A major concern in education today is the negative impact of stereotype thinking. The physical education classroom has its own social dynamic. But unlike in other academic settings, physical education settings can, from the outset, be especially intimidating for some students. These students, who I’m going to refer to as the “Outgroup,” share many common characteristics that experienced teachers will immediately recognize.

Outgroup members sometimes appear slow, weak, overweight or obese, awkward or uncoordinated. These students often lack confidence and don’t have many class friends.  Students who shy away from the ball or who stay on the periphery when games are being played fit this picture.  If our profession hopes to succeed with 50 Million Strong by 2029 (50MS), these students or more appropriately this Outgroup is a group that our profession must intentionally target. If we fail to engage this group a significant proportion of our student population will never realize the health benefits of physical activity envisioned in 50MS.

According to SHAPE America’s website 50MS embraces “A commitment to put all children on the path to health and physical literacy through effective health and physical education programs.” (2016). To succeed there are at least three key components students clearly need: skills, knowledge and disposition.  Without these, the goal of 50MS will not be reached.  Unfortunately, absent effective interventions to help them feel comfortable in our physical education settings, the Outgroup students identified above are unlikely to possess the skills, knowledge or dispositions to lead healthy and physically active lives.

To get 50 million school-aged students actively participating in physical education and physical activity by 2029, it’s vital we engage America’s youth in the planning of physical education programs. Designing challenging, relevant, and exciting learning experiences to promote student learning and interest is the key to getting young people to embrace our content. We must seek student input on activities that interest and excite them, then develop motivating experiences and teaching strategies that best facilitate their learning. Then based on this knowledge, we can choose appropriate assessments that allow teachers to effectively provide evidence of learning.

Investigating how to successfully do all these things is critical for us to move forward keeping the needs of young people at the center of our work. As teachers must do more than seek student voice into program design and activity choices; we need to seek, listen to, act upon, and then engage our students in the design process.

Young people are social, independent, have a desire to belong, feel competent, and be part of a group. Our physical and health education programs must engage them in ways that empower them to participate in and influence the direction of their own learning, gain self-confidence, self-reliance, resilience and a greater capacity to make lifelong choices. When asking young people what they have gained from actively participating in physical education and influencing their own program decisions it would be positive for them to say, “I felt my voice was heard”, “It became our program and one we want to engage in”, or “I enjoyed giving my opinion and working with my teachers to design a program that meets my needs.”

We’re both inclined toward all things optimistic and tend to question the status quo. So when we came across the work and thoughts of Dewitt Jones (2017), freelance photographer for National Geographic, we were more than intrigued. Jones speaks often of the creative processes in his photography, of how a change in perspective takes his work from being good to being extraordinary. During presentations, he illustrates his point with pictures of the same subject matter, but taken from different vantage points—from different perspectives. He notes that finding the best perspective for a photograph often takes imagination and risk. He speaks of the value of creativity, of having made the mistake of stopping taking pictures when he thought he had the “right answer” only to discover that someone had taken a better picture by being creative. Thus, he is always in search of the “next right answer.”

Looking for the Next Right Answer
Some people are uneasy with the notion that there is such a thing as the next right answer—as if it nullifies the rightness of the previous right answer. Or, that giving up on what we are now doing somehow is a betrayal of our venerable past. This attitude can lead to a refusal to look forward, to move forward, to change, and to grow. But reluctance to thinking differently risks stagnancy, irrelevancy, and ultimately extinction. In contrast, we are thrilled that the possibility exists of a next right answer.

In September 1992, JOPERD published a special edition called the Critical Crossroads Report. The authors described the dilemma that the field of physical education faced and shared a conviction that if we made the right moves—found the next right answers—the profession would survive. Conversely, the authors warned that if we changed nothing, kept doing what we had always done we will have “fiddled while Rome burned!” It was a time when the brightest minds in our field were challenged to face some brutal possibilities: Either become relevant or risk disappearing entirely from our public schools. This led to a concerted effort to identify PE’s failings and barriers to its success.

Health and well-being are central to the mission of public education, and a healthy school environment is shown to improve academic performance (Birch & Videto, 2015).  At Slippery Rock University, our goal is to prepare school wellness educators who are certified in K-12 health and physical education and serve as key players in creating a healthy and vibrant school. Our teacher education curriculum is based on the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model, and candidates are prepared to view the entire school as their area of influence. In this article, we’ll explain (1) why we created a new teacher education program, (2) the School Wellness Education program’s alignment with 50 Million Strong, (3) how we encourage teacher candidates to think differently about their role in schools, and (4) how we created a culture of wellness in the Physical and Health Education Department at Slippery Rock University.

Why We Created a New Teacher Education Program
Our inspiration to design a new program started when enrollment in the teacher education program was low. Action needed to be taken to sustain the program and to increase the recruitment and retention of high-quality students into the health and physical education professions.  Based on low enrollment data, faculty within the Physical and Health Education Department scheduled a series of meetings to begin the process of designing a new program. Faculty wanted to create something new and relevant that would attract more students, but most importantly, something that society needed and would value.

The importance of creating something that society needed was influenced by a series of books, including Start With Why by Simon Sinek (2009), Good to Great by Jim Collins (2001), and No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness by Michelle Segar (2015). According to Sinek, what separates great leaders and great companies from the rest is that they start by asking “why?” Before designing courses for the school wellness education curriculum, we made a point to begin each discussion with “why?”  Our “why” became to create a healthier and more physically active society through schools. Public health and school health data suggests that this is something our society needs (Birch & Videto, 2015).