Back to School: A Press special report on physical education

By Jason Fields

With students facing issues from asthma to obesity, schools struggle to find time and space for

Hard work. Focus. Determination. Grit.

That's what it takes for small children to sit still for an entire lesson at PS 24. There they sit, in their rows, filled with barely contained energy, looking for the slightest excuse to pop out of their seats. One hand goes up; a girl needs to go to the bathroom. After she gets permission, a forest of raised hands says that their owners need to go, too.

It's not some kind of synchronized bladder syndrome. It's just the way little kids are, looking for any way out of their chairs. Looking to take flight again, in their sneakers.

Peer into another classroom, where the children are bigger, and you'll see more calm. But, you'll also see more around the middles, padding on arms and legs, faces that are rounder than perhaps they should be. And this sight isn't particular to any one classroom. This could be any classroom in Riverdale, in the Bronx, or anywhere else in the city. Overall, 43 percent of students in New York City are overweight, with nearly one in four obese, according to a study done for the American Journal for Public Health.

Can physical education get us out of this obesity mess? And are local schools in a position to take on that challenge?

Carrión's criticism

A report issued by Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr. that came out earlier this year says no. It says there aren't enough phys. ed. teachers. It says facilities are in poor shape in places where they exist at all. Improvement is needed almost everywhere, and it's not just the poorest neighborhoods that have problems. Even "good" schools like PS 24 or PS 81 may not come up to the standards set by the city and state.

But, what's physical education really all about? Is it Weight Watchers for kids? Is it the place where kids learn the fundamentals of competition? Is it the coaxing they need to get off the couch, or is it the chance for students to breathe free?

Over the last decade and more, we've heard various culprits blamed for this pandemic: soda, video games, pizza, processed and fast foods, television, endless snacking, even kids who live in neighborhoods so terrifying that they don't dare to run outside.

So - as we do with so many of society's ills, we turn to the schools for a solution. School physical education programs are now asked to teach kids how to eat and exercise for life, rather than to keep them busy with dodging red rubber balls that always seem to be coming straight at their heads.

In fact, dodgeball is now expressly off the activities list, said Trish Kocialski, who helps to create phys. ed. standards for the state Department of Education.

"It has no worth, no educational value."

So, what does? The focus in the city and state is increasingly on turning kids into healthy people, making sure they understand what fitness is about.

State guidelines leave a lot of room for interpretation for local school districts, but the basics are that all children are required to participate in 120 minutes of physical education during the school week. That time is spread out differently, depending on the ages of the children. In kindergarten through third grade, students are mandated to spend at least some time on physical education every day. As they get older, the amount of time spent on physical education doesn't change, though schools are allowed to offer longer classes that meet less frequently. And, in high school, physical education credits are required every semester in order to qualify for a diploma.

The question becomes, what are students going to be learning during those 120 minutes?

Ms. Kocialski says a primary goal is turning kids into complete athletes, not just competitors in a single sport. All students are supposed to graduate from New York public schools with proficiency in three physical activities (swimming, dancing, baseball, basketball, etc.), and be able to join in recreationally with six more.

But Lori Benson, the director of the Office of Fitness and Health for the city's schools, looks at fitness more broadly than sports or even physical activity. The idea behind the city's evolving curriculum is to focus the little time spent on physical education in the classroom on what students will need to know in order to lead a healthy life outside of it.

Kids are taught about "health-related fitness," which tries to draw a clear connection between what you eat and do and the health problems you may have or develop. Even kindergarteners are taught about heart health and the importance of being in good shape.

One aspect of Ms. Benson's program that may seem to contradict established wisdom, is to take some of the emphasis away from team sports and put it into activities people do alone.

"Ask adults what they are doing now to keep fit. You aren't getting together with 19 of your friends to play soccer," Ms. Benson said.

As a result, she would like to see kids learning tennis, riding bikes and running in addition to whatever traditional team sports are available.

Many Bronx schools are in no position to provide students with these kinds of activities, lacking a track, access to tennis courts or bikes of any kind, but the John F. Kennedy Educational Campus has impressive gym facilities. Along with a serious weight room, which you might expect, the school also has a cardio training room that would fit right in at a New York Sports Club. Students are welcome to use the stationary bikes and elliptical trainers whenever the building is open, which is 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. most days of the year.

Jim Cunningham is the assistant principal in charge of physical education for John F. Kennedy High School, as well as one of the other four small high schools based in the same facility. He's been there since February 2003 and has an obvious pride in the tools he has at his disposal.

"We're able to offer more than most," Mr. Cunningham said.

The school has tennis courts, baseball and football fields, a dance room, a stellar gymnastics set up and even space for yoga. There are 15 phys. ed. teachers and two health instructors, working full-time and dealing with as many as 2,000 students.

But, Mr. Cunningham and Principal Anthony Rotunno realized shortly after their arrival at the school that the physical education issues they would be dealing with didn't necessarily end with fielding a terrific football team. Some freshmen, Mr. Cunningham said, hadn't gotten enough training in the basics of fitness and discipline. They couldn't be expected to change at their own locker and head right out onto the field. So the school has made a serious commitment to fitness instruction.

It begins with "FitnessGRAMs," a program introduced by Ms. Benson, the city fitness director. Students are all given fitness assessments that judge their Body Mass Index (in which a person's height and weight are factored together to determine if he is at a healthy weight) as well as their aerobic fitness, muscle strength and endurance. The results are charted and printed out, then sent home with the students.

Comprehensive health instruction

Traditionally, high schools start off with calisthenics and basic sports instruction, leaving health questions until later on. Not at Kennedy. Health instruction at the school includes sex education and teaching kids about the dangers of AIDS, as well as the fundamentals of fitness.

"At 17 years old, it's a little late in the game [to be teaching kids about those issues]," Mr. Cunningham said.

But facilities, programs and even going far beyond the required 120 minutes a week (JFK students get an eye-popping 46 minutes a day) aren't a cure-all.

"We have a huge, huge problem here [with obesity]," Mr. Cunningham said.

And, of course, not all facilities are created equal.

At the David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy, MS/HS 141, students are a long way from expansive sports fields, tennis courts or cardio machines. The school's gym building wasn't intended to pull the double duty of hosting both middle and high school students when it was built, decades ago.

"Although we are not 'overcrowded' we do have bigger students now," Principal Lori O'Mara said in a written statement. "The gymnasium is 50 years old and improvements such as increased square footage, bleachers or an additional gym would be most welcome."

A shortage of space

Ms. O'Mara has been lobbying hard to get all of the above, but so far, only a new dance floor has appeared, thanks to a grant secured by Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz.

Despite limited facilities, and the difficulties of trying to schedule gym time for so many students - 1,200 middle and high school students are enrolled - the school has tried to combat the shortage of space through after-school programs. Ms. O'Mara points to the success her school's teams have had in the Public Schools Athletic League, which brings together teams from all over New York to compete in sports such as volleyball, soccer, wrestling and baseball.

"This year from the high school we won three division championships, sent two wrestlers to the state finals, and took second in the city in girls volleyball," Ms. O'Mara said.

She didn't comment on how the school meets the state standard of 120 minutes of physical education for every student, every week. Finding those 120 minutes is a challenge faced by every school in the system.

Riverdale elementary school PS 24 may be stretching the rules a little bit. OK, maybe it's stretching a lot. Recess isn't supposed to be counted toward a child's 120 minutes of physical education a week. But, at PS 24, phys. ed. teacher Marc Feldman suspects it is.

Mr. Feldman is charged with giving more than 700 kids - who range between kindergarten and fifth grade - the outlet they need for running around and screaming, dissipating some of that little-kid energy He's also supposed to teach them everything they need to know about fitness, while seeing them once a week, for a single period.

"I can't change lives in 45 minutes," he said.

Last February, the 15-year veteran was in the thick of the gymnastics unit. Dozens of fourth-graders jumped, hopped and skipped over balance beams, vaults and mats scattered about the gym when The Press visited a morning P.E. class. That day he had set up 10 different skill stations - everything from beanbag throwing to springboard jumping.

"It's hard to have competitive sports," Mr. Feldman said. "Winning and losing is hard at this age."

Asked why he could not accommodate daily classes for all students, Mr. Feldman simply said, "We don't have the facilities. Unless we use the cold lunchroom or get another instructor, we can't."

When is a requirement not a requirement?

But a requirement is a requirement, right?

Yes, but no.

Ms. Kocialski at the state Department of Education explains how the guidelines work and points out an obvious problem.

"The regulations are written broadly so communities can suit their own needs," she said. Every community is responsible for developing a curriculum that meets the regulations. At the Bronx New School, PS 51, for example, there is no gymnasium within the building. To meet the requirements for the past 15 years, the school has had to ask the NYPD to cordon off the street out front, off of Jerome Avenue, to allow the students to run around during recess. This carries throughout the winter, unless of course the temperature dips below 35 degrees. Then the students play puzzles and various board games indoors.

Parents may wonder how some schools are able to skirt the rules, and the reason may be the lack of supervision at the state level. Ms. Kocialski isn't one of hundreds at the state education department devoted to physical education, checking in with individual schools or even districts. She's one of one.

"There is no way I can monitor 7,000 school buildings in the state of New York."

Even if kids were getting their full 120 minutes a week of phys. ed. in every building in the New York City school system, it seems unlikely that it would be enough to ensure good habits for life, or to bring obesity to its fatty knees.

To supplement what schools can squeeze into days already packed with cramming for state and federally mandated tests, the city is trying to offer kids more activities before and after school.

At the Sheila Mencher Van Cortlandt School, PS/ MS 95, which has students from kindergarten through eighth grade, Principal Serge Davis has led an effort encouraging teachers to participate in after-school programs, teacher Melanie Roth said.

Ms. Roth herself has gotten deeply involved in a hip-hop dance class she teaches.

"Extracurricular activities were a big part of my life growing up, and I felt sorry [the students] didn't have something to build teamwork and do after school," Ms. Roth said.

She opened her dance class to students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades, and asked interested students to fill out a questionnaire. The plan was for slots to be given out on a first-come, first-served basis, but that was before she got more than 120 questionnaires back.

There was no way she could accommodate all of the students who wanted to participate, even with the help of two other teachers, so she did her best to chose the ones who seemed most sincerely interested in dance.

She started out with 60 students, meeting once a week, on Friday for between one and a half and two hours. The principal was encouraging, buying the kids T-shirts and inviting them to perform during assemblies. Fewer than 10 kids dropped out of the voluntary program during the entire school year.

In addition to improving the fitness and self-image of the students involved in the class, Ms. Roth has noticed another benefit of the program. When asked if she noticed a link between students' levels of physical activity and their interest in learning, she replied, "I think that there's a direct correlation. If they were able to exercise more, they'd be able to learn more. Even if you're an adult, you just have to get it out!"

After-school programs like Ms. Roth's fit in perfectly with the approach school fitness czar Lori Benson is championing.

Speaking before Congress at the end of July, Ms. Benson spoke about a program that's recently started in some of the city's middle schools called C.H.A.M.P.S. or Cooperative Healthy Active Motivated Positive Students.

"Instead of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, C.H.A.M.P.S. offers students a range of 1,000 traditional and non-traditional sports and fitness programs in 200 middle schools. If you like baseball, basketball or track and field, we've got a program for you. Not interested? What about dance, crew, double dutch or yoga? We've got those, too."

And, while that may sound appealing in a few years, Jakob Cantor, a fourth-grader at the Robert J. Christen School, PS 81, would just like to make sure he gets his gym class the once a week he's been promised.

"Usually, it's very fun, but all the time, we get lined up, there's some excuse," Jakob said. And when that happens, he knows there'll be no gym that week. "So when we have it, it's fun."

His mother Debra Cantor speaks very highly of the school, and of Principal Melodie Mashel, with whom she works as part of the school's leadership council. She says she knows Jakob doesn't get his full 120 minutes a week, but understands why.

"The schools in Riverdale are fantastic, but they're still part of the New York public school system. They still have art cut like crazy, still have gym cut like crazy. There just isn't the money."

Ms. Cantor would know, she once taught in the city schools herself.

- With additional reporting by Kate McNeil

Dodgeball is no longer the typical phys. ed activity, said Trish Kocialski, of the state Department of Education. 'It has no worth, no educational value.' So, what does? The focus is increasingly on turning kids into healthy people, making sure they understand what fitness is about.

This is part of the August 28, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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