Public Health in Oregon - Join The Conversation

This was a very interesting topic. I don’t think physical education has ever been given enough credit. Most P.E teachers make much less than a classroom teacher, yet their jobs are equally important. The classroom is obviously a huge part of learning, but physical education is apart of learning, and life! At a young age physical education classes teach you to get along with others, teach you skills you can use for the rest of your life, and it keeps you in good shape. So many people are becoming obese, and learning good physical activity habits starts with P.E and starts at a young age.

chris, i LOVED the presidential fitness program and i wore my patches proudly.  it still exists: http://www.fitness.gov/resources/index.html (BTW, nominations for their community leadership award are due feb 1, 2010).

there is a TON of research about the benefits of participation in sports/physical activity and the shortcomings of what is available.  may i invite you to visit the website of the Boston Youth Sports Initiative (http://www.bostonyouthsports.org/ResearchYouthSports.aspx), a site that i maintain, where you will find quite a bit of relevent research.  highlights:
* youth development through sport is a promising practice
* well trained coaches are better for kids
* programs need to be designed differently for different populations

Great thoughts and comments on this issue. We’ll continue to wrestle with this issue of physical activity in schools given state and local budgets will be hit hard in this economy. This is a national issue, and one that requires we rethink not what, but how we are teaching in schools. Adults serve as a poor model in our daily routines: desk-centric regimens that don’t take advantage of learning opportunities that involve physical activity. If we consider making learning more interACTIVE (not meaning using digital technology), we could integrate physical education into their core education activities.

Thanks for your kind information. I like your blog very much because of its interesting topics. Like healthy food and exercise etc.

Physical education, like most education, should not be the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire. This should be fostered in K-12 education, but options need to be available for students of higher education.

The University of Oregon has a number of courses in physical education ranging from yoga to running to weightlifting. There are also multiple opportunities to join intramural sports teams, but we are always striving for more.

At the ASUO, we are working on ways to expand our bike loan program, which offers short-term bicycle use for students. We will continue to fight for upstream health priorities for the campus community as part of our effort to promote a healthy student body and a healthy Oregon.

Andrew Plambeck
Communications Director
Associated Students of the University of Oregon

This is a very important post and a good point, the phys ed programs are definitely lacking nowadays - certainly my kids are not doing the same things we did to stay fit and healthy. Hopefully it will change though.

i would love to see sports that were affordable.  if a kid wants to play any sort of organized sports, which builds good relationship skills as well as being physically active, parents have to come up with ridiculous amounts of money.  there has to be a way to earn through sweat equity a way to play.

Safety is a big factor.  I grew up on a ranch and worked hard for my “exercise”, but even the kids in town played hard.  outside.  with each other.  We’d all come home from school and be gone, outside, until Mom yelled “time for dinner.”  But in today’s society it’s not safe, or legal, to let your 8/9 yr olds wander the neighborhood w/o adult supervision.  I wonder if my Mom would get in trouble today for letting me walk the 1/3 mile to the barn to milk the cow on my own while Dad was out of town?  But safely, and busy schedules aside… we still can show our kids how fun exercise can be by starting a game of tag with them, or tossing a football instead of beating them (or in my case being beaten) at a computer game.  Turning off the TV, getting off our bottoms and going outside is FUN!  Let’s show ‘em!

Behavior change is hard. We need to increase physical movement among children and families by doing two things:
1) Increase the number of minutes spent each day in PE class and in fun intramural activities.
Fund those first and elite/competitive athletics second !
2) Increase the availability and participation in community physical activity opportunities.
We need safe bicycle lanes and protection from traffic.
We need safe and accessible parks.

I definitely vote for a better bike and walking infrastructure! As a walker I am always afraid that some one’s car is going to plow into me. When I am driving I am so worried that I am going to hit some cyclist on his/her way to work. Building a safer bike and walking infrastructure would maybe get people to use their bikes and feet instead of their cars. First, though, you would have to promote the benefits of actually moving. Why walk to the movies when you can sit on the couch and order pay-per-view? Americans desperately need a lifestyle overhaul.

I know this is kind of ironic to bring up in a conversation about less TV/more exercise, but here goes…the movie Wall-E depicts American society’s demise because of our unhealthy choices - buy more, supersize, etc. It’s a kids’ movie with a bigger message, not that I condone watching it in place of physical activity! Its good see these topics are getting more mainstream attention, now its time for action!!

I think we are reaping the “rewards” of deregulation and libertarianism. I think we now, unfortunately, forget that for much of our nation’s youth we were “forced” to do things we hated like eat our vegetables, go outside and get some exercise, do our chores, practice the violin and walk to school through the snow for five miles, and have to take a bus downtown to see a movie. Food and entertainment is now so ubiquitous and relatively cheap which means that people not otherwise motivated to exercise don’t and don’t have to. It’s not just kids but our whole country is going to be the most obese country on earth pretty soon. If nothing is regulated (food, schools, workplaces), or paid for (taxes going to fund school PE programs and not just the bare necessities like four walls and out-of-date textbooks) and we are “free,” (to sit around and play videogames and drink sodas) to be unhealthy then it’s no surprise we are unhealthy. I hope with this new administration and our current (un)health there is a real sea change.

Those statistics really don’t surprise me much. When I look back on middle and high school, I recall a lot of people not participating in PE classes; they would just sit there and watch everything.

Somehow we need to create a system that helps get everyone involved in being active in schools.
However, I think that the food being served in schools also needs to be carefully looked at when studying child obesity.

The topic of PE may not get some people excited, but when you learn that “childhood obesity threatens to make this generation of American children the first to have a shorter life span than their parents,” I can’t imagine anyone not sitting up and taking notice. 

There is an article titled “Obesity Threatens a Generation” from May 17, 2008 that talks more about this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/05/09/ST2008050900425.html

As part of this CHP project, I conducted interviews with representatives of the Oregon media to learn more about how they report on health and public health. When I asked an esteemed Portland reporter what he thought we could do better, he said, we need to do a better job of “marketing” fitness. “I’m thinking of the presidential physical fitness contest when I was a kid. You remember that?” he asked. He went on: “Wasn’t that exciting? Wasn’t that exciting to do the shuttle run? That was an example of a brilliant marketing campaign. It was something that got a lot of kids interested in fitness.”

Makes me wonder…What ever happened to that program?