As a longtime physical educator, I know and value the importance of quality physical education to our children’s well-being. I am also a military veteran raised by two veteran parents and have two siblings who also served in the military. Needless to say, like physical education, I also value the military and how it protects its citizens from threats and supports peace and stability worldwide. Naturally, both professions are tied to the common goal of high levels of quality physical fitness. Unfortunately, both professions are currently struggling to meet this goal, and the consequence of this continuing failure puts nations at risk.

Fitness in our Schools
The necessity to improve physical fitness and overall health in school-aged children in the United States has received considerable attention ever since the Kraus-Weber Test was national news in 1953 for revealing American children’s poor fitness scores when it came to postural muscles and flexibility (Kraus & Hirschland, 1953). President Eisenhower established the President’s Council on Youth Fitness in 1956 in response to the test results with the goal of promoting youth fitness (Esmonde & Jette, 2021). Regardless of the continuous efforts of the President’s Council on Youth Fitness over the past 80 years, youth physical activity levels have struggled.

As we begin a new year, the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE America) continues to engage two national task forces to revise the national standards in health and physical education and I consider this work to be critical to the future of our profession. In regularly reviewing and revising our standards, we make certain that we include the latest research, hands-on teacher experiences, and best instructional practices from the field. Additionally, it allows us to continue to take a critical look at how our society and education have evolved around the essential work of student wellness in our schools.

In recent years, I served at my state level on our standards review team and found the work to be invaluable in serving the needs of every student. We made a lasting commitment to forging forward with progressive and responsive core ideas and disciplinary practices that speak to every community in my diverse state of New Jersey.  This is the task ahead for the national revision. In order to serve the needs of our young people across the nation, SHAPE America has the momentous responsibility of building national standards that echo the voice of every child in America.

I believe that this significant task means incorporating the very latest research on the critical and essential skills of physical movement in physical education and a focus on skill-based health education to foster a classroom of inquiry-based instruction.  We must incorporate the ability of students to contribute to and create a learning environment where they can thrive, grow and learn. Our future standards must reflect that student-focused approach.

I share my thoughts about my life journey and inspire students to trust and be all they can be from within. The following reflection is based on my interpretation of The God in You, by Robert Collier © 1937.  This is one of many books in my library chosen for the silent early hours of predawn. I hope it helps you reflect on why you do what you do – what we do, in working with youth.

Something

Drives me

I am the only female in my high school PE department.  It’s been this way for 20 years.  The one time another female came in she tried to out-alpha the football coach and got removed from teaching PE and placed in Health.  I think she might have taught one section of PE in the two years she was here, and I think it was Adapted PE. Since we’ve had a fully working weight room, it was always paired with the football coach.  We got a new one this year, the fifth in my tenure working at this same high school.  As soon as I heard he teaches through an app I put my judgmental hat on.  Without any notion of what he does or how he does it, I decided we were adversaries.

Coaches who also teach a class based on using your body trend toward it being visually productive.  It is much more about ‘making sure’ everyone is doing what they are ‘supposed’ to be doing and ‘working hard’.  The culture of sport (and the newer sport-as-fitness) revolves around the premise of effort equals results.  It dictates that you must remove sensation to be successful.  You are battling your body, not listening to or being led by it.