Audio clip
Charlie Rose
CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- Want eager learners in the classrooms? First, get the kids moving.
That's the message of a national nonprofit organization called PE4Life.
On Thursday, representatives from PE4Life talked to community leaders about getting more children involved in physical education besides those who play sports.
"For the first time in America, the generation of children in school today has a shorter life expectancy than their parents," said Bradley County school board member Charlie Rose.
Added emphasis on fitness, he said, can reverse that expectancy and boost academic achievement, too.
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Staff Photo by Randall Higgins/Chattanooga Times Free Press Kim Mason of PE4Life, center, takes community leaders through a "brain break'' as they learn about the program that calls for new thinking about physical education in schools. Even adults, Ms. Mason said, concentrate better with occasional physical activity.
A team of 12 local physical education teachers and school officials attended a PE4Life workshop in January in Indianapolis, Ind. They will introduce PE4Life in three county schools -- Walker Valley High, Ocoee Middle and Waterville Community Elementary.
"We are piloting three schools initially with the intent to broaden the PE4Life philosophy and model to all schools in our system," said Andrea Lockerby, consolidated school health coordinator for Bradley County Schools.
Ms. Lockerby's office partnered with the Bradley/Cleveland Public Education Foundation and received a grant from United Way's hospital endowment to bring the program Funds.
FAST FACTS
* Out of 4,000 Bradley County students receiving health screenings in 2008-2009, 39 percent had a body mass index in the categories of overweight or obese.
* Timed 1-mile runs show a continued decrease in student cardiac fitness from second to ninth grade.
Source: Bradley County Schools
ON THE WEB
To learn more about PE4Life, visit www.pe4life.org.>
Kim Mason, one of the PE4Life presenters, said schools can decide how to use their grants to promote physical activity for more than the school athletes. Ideas range from teaching children to ride bicycles to partnering with health clubs, Ms. Mason said.
"This is not a cookie-cutter program where we give you the curriculum and it changes the world," she said. "The solution is more activity, better eating habits, start when they are young, and have fun. Really, that's the solution to the obesity problem in this country."
Children are more likely to exercise if they have a variety of options, she said. She urged doctors not to write blanket excuses from exercise, but to encourage options they can accomplish.
"Just because Johnny has sprained his thumb doesn't mean he can't walk," she said.
Randall Higgins covers news in Cleveland, Tenn., for the Times Free Press. He started work with the Chattanooga Times in 1977 and joined the staff of the Chattanooga Times Free Press when the Free Press and Times merged in 1999. Randall has covered Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia and Alabama. He now covers Cleveland and Bradley County and the neighboring region. Randall is a Cleveland native. He has bachelor’s degree from Tennessee Technological University. His awards ...
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