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Educators:
Get physical
'It's hard to learn if you're
not healthy,' say advocates
for stepped-up physical
education programsAfter-school programs
By Crystal Kua
aid students
Star-BulletinComputer games, condemned playground equipment, a lack of physical education experts in the schools.
The upshot: Hawaii's schoolchildren may not be as fit as they should be, fitness experts say.
"Physical education has taken a back seat to technology," said Nathan Murata, an assistant professor in the University of Hawaii's Kinesiology and Leisure Science Department.
"(Children) learn great eye-hand coordination, but we have to get them motivated to physical activity."
Events such as a planned Keiki Fitness Invitational on Sunday -- a fund-raiser to expand fitness programs throughout Oahu schools -- are responding to the call for more activities to get kids physically fit.
Murata said programs such as these are a plus, especially in augmenting classroom physical education lessons.
FITNESS FUND-RAISER
What: Keiki Fitness Invitational, a fund-raiser for Hawaii Afterschool Fitness programs.
For more information or to register, call 235-4487 or Lisa Little at 256-7875.
Proceeds will benefit Hawaii Afterschool Fitness programs.
"Our profession as a whole is trying to advocate for more quality daily activity," he said.
Hawaii students are like their peers across the country when it comes to sedentary lifestyles, Murata said. They stay indoors to play video games or use the Internet rather than go outside to play.
Lisa Little, one of the organizers of Sunday's fitness event, said she has heard from parents that the dismantling of condemned playground equipment has led to less active kids at recess, which is affecting schoolwork.
"The kids don't have an outlet for their energies, so their energies are being pent up and stored in them," Little said. "When they go back into class, they're fidgety, they can't focus as well, and teachers are having difficulty trying to focus their attention on their studies."
Murata said that physical education doesn't hurt academics and that there is at least anecdotal evidence that it has a positive effect on learning.
"It's hard to learn if you're not healthy," said Steve Nakasato, principal at Mililani Waena Elementary School.
Nakasato, who up until earlier this month was the state Department of Education specialist for health and physical education, said all schools are required to have some form of physical education program.But the majority of elementary schools do not have physical education resource teachers -- regular classroom teachers who have extra training in physical education -- to assist in developing lessons.
"You don't have as many P.E. resource teachers now as you did five years ago," Nakasato said.
The task of teaching physical education is now left to the classroom teachers.
Murata said there is also an effort to get more physical education specialists -- teachers who are certified to teach physical education -- into the elementary classrooms. Currently, physical education specialists are only required in secondary schools where the subject is needed for graduation.
But Murata said that the trend is changing and that more attention is being paid to physical education.
"I think more people know the value of being healthy," Murata said. He points to the 80 percent of graduates in his department having found employment as evidence that schools want quality physical education programs.
Also, inclusion of physical education standards in the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards is a good sign. "People are realizing the importance of physical education. They're trying to support that and embrace that," Murata said.
After-school programs
aid studentsAn isle organization takes fitness activities
By Crystal Kua
to students who cannot participate otherwise
Star-BulletinGYMNASTICS coach Joe Rapp wants to get fitness programs to as many children as possible.
"Our goal is not only to teach gymnastics to kids, but to go out and help promote fitness throughout the state," said Rapp, executive director of Hawaiian Island Twisters.
To answer the need, Rapp's organization started after-school outreach fitness programs at a handful of mostly Windward Oahu preschools, public schools and private schools.
The idea of the outreach programs is to reach children who cannot get to gymnastics or other activities because both parents work and the kids cannot get rides.
The 45-minute, nine-week outreach programs, which cost $30, takes fitness activities to the schools. "We teach right at the schools," outreach director Lisa Little said.
The outreach program covers warm-ups, stretches, conditioning, endurance training, lower and upper body strength and cardiovascular. "Each child is evaluated at their own level, and by the end of the nine-week session, they would have progressed in some manner," Little said.
The organization is holding the Keiki Fitness Invitational Sunday at 9 a.m. at Bloch Arena to raise money to expand the outreach programs to more schools on Oahu.
The invitational will be set up for children to rotate from event to event -- push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, sprints, a flexibility test -- and earn points. Winners in each division will receive a prize, and every child will be given something for participating.
Organizers said the fund-raiser is an opportunity for children to have fun and get fit.
Rapp's organization received a grant from the Seto Foundation -- a private foundation in Hawaii that benefits health, education and welfare programs -- to start 13 after-school fitness programs.
The money that will be raised from the invitational and other possible fund-raisers will be matched by the foundation up to $10,000 and will be used to open 10 new programs.
