70: Bad Education

The idea to include physical education as part of a child’s core curriculum is as uniquely American as Edison’s light bulb and the Blues. As early as the mid 1800’s American educators argued that, from kindergarten through to 12th grade, schools should provide children with the knowledge and activities necessary to maintain a high level of physical fitness for a lifetime.  In the mid 1950’s, President Eisenhower established the President’s Council on Youth Fitness (PCYF) urging schools to offer ‘15 minutes of daily, vigorous activity’.  And America’s Physical education system was born.

President Kennedy continued to address the issue of physical education, and although the PCYF did not have the authority to impose a national program, it developed and promoted a curriculum to improve fitness. Two hundred thousand copies were distributed in a sweeping drive to achieve widespread participation in the program for the 1961–1962 school year. The program produced a measurable improvement in fitness nationwide as well as a shift in public attitudes and wider participation. 

Today, however, Fitness classes are disappearing from the nation's public schools at an alarming rate, vanquished by ever-tightening budgets and time constraints. Only about half of students in grades K-12 have physical education classes every day, and even less for high school students. All at a time when there is a growing body of evidence showing exercise to be fertilizer for the brain. Exercise fosters brain development and growth, and physical activity prepares children to learn.

 If you are a parent with young children you must listen to our most recent episode, “Bad Education” with Robert Francis.  Robert explains how important exercise is for our children and details the fascinating, yet sobering history of the Physical Education system in American schools; from its roots, its original mission, how we diverged and what, as parents, we can do about it.

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Inform_R FRANCIS Ep 70 Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

physical education, exercise, sports, people, fitness, school, called, problems, education, athletics, early, teaching, educators, kids, gymnastics, plato, naperville, games, obesity, recreation

Arlene  00:01

The Inform fitness podcast with Adam Zickerman is a presentation of Inform fitness studios, a small family of personal training facilities specializing in safe, efficient high intensity strength training. On our BI monthly podcast, Adam discusses the latest findings in the area of exercise nutrition and recovery with leading experts and scientists, we aim to debunk the popular misconceptions and urban myths that are so prevalent in the fields of health and fitness. And to replace those sacred cows with scientific based up to the minute information on a variety of subjects will cover exercise protocols and techniques, nutrition, sleep, recovery, the role of genetics in the response to exercise, and much more. For this episode, Adam welcomes back Robert Francis, exercise historian and instructor at informed fitness. If you're a parent with young children, you must listen to bad education. Robert explains how important exercise is for our children and details the fascinating yet sobering history of the physical education system in American schools, from its roots, its original mission, how we diverged. And what as parents can we do about for the first time in American history, there is likely to be a generation dental are going to have a shorter lifespan than their pounds.

Adam  01:38

Well, I am so happy to bring back Robert Francis, once again, my mentor, so for so many years, who now have the honor of working with him for fitness. He has a fount of information, when I asked him about all the subjects that we should talk about, one subject that he likes to talk about, and he's well versed on is something that you don't normally hear me talking about, because I don't really know that much about it at all. Although Robert says I do no more than I think about it. So we're going to find out. And that is the subject of your original intent of our physical education system in the United States. You know, gym class and school, and how it compares to the actual present reality is how Robert likes to put it. So, Robert, I guess we'll start with this question. Why do you think this is an important subject for this podcast? Because you know, we normally talk about, you know, exercise fitness nutrition. So here, we're talking about the physical education system, the United States. So why do you think this is an important subject?

Robert  02:48

Well, we train hundreds of people a day in our studios. And I can see and you can see that people ask questions that they really ought to know the answers to people come in with problems that when we talk, we talk about how preventable so many of these problems are. And it's very clear that people have had an inadequate education for 12 years in the public school and kindergarten, on how to maintain their physical bodies. And in my view, a lot of what comes into our doors are not people wanting to optimize an already well moving body, but they're reconstructing a body that is falling apart from maladies and from conditions that are completely preventable, and that they ought to have been adequately educated in order to prevent they're coming in with problems that have to be dealt with. First, sometimes their injuries very often, it's obesity, and diabetes, there's a lot of makeup work that has to be done before we can put them on a course of really robust physical health. Well, you're

Adam  04:13

right. I mean, are you? Are you including a lot of orthopedic issues as well? Yes, sometimes? Yeah. But it's not just orthopedic issues. You're saying things like, you know, metabolic syndrome type stuff, you know, just obesity, high blood pressure, just just bad health,

Robert  04:27

and a lot of the problems that those things bring on mental distress, anxiety, depression, and all the rest of these things that had they been maintaining had they've been taught, according to original intent for physical education, the so

Adam  04:45

you're saying the original intent of our physical education system, you'll have to tell us when that started, actually, is that the 40s? Is that the 30s but the original intent whenever that was in our physical education system, United States, it was a good intent. They had good intentions and they did it well.

Robert  05:00

Well, physical education has been something that's always been in flux in this country. And it says some of it has to do with customs. And some of it has to do with cultural changes. But the original intent was so intelligent that it would apply today and top physical educators today are trying to get back to t...