The world changes each day with new gadgets to play with and more problems to worry about. Education has not been immune to those changes.

Money is tight, and educators are forced to teach to a set of standards that were not part of the curriculum 25 years ago. That combination doesn’t always allow kids to be kids.

The days of elementary students having morning and afternoon recess are long gone. And physical education class — like most nonreading, writing and arithmetic subjects — has been cut back as well.

Recently, it was announced that sixth-graders will no longer have a nine-week PE curriculum in the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. And elementary students — comprised of kindergarten through fifth-graders — participate in PE one day a week, for 40 minutes. Students at the Children’s Academy of New Albany, however, have PE twice a week.

All of this is happening at a time when child obesity rates continue to rise.

“All you have to do is look around,” said Amy Brown, a registered dietitian, clinical exercise specialist and certified diabetes educator at Floyd Memorial Hospital and Health Services. “Look at neighborhoods, look at local schools. Childhood obesity continues to rise at an alarming rate.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 percent of children, or more than 9 million, of 6- to 19-year-olds are overweight or obese — a number that has tripled since 1980.



PE NOT A PRIORITY?

Several teachers, parents and students spoke up at a recent New Albany-Floyd County School Corp. board meeting to voice their displeasure at sixth-grade PE being cut from the daily schedule.

A change earlier this year to move all middle and high schools to a seven-period-day schedule in an effort to save money had a side effect of cutting back some art and physical education classes, according to New Albany-Floyd County Superintendent Dennis Brooks.

“Kids need to play. Now, kids don’t do that,” said Russ Cook, a PE teacher, at the meeting. “We’re going to take away that movement [in school], and it’s only going to get worse.”

Cook said PE helps relieve stress and helps sixth-graders transition from elementary to middle school.

After the board meeting, Brooks said the change in scheduling reduced some elective options to make room for more remediation classes.

However, parents, teachers and students spoke out at the meeting, saying they don’t want PE or art scaled back at all. They said the classes are needed for a variety of reasons, such as to fight childhood obesity, teach healthy living habits, relieve stress and more.

Evan Rohde, 11, also confronted the board. The fifth-grader said he has a hard time sitting still and needs PE to get his energy out.

“I think it is sort of a waste of money to have four locker rooms, three basketball courts and a pool [at Highland Hills Middle School] if they are not going to be used,” he told the board. “I think kids get in less trouble if they can be physically active during the day ... everyone needs exercise, so please reconsider taking away PE from sixth grade.”

Brooks said after the meeting that PE had been offered previously at that grade level, but only for nine weeks.

“The move with PE isn’t very dramatic, but it’s a move,” he said, adding that he understood people’s concerns.



TODAY’S CHILDREN NOT AS ACTIVE?

Video games have replaced many outdoor activities. And most homes now have 60 television channels to choose from instead of four, which was the case in the 1970s. Inactivity has become the norm for today’s adolescents, rather than the exception.

“When we grew up, children averaged 15,000 steps a day. Now it’s half of that,” Brown said. “It was part of our lifestyle. There were a lot of activities we used to do ... like ride bikes. Those things aren’t there for us because there are safety concerns and parents aren’t home in the afternoon. That leads to more video games and TV watching.”

Which leads to more bad habits for children to fall into. Children’s health problems that are on the increase include diabetes and sleep apnea, Brown said.

She also said the entire family needs to be educated on proper nutrition and exercise, not just the child. She said the child is a product of its environment.

“With the economy the way it is, families are eating cheaper meals and more fast food,” she said. “The whole family needs to be eating healthier. The chances of a child being obese is dramatically greater if the parents are obese.”

Brown said school PE is important because many children do not play in organized sports and it gives them some physical activity.

Juli Hutson, an elementary PE teacher in the school corporation, said she sees more overweight kids than she did 16 years ago when she began her career. However, she said kids want to be active, but it’s society which has endured the most change.

“I think that it’s not the kids who have changed. They come to us wanting to move, explore, be creative and have plain good fun,” she said. “What has changed is what is available for kids — air condition, video and computer games, youth sports industry. It hasn’t been until the last 10 years or so of my career that I’ve had to convince kids that going out to play is fun and beneficial. It use to be a given.”



TEACHING LIFE SPORTS IN PE

With only 40 minutes a week to teach a child PE, Dale Berry wants her students to learn activities they can enjoy as they get older. She teaches roller skating, bowling, tennis and has a ski club. She also concentrates on heart-healthy activities like Jump Rope for Heart.

“It’s not kickball or dodgeball anymore. It’s more lifetime activities,” said the Floyds Knobs Elementary teacher. “I want to teach them something they can do as an adult. I want to make these activities fun so they will have a positive experience.”

She also talks to students about having the proper balance between television and exercise.

“I want to expose kids to as many different and new PE experiences so they may pick one up as an adult,” she said.

Hutson said that is the key to keeping their interest.

“You never know when you might turn that switch in a kid,” Hutson said.

She also said she has tried to integrate what she is doing into the curriculum.

“I think teachers know kids need it,” she said. “I think we have always been pretty welcomed and respected. They know what we are trying to do.”

She said organized youth sports have almost become a business, which has excluded some kids. She also said kids don’t try as many sports as they used to.

“Kids don’t explore anymore,” she said. “Sports are a business now. They are too organized for my taste. And a lot of kids don’t have access to organized or traveling leagues. They are at a disadvantage.”

That is why she teaches simple games to her students during the last three weeks of school so they will have something to do in the summer.

“It takes the whole community,” Berry said of fighting childhood obesity and inactivity. “Parents have to serve balanced meals, cut out fast food and limit video games and computer time. We all have to work together to achieve our goal so we will have healthier kids.”