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Thursday, November 8, 2007
“P.E. teacher’s novel idea gets kids moving toward fitness”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every January, my gym swells with newcomers.
People with good intentions. They make a New Year’s resolution to get off the couch, to stop being sedentary, to get back into the habit of exercise. Or to make exercising a priority for the first time in their lives.
Bad habits may be hard to break. Well, some good ones are hard to adopt. Committing to exercise is one of them. I see it all the time. By the end of February, the new faces in Gold’s Gym of Lilburn have long faded.
It pays to instill the importance and enjoyment of physical activity at an early age. To that end, the physical education specialists at Mountain Park Elementary School have taken a novel approach.
It’s called the November Mountain Park Marathon.
It’s the brainchild of Jeffrey Peterson, one of two P.E. instructors at the Lilburn school. He’s toying with running a marathon soon. That idea led him and Todd Kearney to organize a voluntary marathon at the school.
Participants must walk or run a mile every day during this month. They must do so outside of the regular classroom or physical education. A lot of time is logged on the campus track during recess or after school. They also can use treadmills at home or take walks in their neighborhoods.
The students chart their progress, which must be verified by an adult, on a calendar. At the 13-mile mark, participants will receive a pedometer; completion of 26 miles earns them a school T-shirt. It says: “Running a marathon. One mile at a time.”
The race, open to second through fifth grade, has proven to be popular. About 300 of the 500 or so eligible students have signed up. Faculty, too. The PTA is sponsoring the project, one of several monthlong, exercise-related events held on campus.
“The buy-in has been incredible,” said Kearney. “We opened up the activity to the staff, and we have 30 or so participating.”
The South, especially, has a problem with weight. Study after study shows that a great number of Georgia kids are unfit, overweight and inactive. Recently, the 2007 Georgia Youth Fitness Assessment study checked 5,000 fifth- and seventh-graders at schools across the state. It found that 30 percent weighed too much; 44 percent don’t get enough physical activity.
“There’s no debating the stats,” said Peterson, who pegged the health decline on everything from poverty to a society afraid to let kids play outside unattended. “We talk a lot in class about physical activity, the importance of exercise outside the school setting and organized sports. We’re trying to educate them to be what we consider fit for life. I think they get it.”
Fifth-grader Noah Morris said he does. For the marathon, he runs one day, then jogs the next.
Just to break things up a bit.
“I guess I’m getting in shape,” the 10-year-old told me. “It’s better than playing video games all day.”
On Wednesday, the Badie Tour stopped by during recess as fifth-graders took to the asphalt track. Five laps equal a mile. Some walked. Some ran. A few did both. Method didn’t matter. The idea, Kearney and Peterson said, is to promote movement and to hammer home a point:
Physical activity matters.
Now and later.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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