It's Not Your Father's Phys Ed

If you use the term "physical education" in East Penn schools you’ll be dating yourself. As such, it no longer exists.

What the East Penn School District offers students now, and has offered for the past 12 years, is a culture of health and wellness that includes healthy nutritional options in cafeterias and fitness education in all the schools.

If your children are not yet in school or graduated years ago, you’re in for a surprise.

Michael Seip, wellness/fitness, health and driver education department chair, says the current program is, "to promote fitness and wellness, with an emphasis on how to take care of yourself in life, and develop a lifetime of activity involvement. The district made a conscious decision to make the wellness/fitness program education, not sport."

With a well-documented nationwide childhood obesity epidemic that can lead to diabetes, heart disease and other health problems, and 30 percent of school-age children overweight or obese, East Penn is ahead of many other school systems with the nutritional options offered daily at all grade levels, banning soda, candy and fried foods.

But physical fitness is another issue. Seip says, "what happens outside the school environment in the way of physical activity is more important than the physical activity at school."

According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), a major health research funding organization, school-age children need 60 minutes a day of physical activity, along with a well-balanced diet to maintain the desired weight for individual height and age groups.

And, RWJF further reports, "The surgeon general recommends children should engage in 60 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week, yet in schools across the United States, physical education has been substantially reduced — or even completely eliminated — in response to budget concerns and pressures to improve academic test scores. In fact, current estimates show that only 3.8 percent of elementary schools provide daily physical education."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta concurs, encouraging 60 minutes a day of physical activity for kids aged 6 to 17. They recommend a combination of aerobic (brisk running or walking), muscle strengthening (gymnastics or calisthenics) and bone strengthening (jumping rope or running) exercise.

Currently students at the high school have one semester of wellness/fitness per year. That means three class periods in a six-day cycle. For students in 10th grade the semester is spent on aquatics.

For the other high school grade levels, the semester includes weight training, using stationary bikes and playing badminton or volleyball. Students wear monitors to measure heart rate.

Students are responsible for writing their own fitness program that can be oriented to strength training, cardiovascular health or weight loss.

Middle schools have an "exploratory program," a 12-week rotation of wellness (health instruction), fitness (physical activity) and keyboarding taught 40 minutes daily for the 12-week cycle.

Included in the fitness rotation for sixth, seventh and eighth grades are the fundamentals of basketball, soccer, flag football, volleyball, hockey, softball, dance, table tennis, archery, badminton, tennis, weight training and aerobic exercise.

Students who want to continue participation in sports activity in high school have to join a co-curricular intramural group that meets after school hours or qualify for an athletic team.

At the elementary level a wellness/fitness teacher visits each class once a week for 45 minutes of physical activity.

Seip acknowledges that the current budget crisis will impact the wellness/fitness program, but isn’t sure what will be eliminated. One department teacher is retiring, but he feels certain there will be other cuts. And, he adds, "it’s a shame to see the fabric of society frayed, with cuts in the arts, music and wellness/fitness."