Physical Activity or Physical Education
Gym class. Some of us may have memories of a brusque man tossing a ball into the middle of the gym, telling us to play, and occasionally blowing a whistle. Popular culture certainly portrays the “gym teacher” in this way, or worse, sometimes they’ are even the villain. I put gym teacher in quotes in the last sentence because my dad would get angry with me if he heard that term, or “gym class” for that matter. You see, my father considers himself a physical educator. When people mistakenly call him a gym teacher, which is most of the time, he will replyreplies with the quip: “The gymnasium is the room that I teach in, but I am a physical education teacher.” There is something much more important going on here than mere semantics. Is this pop-culture view of the gym teacher causing harm to students in recent years? I believe so.
My father has been a physical educator for a little over twenty 20 years. Even so, for a long time I had the same negative view of gym teachers as most people. That was until I began to study education myself. I definitely wasn’t going to be a gym teacher, oh no, it was literature for me. I would be a high school English teacher, but that didn’t sound quite right. It reminded me of my dad’s quips. I wasn’t going to teach English, I was going to teach literature. That thought stayed in the back of my mind until, for a class assignment, I went to watch my dad teach. That’s when I finally realized the difference between a gym teacher and a physical education teacher.
My dad did n’ot just toss a ball and tell the kids to go play. He was teaching these kids how to be physically fit. He taught them proper nutrition, how the different muscle groups worked, the different types of exercises that one could do for differentto achieve results, and that was just the beginning. He taught the difference between exercises for muscle strength, muscle endurance, and elasticity. He showed them the proper way to stretch and the proper way to cool down. In short, he was teaching his elementary class how to be physically fit. Most importantly he was instilling a love of his subject in his students. That is truly the goal of any good teacher, because it means the students will continue to learn that subject and delight it in long after they have left you.
Unfortunately, not everyone has seen real physical education. More unfortunately, those making education policy don’t seem to have either. We all know that physical education budgets are being cut around the country, because it’ is seen as unnecessary. However, studies like such as this one, which was recently published in the American Heart Journal, show that proper physical education can help reduce the current obesity epidemic that is plaguing American children.
The Institute of Medicine(IOM) recently released a the report on obesity in America Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation. They say thatAccording to the IOM, “Two-thirds of adults and one-third of children are overweight or obese. Left unchecked, obesity’s effects on health, health care costs, and our productivity as a nation could become catastrophic.” Theyreport lists many recommendations for preventing obesity. One in particularcaught my eye, which calling called for “at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day”, caught my eye.. This is wonderful, but it leaves room for a problem that occurs in many schools that do have a requirement for physical activity time. There[A1] is a huge difference between physical activity and physical education. This difference has to be brought to light. The report also calls for health care providers to have an expanded role [A2]in obesity prevention. Hopefully this post can give nurses new insight into this problem, and bring awareness as to the difference between physical activity and physical education.
[A1]Maybe tie this back in to the beginning – something like, as my father shas stressed to me or something…I also think you may need to add in one more sentence here to make it clear what you are trying to say..something explaining this “huge difference” – (i.e., after all, being let out at recess is not the same as practicing targeted exercises to achieve physical fitness – or somehing
[A2]Is there an example we could throw in here from the report? Just to make this even more relevant for nurses?