RESPECT

As I speak to physical education teachers around the country, one common frustration I hear from the PE teachers, “I do not feel my PE program is respected”

We need to take a serious look at this problem and look at some solutions. The good news, there are solutions to getting respect for your PE program.

The first reason why your PE program is not respected is because of the PE delivery in the past that turned off so many people and tainted the reputation of PE. Once school administrators, parents and school board members develop a perception of PE, it is sometimes hard to change that deep seeded perception. We must deal with the reality of the PE reputation and perception that was created over many years.

I know it is frustrating when you work very hard to provide a quality PE program and no one seems to care. So what can we do?

My first suggestion is “change your script”. The first question you must ask yourself……how is your present methods working for you promoting your program? What is your message? How are you delivering it and to whom?

We have never been in a better position to “sell” the value of PE to our nation. Here are a few suggestions of topics that need to be covered……….

1.     We have a national childhood obesity epidemic which eventually is going to cause a major long term health care cost our nation will not be able to handle……childhood obesity could even creeate a bigger crisis than our present economic crisis. A quality physical education program can be a long term solution to the childhood obesity problem.

2.     There is more and more evidence every day that physical education can have a positive impact on academic performance. Many school administrators have not been exposed to this current research. Your job is to become knowledgeable in brain research and pass on the information to your community. This brain research is amazing and powerful in our messaging.

3.     Student behavior – yes physical education can have a major impact on your overall school climate and student behavior. School violence is a major issue in the US. There is not enough money for your PE program but schools are spending large amounts of money on school violence………security cameras, police officers, and metal detectors to name a few. Many of these school violence prevention programs are not designed to change student behavior but just another measure to control student’s behavior. Physical activity gets to the root of the problem and truly will change student behavior. There is strong evidence when schools increase student physical activity, the school will record dramatic decreases in student discipline issues.

4.     Let’s face it…..most decision are made …bottom line….the almighty dollar. Almost every state funds schools based on average daily attendance. Have you collected any data in your district? I am sure if you would investigate your fitness scores, the more fit students are, the better their attendance records. Another bonus, students with better attendance have a much better chance of learning.

How could anyone argue against a program that will improve the health of children, improve their academics, improve student behavior, and potentially bring more money to the school based on improved attendance?

This is a good start at “changing your script”. Of course there are many more components to a quality PE program that can be used to “sell” your program.

So my first recommendation was to “change your script”………my second recommendation is to change your audience.

When I first started my local plan for advocacy for PE, my focus was on my peers. I felt I needed to convince veteran PE teachers we needed to change our approach. Our NEW PE objective was to make the health and wellness of students our number one priority. Did we eliminate the sports model? NO…….we decided that the sports model to not meet the needs of every student that walked in the door. We now use F.I.T.S. to describe our program, F.itness I.ntergrated T.hrough S.ports. We still use the sport model but our main focus and objective of our PE program is on student fitness. We now have a program that meets the needs of every child in our school.

I recommend every PE teacher in your school evaluate what they are teaching based on “enduring understandings”. They must ask the tough question…….. Does what I am teaching my students have value for them today, but more importantly does it have long term value the rest of the lives. (dodge ball does not meet the requirements). Many curriculums in the past did not have long term value for students; hence, PE was not RESPECTED.

After some battles, I convinced local PE teachers we needed to change and they did….but I soon found out that was not enough.

I moved on to my next targeted audience………school administrators. Many of you may find it difficult getting administrators to “respect” your program. Remember part one….”change your script”.  All school administrators want to be successful……if you can “sell” them on a program that will be good for students” eventually they will listen.

I soon learned educating the school board was just as important as educating the building principal. When is the last time your PE department made a presentation to your school board? This is not a onetime project, school boards are always changing.

If you run into road blocks, and you will………..then you need to take one more very important step………….

I call this “selling PE” a three step process……step one I call “bottom up”…..bottom up is educating the PE teachers…..step two is called “top down”….educating the school administrators and school board.

The third step might be the most important…this step is called “outside in”……you need to educate all the power brokers outside the school building……..start with the parents but the message must reach a boarder base. A few suggestions……..”Sell” your program to the mayor, chamber of commerce, philanthropist, local doctors and hospitals, every civic group in town invested in your community and have a passion for children. The list goes on and on……if you run into roadblocks inside your school, this final step “inside out” will bring about change. The community leaders can have a big influence on school leaders, power you do not have alone.

I am now going to give you some very importance advice as your reach out to your community. One problem, most PE teachers have been beaten down for so many years they begin to develop a defensive style of defending their program. Some get so discouraged they actually find them self whining about not being respected rather than taking a positive approach.

The real key to reaching out to the community is have confidence in your product (PE) do not beg for support, change your attitude, and your approach. When you “sell” your program to the community, when you finish, they should feel like they are lucky to support your program, rather than you feeling lucky to be getting their support. I hope you understand the difference in the approach. We have a great product, you must believe in it with such a passion, others willing to support you must feel fortunate to support your cause, and they will. If these helpful hints to get support for your program do not work, do not give up, please contact PE4life for support. We have helped countless PE teachers, that were discouraged, and soon they were amazed at the support and RESPECT for their program.

I have hundreds of examples of schools that have used PE4life for support. I want to give just one example of a success story. It took me several months to convince a school district in Michigan to use PE4life for support. One step of support is attending training at one of our academies. The key is bringing the right team. This Michigan school said they did not have the money to invest in the training. Finally the local hospital paid for the training. We had another road block, one of the key players, the Superintendent, did not have time in his busy schedule to attend the training. He finally gave in, after the PE4life training; this administrator completed changed his perception of PE. Since that time they have sent three groups back for training. The community through the leadership of the Superintendent has made a major commitment to improve their PE program. Remember this school did not have any money for training but after training they committed $80,000 just into the middle school PE program. Remember people will spend money on things they value.

Change your script is suggestion number one, change your audience is suggestion number two……there is a third suggestion that might need to be considered……change your program. Hopefully you have changed your program to a health and wellness philosophy, but if you have not……….and your program is not respect…….you need to change.

Trust me, this advice will work, it might take time, but I promise you, your program will gain more RESPECT than you ever imagined.

I speak from experience……I want to share a few of the “success” results in our district following this philosophy of “selling” PE and gaining RESPECT.

1.     Our parents rated physical education the number one curriculum for satisfaction above science, math, and reading.

2.     When we were not respected…..we had a very small budget. PE is not financed equal to all other subject areas.

3.     Our student participation is at a high level – every day. We have collected great data that brought RESPECT to our program.

4.     One group I forgot to have you target – your teaching peers, in all subject areas. All teachers in all subject areas have a RESPECT and value our PE program.

5.     Physical Education has become part of our school and community culture. If I described our education system as a wheel – if every subject area was a spoke of the educational wheel, physical education would be the hub of the wheel.

In closing I want to leave you with a couple thoughts………words of wisdom from the great mind of Albert Einstein ….his definition of INSANITY……..”Doing the same thing you have always done…..and expecting different results.” How many of you are caught in that trap….try something different to gain RESPECT for your program. In this day and age, with all we have to offer, I cannot believe PE programs are not RESPECTED.

Last thought………………remember…….’WHAT YOU TOLERATE……..YOU WILL NOT CHANGE”

I went from the Rodney Dangerfield of Education…….”absolutely NO RESPECT”………to building a PE program that is now respected beyond my dreams. A medical doctor said “ PE teachers can have a bigger impact on the health of our nation than doctors”….that is RESPECT

If you still need help at getting RESPECT……..turned to PE4life for assistance

I pride myself in being opened minded and feel I have the ability to see both side of an issue. I am especially opened minded to any idea that helps promotes (quality) physical education. I have kept this topic on the back burner for a couple years now. I hesitated to write about it because my views are very strong to one side. I have read article after article about the positive impact of this program, but no article has convinced me to change my view. The topic I am referring to is “Online PE”. The first time I heard the term “online PE”, I thought the term was an oxymoron.

Having been a physical education teacher at the secondary level for over 30 years, my first thought, it was sometimes hard enough to motivate students to exercise when the students were in front of me, how would I motivate a student only responding to me on a computer. About the time PE was starting to make a comeback in America, this new idea has caused even fewer PE classes being offered in high schools across America.

When PE barely exist in American High Schools (Less than 2% of US high schools offer daily PE), why did we need a system that would cut back on PE classes in schools. High School PE in the United States is a almost a dinosaur.

A childhood obesity epidemic has drawn the attention of our society to reconsider the value of quality PE. Schools across the country are investigating the value of a quality physical education program. The problem is, some educational leaders have not investigated past their perception of old PE, dodge ball and rope climb, and have not discovered the endless value of a quality (PE4life) PE program.

I know our school district puts an emphasis on the value of self directed learners, but I think online PE maybe carrying this a little too far. Isn’t online PE a slam at professionally trained, highly qualified PE teachers around the country? How qualified do you have to be to have students send you an email once a week to report how physically active they were during the week. I do not believe I need a college degree to teach “online PE”. Since I have never taught online PE, someone educate me on accountability. I was told parents just sign a note to verify student progress, anything wrong with that picture?

I know high schools have conflicts created with so many graduation requirements, students have trouble fitting in important classes to their schedule. Is there a more important class than one that prepares children to lead a healthy life? It is sad we turn over such an important curriculum to chance.

 Our high school has over 3000 students, and everyone takes daily PE all four years. At the same time we are academically successful. In fact, PE has become one of the most important core subjects in our school. As the nation faces a childhood obesity epidemic (33% overweight or obese) our district has only 5% rate of students overweight or obese. We now have documented proof from Harvard, a fit child learns better. Our PE4life program has a pilot program called Learning Readiness PE. We have dramatically improved reading and math scores using physical activity. Our high school schedules students into PE the period before their most difficult class.

We also know a fit child behaves better. With school violence being a major educational issue in American schools, how valuable is a curriculum that will improve student behavior? Schools are spending millions of dollars on security cameras, metal detectors, and school security officers. Would it make sense to spend money on a quality PE curriculum that will actually change student behavior not just monitor behavior.

I believe nearly 25 states have approved online PE. If a school district does not offer quality PE or daily PE, maybe online PE is better than NO PE. Does our society really feel we will solve the childhood obesity crisis with online PE? If your community had a PE4life program, they would not have a need to introduce online PE.

I have read all the articles about the value of online PE. I have read several students’ testimonies on how great it works. I hope to hear from some readers so they convince me a child can learn better from a computer than a highly qualified PE teacher in a PE4life type program.