Fit for Life
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ELIZABETH BRACKETT: 30 kids clad in gym clothes pour into the room for their daily physical education
Fit for Life
[Sorry, the video for this story has expired, but you can still read the transcript below. ]
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: 30 kids clad in gym clothes pour into the room for their daily physical education class in this suburban middle school west of Chicago, but this doesn’t look like the gym class most of us remember. This looks more like the local health club, which is exactly what it is supposed to look like, says Phil Lawler, the PE instructor who pioneered the concept of the new PE.
PHIL LAWLER, Physical Education District Coordinator: It used to be that we were meeting the needs of about 30% to 40% of our population. Those were the athletes. And the others were brought along. They were forced to take what we were offering, but really saw no value in it, really didn’t enjoy it. You’re a long ways up there!
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: So now PE is more than volleyball and competitive sports as in the past. New PE students at Madison Junior High in Naperville, Illinois, spend their 40-minute gym period scaling the climbing wall, running on treadmills, and using the weight machines.
CARRIE HESNESS, Student: I like this because you get, like, more opportunities to do more exercises and work out your body in different ways and stuff.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Do you feel like it’s keeping you in better shape?
CARRIE HESNESS: Yes.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Lawler’s program is seen as a national model for the new PE movement that is taking hold in schools across the country.
SPOKESMAN: This is where your heart rate was when you were doing the cardiovascular workout.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: 30% of the schools in Illinois have new PE programs. The impetus for the change, says Lawler, comes from the nation’s health statistics. Obesity among children has doubled in the last decade, according to the Centers for Disease control. Also on the rise, diabetes and high blood pressure. Now, video games built into the exercise equipment can help even the couch potatoes. Also on the exercise can change those statistics.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Does this make it easier to exercise?
STUDENT: Yeah, not as bored.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Cardiologist Vincent Bufalino became a big booster of Lawler’s program after screening area children and finding that an astonishing 40% had high cholesterol readings.
DR. VINCENT BUFALINO, Cardiologist: The interesting correla