Posted on Sun, Jul. 27, 2003
By Donna Gehrke-White

Physical education has become so popular at South Miami High that kids snake a line around the gym just to have a go at the school's new rock-climbing wall or use the fitness equipment in its new state-of-the-art workout center.

''It actually gets me working out every day,'' says Alejandro Diaz, who just finished his freshman year and favors a stationary bike. ``It really works out my legs.''

In fact, the school's new physical education computer calculates that he has increased his calf muscle tone by 25 percent since taking to the bike this spring.

And that is the focus of today's P.E.: to get kids interested in their own physical fitness and teach them lifelong skills to keep them active and healthy.

This past school year, the Miami-Dade School System received a $452,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to set up state-of-the-art fitness centers at South Miami and five other high schools to give students more individualized athletic training. The school system is hoping to put fitness centers in all its high schools. Broward also is applying for the government's Carol M. White Physical Education for Progress (PEP) Grants to stimulate interest in personal fitness in middle schools.

It's never been more needed, with parents increasingly worrying that their children's lack of physical activity may cause obesity -- even diabetes. A new California study also suggests that kids do better in school if they are physically active.

Around the country, other school districts are following Miami-Dade and coming up with their own individualized training during P.E. classes.

In fact, states such as Texas and North Carolina find physical education so important that they are making the classes mandatory, says Paula Kun, director of public relations for the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

At the same time, physical education is often on the losing end when schools become overwhelmed with budget problems, overcrowding and the need for students to excel on standardized tests.

Result: Schools cut back on P.E. classes, even recess for the pint-size.

''The reality is that all these state budgets are being cut tremendously, so physical education, art and music are the first to go,'' Kun says.

Case in point: Starting this fall, students in Florida high schools can graduate in three years by skipping P.E., art and most electives.

Even Texas, which is making P.E. mandatory, is not increasing funding to hire more PE teachers.

Result: Kun thinks some Texas P.E. teachers may have 100 or more in a
class ``when the size of a normal class is 25 to 30.''

South Miami High principal Craig Speziale understands the pressures that schools are under. He, after all, has to work on getting his students to pass the FCAT to earn a high school diploma.

But Speziale says schools can't cut back on physical education.

''We believe in a well-rounded student and we believe in a well-rounded curriculum. Physical education -- that's part of it,'' he says.

''It gives them confidence and self-esteem,'' adds Paula Raflowitz, the lead teacher for South Miami's PEP grant program.

More than nine out of 10 parents in the United States agreed on the importance of physical education in a national survey of 2,038 adults that was conducted by the New Jersey-based Opinion Research Corporation International for the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

Some 95 percent of parents with children younger than 18 believe P.E. should be part of school, from kindergarten to high school, according to the survey.

More than three of four think more exercise in school could control or cut down on the number of obese children in the United States, which has tripled in the last 20 years.

And they think regular, daily physical activity helps children do better academically, the poll also found.

A California study backs up the parents.

The California Department of Education matched reading and math test scores of 353,000 fifth graders, 322,000 seventh graders and 279,000 ninth graders with their scores on a state-required physical fitness test that assesses endurance, percentage of body fat, abdominal strength, endurance and overall flexibility.

The educators found that academic achievement -- especially in math -- correlated with a higher level of fitness in all three grades.

''This statewide study provides compelling evidence that the physical well-being of students has a direct impact on their ability to achieve academically,'' Delaine Eastin, California Superintendent of Public Instruction, says on the website of the National Association for Sport & Physical Education, www.aahperd.org/naspe/.

''Thousands of years ago, the Greeks understood the importance of improving spirit, mind and body,'' Eastin adds. ``The research presented here validates their philosophic approach with scientific validation.''

Still, P.E. is one of the first classes to go when schools have a time or budget crunch.

Take Kevin Smith, who just finished seventh grade at Silver Trail Middle in Pembroke Pines.

This past school year, he signed up for P.E. for one quarter -- only to be told the school wouldn't be holding any seventh grade P.E. for budget reasons.

A disappointed Kevin says, ``I like to play sports outside.''

He missed not being able to run and jump. The previous school year, he had learned exercises such as chin-ups on bars on the school's outdoor exercise trail. P.E. also served, he adds, to ''wake him up'' to go back to his rigorous classes in Silver Trail's gifted program.

''I think it makes them more alert,'' agrees his mother Brenda, who also was disappointed that Kevin couldn't take P.E. last school year. ``A lot of employees work out during their lunch hour these days and come back more awake.''

The good news, though, is that Silver Trail Middle School principal Krista Herrera promises P.E. will be back for all grades this fall.

''I'm a staunch P.E. supporter,'' says Herrera, herself a former physical education teacher.

She is hoping to get heart monitors as well as individualized pedometers, which measure an athlete's distance, time and number of calories burned, to help kids set up their own personal fitness programs if Broward wins the U.S. grant.

Exercise is also needed as a break from academics.

Children, especially the very young, need time to run and play, just to blow off steam, says Howard Drive Elementary principal Florine Curtis, who is determined to keep recess in her curriculum for children in kindergarten to second grade. (Older pupils go to daily P.E. classes.)

''I think it is a much-needed break for the students,'' she says.

The children learn skills on the playground, she adds.

''They learn how to play together. They learn how to develop and enhance their social skills,'' Curtis says.

Today's P.E., though, has to do more: It must set students on a healthy lifestyle, to get away from the sedentary lifestyles so many kids now have, says Dr. Jayne Greenberg, executive director of Miami-Dade schools' Division of Life Skills & Special Projects.

''We're shaping the future,'' she says.

''We will still do skill development, but as I like to say, we've come far from bean bags and basketball,'' adds Elly Zanin, Broward's curriculum specialist for physical education.

The secret they have learned in both counties: Make it fun and the kids will come.

Take South Miami High sophomore Michael Hobbs.
Despite having cerebral palsy, Michael is in peak athletic shape -- he only has 17.2 percent body fat, the optimum level -- after lifting weights and doing other exercises at his school's new fitness center.

''I love it,'' he says. ``It's great exercise. It's more individualized. You can work at your own pace.''

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