A Gym Class That Really Works Out

Oct. 23, 2006 — -- Remember the good old days of gym class, when you hated being the last kid picked for flag football or waited half a class period for your turn with the basketball?

Unfortunately, in the majority of physical education classes across the country, not much has changed. Not only are most PE classes sub par, students also get less exercise time than they need.

According to the 2006 Shape of the Nation, a joint project between the American Heart Association and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, the percentage of students who take PE daily dropped from 42 percent in 1991 to 28 percent in 2003.

The study also found that about a third of states in America do not mandate physical education for elementary and middle school students.

This is unsettling news, particularly in light of skyrocketing childhood obesity rates. Approximately 25 million American children and teens are either overweight or on the verge of being overweight, which boosts their risk of diabetes, heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure and cancer.

A new program based in San Diego wants to change all that. Sports, Play and Active Recreation For Kids, better known as SPARK, is a research-based organization that applies innovative techniques to traditional PE programs to promote health and wellness and to maximize kids' gym time.

"Teachers often spend a little too much time managing students, putting out discipline problems, taking roll, talking a little bit too much," said Paul Rosengard, SPARK's executive director. "And we would like to see the kids moving a lot more."

Breaking the class into small groups, providing enough equipment for everyone and playing games where no one is picked last are some of the goals of SPARK, which has reached out to more than 1 million students nationwide, including the children at Everett Elementary School in Everett, Pa.

"In old PE I was the last picked," said 10-year-old Trevon Ward, a fifth grader at Everett Elementary. "It was boring because I would have to sit and watch them. And then when I did get picked, it was only a short time of playing and it wasn't that fun. [Now] it's really fun because we all get to play together."