Page 8 - Priorities #9 1999-March

 Informal, recreational sports - and, increasingly, neighborhood and corporate teams - are a mainstay to some people’s health programs. Is there anything you can do to get students started with a positive attitude?
I do several things. First, I try to emphasize that everyone is competent. I try to avoid situations where they compete with each other and emphasize individualimprovementinstead. WhenIdofitness testing, I may do something unusual, like a “wall sit” or “wall jumps” instead of the calisthenics that the elite athletes train at all the time. I try to avoid choices that would be demeaning to anyone - like pull-ups, which girls just don’t shine at because they don’t have that upper-body strength...When I grade, I look at effort and attitude, enthusiasm and interest and coachability. Skills and knowledge are just one part.
I emphasize the same thing in the health component. For example, we have new equipment that measures cardiovascular health and body fat to muscle ratio. I want all of the students to understand that health isn’t just a “good number” or a “bad number.” We look at individual context - lifestyle, family background, the difference between “weight” and “body fat ratio,” other health factors that might be important in understanding the numbers. We discuss choices they can make...and how much better, more energized they can feel!
In the activities, I think it’s important for students to know the difference between a competitive team situation and a recreational situation. Recreationally, it’s fine to change the rules so it’s more fun for the group. Students learn what’s appropriate to competitive athletics in the after-school program.
 How about the place of competitive athletics at the Priory?
At this school we are wrestling with the issue of time commitment. In a small school a student who joins a teamisalsoapartofseveralotheractivities. It’sgreat that they are so talented. We want students to have these opportunities. But the students’ time commitment affects the extent to which each area can develop.
Kim’s Recommended Reading
8 Weeks to Optimum Health by Andrew Weil. http://www.olen.com/food/ http://library.advanced.org/12153/fit.html.
 Do you work in the same way with students, or are time and motivation more an adult problem?
Students hopefully will leave school with different basic assumptions. They are growing up with the idea that they will pursue a wide variety of activities. Priory students learn the basics for all the typical sports that are part of social life in college and in the suburbs. They learn the basics about health and fitness and stress managementinPE. Whenmystudentslookedintheir PE text, they said “Hey, wait a minute, this isn’t PE, it’s biology and chemistry.” Well, in fact, biology and chemistry are the basis for health.
 I see college students organizing within their dorms for hiking, camping, running, pick-up sports...
The activities help people build relationships, and for young people relationships are everything. I think the relaxed, outdoor recreation is great for shy kids. They can lose that feeling that everyone is focusing on them. I see it at our class retreats (up in the Marin Headlands)... Some kids that never speak at school, when we get them outdoors, never stop!
I love to do the Priory dorm trips. I get to see the boys in a totally different environment and they’re different people outdoors. So excited and energized and a lot of fun to be around!
The Girls Varsity Basketball and Volleyball teams both made Central Coast Sectional (CCS) playoffs for the first time. Here, the basketball team and Coach Mason hit the road for a end-of-season game.
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