| Do
More + Eat Right = Stay Healthy
What can physical educators
do about the worsening overweight and obesity crisis that's impacting
their students? Certainly it's a mistake to think that we alone
can solve the problem. Any real solution clearly is going to take
the combined effort of families, schools, media, government, and
others. But we can and should do our part to address the problem,
and this month pelinks4u announces the start of a small
initiative.
A couple of months ago
we invited readers to design a t-shirt with the words Do
More, Eat Right, Stay Healthy. We felt that discussions
about obesity had become overly complex. There's certainly no one
simple solution to preventing excessive weight gain. But it seems
obvious to us that the fundamental problem is that children are
doing too little, and eating (probably excessively) the wrong kinds
of food.
Were it easy to change
these behaviors, we wouldn't be facing today's health problems.
However, we do think that it's important for students to at least
understand what they need to do to stay healthy. We felt the message
needed to be simple to understand and easy to remember - hence our
slogan contest.
This month we're pleased
to reveal the design selected for our promotional t-shirts, but
more importantly to offer physical educators the chance to receive
some of the 20,000 bookmarks
we created to promote our Do More, Eat
Right, Stay Healthy campaign. In trying to think up
inexpensive ways that teachers could promote the message to their
students, bookmarks seemed to be something that students could regularly
use, and might perhaps remind them of this important health message.
If
you are one of the first 100 physical educators to contact us, we
will send you 200 of these bookmarks at no cost. We'll even pay
postage! You can use these bookmarks
however you wish - as incentives to certain students or to all students
in a certain grade. Just email us at pelinks@pelinks4u.org
with your school postal mail address. Our only request is that you
share with us any interesting stories about how your kids or their
families respond (picture
of bookmark).
If you're interested,
we also have the slogan on black or white t-shirts. These are available
through the PE Store (click logo at top of page). As with all things
related to pelinks4u, these items are offered at little
more than cost and any profits help to support the pelinks4u
web site (and allow us to give away items!).
PE Today and
Tomorrow
You may (or may not)
have noticed that for the past few months we have also featured
some videos on this web site. In the next column, you’ll see
that this month's video is an interview with DR.
CATHY ENNIS. About 10 years ago I was fortunate
enough to video-interview 15 well-known physical educators. These
interviews were edited onto videotapes (sometime to be converted
to DVDs) in a series entitled PE Today and Tomorrow. The
interviews provide a fascinating insight into the status of PE at
that time, together with predications for the future.
Although these interviews
are available for purchase - and would be a great resource for teacher
educators - you can watch them absolutely free through clicking
on the link provided each month on this page. As noted, you do need
to download "Real Player" (free),
but after that the video will simply stream through your computer.
If you haven't already
viewed any of these videos, I urge you to take a look and enjoy
the insights of these dedicated and knowledgeable physical educators.
It's a treat.
Athletics and
Obesity
And finally, I have
to admit that I was a bit disappointed at the lack of much response
to a recent editorial. Last month, in our coaching
section I suggested that school athletic programs could play
a prominent role in addressing today's obesity problems. The last
time I questioned the purpose of interscholastic athletics several
football coaches in Texas questioned my sanity. Am I to assume that
my recent perspective was right?
Enjoy the rest of the
Fall.
Steve
Jefferies (steve@pelinks4u.org),
Publisher, pelinks4u |
