From the Publisher…

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter." (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865, Lewis Carroll)

Happy New Year 2011

The cat's sage advice to Alice kicks off 2011 with what continues to be the greatest single threat to physical education's future: A lack of agreement about where we are going and what we are trying to do. This absence of consensus and clear direction is responsible for the disrespect physical education continues to endure in educational and public circles. It explains why physical education and the people who teach it are so often joked about. It explains why school administrators accept pretty much anything as a reasonable PE "curriculum" so long as no one gets hurt. And in the spirit of "anything goes" it also explains why physical education is usually the first on the chopping block of program cuts.

This month, pelinks4u features two contributions by authors concerned about the absence of national curriculum guidelines.
The first is a guest editorial entitled Elementary Physical Education: Stuck in the Mud (below) by Sam Baumgarten, author of an elementary text and professor at Bridgewater State University. Sam believes that elementary physical education has remained largely unchanged for many years. The problem, he believes, is our failure to be able to articulate what we do. And he recalls it was a topic discussed more than 30 years ago at a national convention. Today, like then, he suggests, "Our curriculum is often more related to some new toy, a piece of equipment, or the latest fad."

In an article entitled Toward a Common Physical Education Curriculum, Terry Langton, elementary physical education teacher and author from Hanover (MA) public schools describes some of the key components of a national physical education curriculum. He discusses potential benefits, and illustrates what the national curriculum in Great Britain looks like. Take a look. Understand that a national curriculum does NOT mean everyone has to teach the same thing at the same time! Too often perceived in the USA as an unworkable and impractical option, a national curriculum is not some type of bureaucratic Soviet style state imposed socialistic educational system. It leaves plenty of room for individual creativity. More importantly, it creates a common framework for the profession.

In Memories of an Old Gym, Jim Stiehl and Juan-Miguel Fernandez-Balboa remind us why we chose to become physical educators. It's something easily forgotten amidst the woes, worries, and too-common sadness of today's world. Inside the gym, physical educators can create worlds of wonder and delight. Physical educators can raise children's spirits and help them discover the joy of movement. It's our reason for being and Memories of an Old Gym serves as an inspiration.

Just Start Walking describes a simple lifestyle change that author Ron Kirk believes is one of the easiest to sustain. In this article, Kirk outlines the many health benefits of walking, and shares his hopes that the Just Start Walking program he created will inspire a global movement towards becoming more habitually physically active. Kirk includes a PowerPoint presentation about the program.

In Be Hear Now Exuberant Animal creator, Frank Forencich challenges us to ditch our iPods and other music technology when exercising. Years ago, I was bemused when my then teenage son told me he needed an iPod to keep him motivated when exercising. To me, the joy of exercising was the sensation of the body in motion and the chance to connect with my body. Apparently not so for teenagers! In this essay, Forencich discusses the "epidemic of sensory distortion" or "schizophonia" experienced by many of today's exercisers. He suggests "the iPod heaps disrespect on the training process and trivializes it." He believes that those who need music to get through exercise should find a different physical activity they can enjoy.

One new activity you might like to try in 2011 is Tai Chi. In addition to offering many health benefits, Tai Chi is a form of exercise that can be done anywhere and does not demand much space. In New Year Resolution for Health: Doing Simple Tai Chi, professor Wei Bian from Slippery Rock University explains how to perform three basic Tai Chi movements. Why not try them first at home, and then share with your students as a warm up or for a classroom activity?

Ring in the New Year with Technology Resolutions seeks to help us become better technology users when we are not being physically active. Author, Martha Beagle provides links to safe (appropriate) web sites that teachers can use to help their students locate information and then share it with others. If you use technology with your students, build web sites, or want to improve your presentation skills check out the resources listed in this article.

For children with disabilities, physical activity can be both a liberating and learning experience. Cerebral palsy typically occurs at birth and affects the brain's ability to control movement and posture. It can't be cured, but carefully selected and practiced exercises can help children learn how to accomplish challenging tasks and improve their quality of life. In Cerebral Palsy and Intellectual Disabilities, Jennifer Ostroff writes about the causes of this disability and ways that physical educators can help their students.

Wishing you Health and Happiness in 2011

Steve Jefferies, publisher
pelinks4u

ps. Please plan to share your ideas for physical education's future at the PE2020 Forum on March 29th at the San Diego Convention.

GUEST EDITORIAL:

ELEMENTARY PHYSICAL EDUCATION: STUCK IN THE MUD!
By Sam Baumgarten, Professor and Chair, Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, MA

In the fall of 2009, Steve Jefferies, in a pelinks4u editorial, asked some critical questions: Can we ever agree on the purpose of physical education? Who's for a national physical education curriculum? Isn't it puzzling that we haven't yet agreed upon national outcomes? Further, Jefferies expressed concerns about our failure to take control of our own destiny, or provide evidence as to what we claim to accomplish.

These questions and concerns have been a constant source of disquiet during my 40+ years in the profession, most of which were spent as an elementary physical educator. This unrest about my profession was fueled recently by a coincidental discovery of an audiotape from the 1984 AAHPERD convention in Anaheim. The title of the recorded session was, "Framing the Problem of Content in Elementary Physical Education."

Among the speakers was Kate Barrett, now professor emeritus at University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Before introducing Barrett, the presider (who was not identified on the tape) framed the issue by reporting on a series of comments made at a previous day's session, which focused on perceptions of elementary physical education from the point of view of a school board member, an administrator, and a parent. The administrator claimed that it was difficult to support physical education because, in most programs, there was no clear body of knowledge, no scope and sequence, and no way to identify progress or accumulation of skills. In other words, we couldn't articulate what we do!

Barrett saw this as a serious problem to our survival, and, in fact, had first broached the issue as far back as 1974 at an elementary physical education conference in Wisconsin. Barrett honed in on this problem of content by simply listing the kinds of offerings one finds at most national conventions. I will update her list by sharing some session titles from recent State and National AHPERD conventions: Creative Basketball, School Yoga, Science Enriched PE, Think Fitness-Play Games, Getting Your Students Hooked on Fishing, Jump Rope for Heart, Off the Wall: Activities that Support Traverse Wall Climbing, Rope Jumping for Fun and Fitness, Chinese Jump Rope Secrets, Bodies and Brains in Motion, A Journey through Movement, Literacy and Ritual: Tools for Creating Dances, Fitness Infused Instant Activity, Adventure Orienteering, Super Balls, Super Games (Omnikin balls), Fitness Stacking, Kin-Ball Sport, Fun with Discs, Noodle Mania - Using Pool Noodles to Enhance PE, The ABC's of Circus Education, etc., etc. The list could go on.

As this list hints at, and as Barrett also noted, our curriculum is often more related to some new "toy," a piece of equipment, or the latest fad. How often do we hear people say, "I’m teaching beanbags today," or, for beanbags, substitute cup stacking, hoops, scooters, etc. Too much of our curriculum is just a bunch of unrelated activities (meant to meet the goal of "having fun"), with no clear outcomes and no connection to some underlying foundation. For Barrett, these lists indicate a reluctance to think critically about curriculum and our inability to conceptualize movement. We do not take advantage of a sound and growing body of knowledge about movement (Laban's Framework, for example), motor development, and task analysis/presentation.

While we have certainly made progress over the past 26 years since Barrett's Anaheim presentation, including the publication of national standards, appropriate practices documents, and assessment models (PE Metrics), we are still, in the widest view, "stuck in the mud." Too many programs still lack that comprehensive, conceptual foundation that Barrett called for. Too many are stuck in the toys mode and jump from one random activity to another. Team games/sports are still the overwhelming curriculum choice, while gymnastics/body management disappears, and dance remains an after-thought.

Perhaps we should, as Jefferies alludes to, consider a national curriculum as in the United Kingdom. The UK curriculum has clear strands - games/manipulative skills, dance, gymnastics/body management skills, aquatics, outdoor education (including adventure activities), fitness, and athletics (track and field) - rather clear outcomes at what are called Key Stages through the grades, and a strong foundation in basic movement (again, Laban's Framework). Without such clarity and foundational concepts, we will accomplish little. As Barrett pointed out, many programs only see children once per week. If we count K-6 as the elementary years, this gives such schools 126 hours to "physically educate" students, a difficult task with the best of curricula, but impossible with our current hodge podge!

I urge my colleagues at all levels to develop clear curricula, supported by research-based best practice, which follow our national standards and appropriate practice guidelines. Make sure that students are participating in well-rounded programming, with no program areas marginalized. We owe our students nothing less, and our survival as a school subject demands such efforts.

- Sam Baumgarten

Sam Baumgarten, Chair, MAHPLS Department
Professor Sam Baumgarten has been at Bridgewater State College since 1979. For twenty years, through 1999, he was the physical educator at the Burnell Campus Laboratory School. He developed a model elementary physical education program, which received recognition as the outstanding program in Massachusetts. Sam is the co-author of a textbook on elementary physical education entitled, Elementary Physical Education: Building a Solid Movement Foundation. He has received Teacher of the Year and Dance Educator of the Year awards from the MAHPERD and from the Eastern District of AAHPERD. Dr. Baumgarten is an avid runner and competes in senior track and road racing events.