’ve longed for respect and lamented over the lack of appreciation for the young lives we’ve changed in our classes. Some teachers have tried harder and produced extraordinary results. Some have withdrawn, lost interest in teaching effectively, and focused instead on satisfying their quest for success through coaching. For several decades, we’ve witnessed professional ups and downs. Positions and programs are cut here and added there.

We’ve enjoyed remarkable success in funding through PEP grants. Yet despite close to a trillion dollars of investment, what do we have to show? Where are the success stories? Not the short-term ones. The sustaining changes. Certainly, the massive infusions of equipment in our programs transformed teacher and student lives for a few years, but then what? After the dead batteries and the run down, worn out, broken, and no longer usable stuff? Long-term what have these grants achieved? It’s an honest question and I invite you to answer. pelinks4u is ready to showcase truly transformative PEP grant change.

What’s Your Number?

(This essay was originally published on SHAPE America’s member Exchange [June, 2015] and is reprinted with permission.)

Some time ago, Kevin Costner starred in a movie called “The Guardian.” He played Ben Randall a legendary Coast Guard rescue swimmer admired for his success saving lives. A new recruit, determined to better Randall’s achievements, repeatedly asks him for his “number.” How many lives has he saved? Randall avoids responding, until close to the movie’s end when, pressed again for his number, he responds, “Twenty-two.” The rookie life saver is surprised because it is a rather unimpressive number for a legend. But then Randall explains, “Twenty-two is the number of lives I failed to save!”

Jim Perry, familiar to many of you as one of SHAPE America’s longtime sport advocates, reminded me of this story after my recent presentation at the Southwest District/Utah AHPERD conference in Park City. He’d listened to me talk about “50 Million Strong by 2029,” SHAPE America’s goal to get all kids entering preschool this fall physically active and healthy in 14 years (or sooner). At the end of the session, audience members began personalizing the challenge. They described their unique piece in the puzzle. As K-12 health and physical educators they were responsible for two, three, or four hundred kids. The numbers varied by level but the point was clear. The way to reach 50 million is for each of us to focus on what we can do. None of us can change the behaviors of millions, but each one of us can take responsibility for changing the physical activity and health habits of all of the students we serve in our schools.  After listening to this exchange, it was Jim who in his usual quiet and deliberative manner suggested that each of us should focus on answering the question, “What’s my number?”

Health and Physical Education the Super Pill?

Among this month’s pelinks4u articles is a summary of research by David Kahan and Thom McKenzie in which they address the potential value of effectively delivered physical education on children’s overweight and obesity. It’s an interesting read and shows clearly the caloric impact of getting students physically active in PE classes. Given the nationwide alarm about the catastrophic consequences of overweight and obesity on future generations, it’s yet another reason for the public to support public school physical education.

But, as I’ve written before, simply justifying health and physical education only because of its potential to turn back the obesity tide, shortchanges our subject areas. We are much more than an obesity solution. Well planned and delivered school health and physical education enhances pretty much everything that’s important in the upbringing and preparation of children for future success in life.

In another of this month’s articles, Tom Winiecki a 30-year veteran elementary PE teacher, points out that his focus is not primarily on delivering our subject matter but on connecting with his students. This reinforces another critical idea essential to helping students succeed in our schools. Teachers need to connect with kids “where they’re at.” In other words, before even concerning ourselves with content we need to first and foremost develop the kind of positive relationships with our students that help them see the relevance in what we’re teaching. Unless students see relevance it really doesn’t much matter what we teach. They aren’t going to value it. And absent value, students simply aren’t going to learn much from us.

SHAPE America Announces 50 Million Strong by 2029

Congratulations!
Today is your day,
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

(Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!)

At the recent SHAPE America National Convention in Seattle, President Dolly Lambdin made a historical announcement. During Wednesday’s opening General Session following an opening message from First Lady Michelle Obama, Dolly informed the audience of SHAPE America’s new statement of purpose.

This fall, students starting preschool will graduate as seniors in 2029. SHAPE America is committing to ensuring every single student regardless of ability will by then be physically active and healthy. Clearly an ambitious and somewhat daunting goal, the 50 million strong by 2029 statement was reminiscent of President John Kennedy’s 1961 vision to put a man on the moon within a decade, and return him safely back to earth. And similar to Kennedy’s moonshot vision, SHAPE America plans to succeed.

Do or Do Not. There is No Try

Years ago, business visionary Peter Drucker challenged companies to imagine what they’d look like if they hadn’t inherited their present structure. In other words, what would they do differently? What would success look like? It was a novel way to think about change and to resist complacency. A way for companies to anticipate how to stay relevant in a fast-changing world.

Similarly challenged, I’m confident that most physical educators would imagine success as a world in which all of their students choose to be physically active and healthy. It’s something clearly not a reality today but indisputably desirable. The tough part has been translating this vision into practice. Having a clear destination is one thing, but like summiting a mountain, choosing the best route to the top is harder to agree upon. And within the physical education profession, despite consensus about what we’d like to achieve, agreeing on how to get there continues to elude us. This isn’t new. Looking back, it pretty much characterizes our history since the birth of our professional association, the Association for the Advancement of Physical Education (AAPE) 130 years ago.

Unresolved divisions and differences of opinion over professional practice have for more than a century handicapped efforts to move the physical education profession forward. Contentious debate has prevented us from realizing our potential and getting the respect we’ve worked hard to deserve. The lack of agreement on content and outcomes has muddled our mission, confused our thinking, and bewildered the outside world as to what “good” PE looks like. While we may argue otherwise, to the public there’s no difference between physical activity, physical education and athletics, and PE teachers and coaches.

What does successful PE teaching look like?

A few months ago I was invited to help review a middle school PE program. It wasn’t what I expected. I soon learned that some of America’s richest and best-known families pay a hefty sum to send their kids to this private school. I was intrigued to understand why. And it soon became apparent. The culture of the school was not what I expected. The hallways and classrooms were quiet. There was no jostling in the hallways between classes. No yelling in the cafeteria. Students were, well, studious. Learning was something they valued. And not only for test scores.

Kids playing soccer

As it turned out, more than 90% of the middle school students participated in the school’s after school athletic program. NINETY percent! Hard to believe huh? It was for me and of course I wondered why. What was the secret? If replicated nationwide we’d fast eradicate the obesity epidemic. I was especially intrigued about the contribution of the PE program.

It turned out that the school’s PE facilities were not especially impressive. The equipment was limited and mostly old. Little use was being made of technology. Neither national nor state standards were guiding assessment The curriculum was pretty conventional in fact rather dated. Among the PE teaching faculty there were huge differences in experience and teacher preparation. So, no big secrets revealed here.