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Testimony of Tim McCord Hearing on before February 12, 2004 Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of the panel for the opportunity to offer testimony here today. My name is Tim McCord and I am the chairman of the physical education department for the school system in Titusville, Pennsylvania. For those of you unfamiliar with Titusville, we are a community of just over 6,000 located a few miles northeast of Pittsburgh not far from the shores of Lake Erie. I welcome the chance to discuss today the role that schools can play in teaching children how to prepare for healthy, physically active lives. Improvements in the way my schools provide physical education have transformed my community in recent years and there is much evidence to suggest that schools across the country can make the same progress with the appropriate awareness, commitment and support. In my 25 years in the business of teaching physical education, I have never been happier with what we have been able to accomplish. All this comes at a time in our nation’s history when the need to teach young people healthy habits has never been greater. We have all heard the statistics about the health crisis facing our nation’s youth. Probably one of the most widely used and significant is the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) report that the percentage of children ages 6 to 11 who are overweight has increased nearly 300 percent during the past 25 years. These numbers continue to astonish as you evaluate older demographics as well. As described in the news media these numbers have reached epidemic proportions. It is an interesting paradox though. Never before have children and youth had better access to health care and have experienced lower rates of disease and disability. But the indicators of health status linked to physical active are regressing. As a result children, for the first time in 100 years, may have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. The accompanying health problems as a result of this trend present a great problem in our society. Diseases like Type 2 diabetes, also referred to as "adult diabetes", are on the rise among our children. It has been estimated that the health care cost of being overweight and obese have exceeded $100 billion annually. Also attributed to lack of physical activity are approximately 300,000 deaths per year. These are preventable, premature deaths. In fact, according to the CDC, physical inactivity and bad diet are the second leading cause of death in this country, just behind smoking. And if we don’t get our kids comfortable and committed to daily physical activity and balanced nutrition, these shocking numbers will only get worse in the future. As a society and as individuals we shoulder a tremendous responsibility to teach our children what they will need to enter into society as adults. We all want our kids to be smart, we want them to know about history, about science, about math, about our physical world, our universe and we want them to learn skills so after their formal education is complete they can make a living. But we must also teach them what they cannot learn in books. Things like character, how to be a good citizen, how to handle adversity, how to be good winners and losers and how to give something back to their communities. And how to be active and healthy for a lifetime. I said earlier that at no time in my 25-year career have I been happier with what I have been able to accomplish in the last five years. Why? Because physical education in my community now means meeting the needs of every student, not just the athletically inclined; it means grading students on effort and progress toward the goal, not on skills and innate abilities; it means using technology and innovative teaching to reach kids where they are, not pulling them to where we want them to be, only to lose them as soon as the bell rings; it means linking students, parents, school administrators, business leaders and even senior citizens to build truly healthy communities. And perhaps most importantly, Titusville started a physical education program called PE4LIFE. Our PE4LIFE program means putting the fun back into sports, fitness, recreation and exercise in a way that inspires all students to want to be active every day of their lives. For me this began five years ago with a visit to the PE4LIFE Institute in Naperville, Illinois. As one of the members of this subcommittee, Representative Biggert, knows well, the PE4LIFE Institute helps train physical education teachers like myself in a new approach to our craft. The PE4LIFE organization has a goal of restoring quality PE in our nation’s schools with a methodology that includes everyone, not just the elite athletes. During my initial visit to the PE4LIFE Institute, I learned of technology and techniques that were changing kids’ lives. I saw how heart rate monitors could be used to motivate and teach young people of all abilities how to do something as simple as run a mile. I learned how to teach kids that it doesn’t matter whether you run twelve minute mile or a six minute mile, as long as you meet your target heart rate zone. I can’t emphasize enough how liberating this was for the kids, and frankly for me as well. Technology like heart rate monitors is the great equalizer. The uncoordinated, overweight child who may never have had a positive physical experience in his life could now find his appropriate pace, and by getting in his target zone he could learn how his work rate was perfect for him. And be given credit for it! In fact the student running a 12 minute mile within his targeted rate could get a better grade than the six minute miler whose heart rate was all over the map. With the proper reinforcement and teaching, scores of kids who in traditional PE would be scorned and turned off were becoming engaged and motivated. This is what excited me, because these are the kids we need to reach the most. As a professional physical educator, nothing fulfills me more than seeing young students figuring out that one doesn’t have to be a sports star to be a healthy, active, self-assured person. I was inspired by what I saw. So in 2000 after operating on a $10,000 a year budget, I convinced the Titusville Area School District to commit an additional $30,000 to implement a fitness center and the use of heart rate monitors in my middle school program just as they were doing in Naperville. Obviously, for a small community like mine, this was a big investment. Within one year, my superintendent and school board saw the kind of results we had hoped for. The program was so successful, I was able to get an additional $40,000 one year later for a program in the high school. In these two years my curriculum was adapted to meet Pennsylvania State standards to teach students the value of exercise, nutrition and developing healthy lifestyle habits. We now use heart rate monitors, pedometers, computer fitness assessment software and exercise bikes in my program. Prior to 1999, none of these activities were available. The response by everyone--students, the parents and the school administration--has been overwhelming. Let me mention how the computer fitness assessment software works. This measures muscular strength, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, and body fat composition. Every single Titusville student, grades 7-12, receives a pre-test before they begin physical education and a post-test when they complete the course, whether it be a semester or full year. We recently purchased a specialized program that allows students to incorporate nutrition tracking into their own lifestyle assessment. Children are enthralled by being able to follow their progress through graphs from year to year. We send these reports home and parents regularly tell me how amazing they find the depth of analysis the PE program is offering. Many parents in fact tell how much they learn themselves from these reports. And for me, as a teacher, this reporting allows us to do group reporting (gender, age, class, height, weight, etc), helping to monitor our school’s progress while identifying any areas for remediation. This raises another wonderful development in recent years. After a local ABC-TV affiliate broadcast a story about our PE4LIFE program, I was approached by a major health care provider in our region, HighMark Blue Cross/Blue Shield. They liked what our program was doing and wanted to help. When our school district purchased a new $12,000 computer fitness assessment machine, HighMark matched the expenditure and bought a second machine for the school system’s use. We’ve since been featured in Newsweek, Time, U.S. News and World Report, Teaching Tolerance Magazine and a host of other publications and broadcasts. One reflection of the PE4LIFE impact on my educational community is that we have bucked the national trend and increased the requirements for PE. Two years ago, the high school principal engineered a change to the entire school day schedule so we could incorporate daily physical education. We shortened class by a few minutes, cut between-class travel time and added a few minutes to the end of the school day, still keeping within the contractual agreement with the teachers union. In my community, all senior high school students are required to take physical education every day for all four years. This class is one full credit, the same as other core subjects such algebra and chemistry. Middle schoolers must take at least one semester per year. I developed a sixth grade curriculum for wellness education. This focuses on exercise and nutrition, preparing students for the comprehensive grade 7-12 Physical Education offerings. It has turned out a valuable addition, in that it allows us to teach many concepts that later PE classes cannot get to due to time constraints. Teaching PE this way is more than just technology and gadgets. It’s also about choices. We know that lots of choices inspire kids to try new things. We now offer a wide range of activities. When I was a kid and even when my kids went through school, we played football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball or softball in the spring. I am not talking about after school sports here, I am talking about gym class. We also threw in from time to time soccer, volleyball, some track and field and gymnastics, but for the most part it was team sports and the survival of the fittest. Now we offer options for our kids so if you come visit my program, and I would encourage any of you to come visit us in Titusville, you will see our students on in-line skates, working with weights, swimming, dancing, power walking, cross country skiing, rock-climbing and perhaps juggling. You’ll also see soccer, but probably different than what you’re used to. Instead of 15 kids per team with one ball the way we used to set up a class, today you will see several 4 on 4 games with no goalie being played simultaneously. We use smaller teams so that everyone participates. Throughout the year we offer about 20 different activities. Every two weeks we allow students to choose a new activity. On one of my visits to Naperville, I learned of another benefit to their program: an increased ability to partner with the community. I would also encourage you to visit the facility in Naperville. As Mrs. Biggert knows, PE4LIFE Institute Director Phil Lawler has done an amazing job not only in this Chicago suburb but with the many folks like myself who have had the opportunity to visit and learn from the Naperville program. I learned that the Naperville fire department was using the high school as their health club, working out in their great facility. In return for the use of the gym, the fire department offers free CPR training to the students. So with this inspiration, I have gone out to the Titusville community and here is what we have accomplished. The local hospital conducts an annual health fair at our middle school. The fair offers students interactive lessons dealing with healthy lifestyles as well as the opportunity for students to participate in cholesterol and blood sugar screening. Physicians in the community in cooperation with my PE teachers developed a "Can Do List" allowing those students with medical reasons to participate safely while recuperating from their condition. Senior citizens from our local center have the opportunity to exercise in our high school fitness center during the day. The physical education department in conjunction with the Central Blood Bank conducts blood drives to support our local hospital three times a year. I speak to physical education majors at Slippery Rock University twice a year. In addition, exercise science majors come to Titusville twice during the school year to help us conduct fitness assessment using our computer fitness assessment software. I mentioned earlier we have worked with a local health insurance group who awarded us a grant to help us buy our computer fitness assessment equipment. And we’re committed to sharing the message. More than 100 schools have visited Titusville since 2001 to see how PE4LIFE is delivered in a real-life setting. Just two days ago, I hosted a group of teachers and administrators from Erie County, Pennsylvania. Providing daily quality physical education to all K-12 students must be an integral part of a national strategy to address obesity and reduce health care costs.. Perhaps most appealing is the ease with which physical education can be delivered to all students in an efficient, cost effective manner. Physical education in schools provides an ideal mechanism to promote healthy choices and habits for some of the most in need. After-school sports programs can be a great source as well but these programs tend to better serve healthy and fit young people who want to play sports. This is not the group we need to target. Those who may need the exercise most tend to be those who opt out given the choice. Physical education in schools however, can reach the very students who are most at risk–the overweight child with a bad body image, the uncoordinated student who’s never been taught skills or the shy kid with no confidence to join a team or engage with others at recess. It is in many ways these kids for whom physical education can do the most good. I know this Committee will be looking to develop the next generation of policy on for the School Lunch and Breakfast Programs as well as the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Proper nutrition is an integral part of any national strategy to help our children. I have found in the last five years that as my students become more physically active and fit they have become more interested in proper nutrition and we have incorporated nutrition as part of our overall program. As I mentioned earlier in my testimony, I have never been more excited about what we are doing in physical education, the new PE and the PE4LIFE Institute. I love to come to work and more importantly, my students at all levels love to attend my classes. It is critical we focus on increasing quality PE and developing more PE4LIFE programs. It seems clear we as a nation need to invest in physical education today or be burdened with much higher costs in the future as generations of inactive kids become overweight and unhealthy adults. I would urge the committee in any future legislation to do whatever they can to support schools and school districts in our country to develop their fitness programs. As I have testified, I was able to accomplish a lot with just a small contribution from my community. Last year my school was awarded a grant from the Carol White Physical Education Program at the Department of Education. When expended, these funds will allow us to grow our program and provide our schools with upgraded equipment and training for our teachers. I thank the Committee for this opportunity and look forward to answering your questions. |