Why is this such a concern, we all had a little baby fat as kids? How about this-"From 1981 to 1996 the number of boys and girls who were overweight doubled and the number that were obese tripled. Public Health Agency of Canada". Pretty impressive numbers, our kids are eating and not exercising their way to early death, diabetes and a myriad of other health complications. Now I may seem crass, but I feel I have the right to. Last September, our staff spent countless hours working on an application for a proposal to help increase the daily physical activity requirement for children so that we can avoid these increases in weight gain and promote healthy lifestyles within the school system. We racked our brains doing research and trying to come up with new and interesting ideas, but in the end the product we offered had no flash or gimmick. Just as it is for adults, athletes and anyone else trying to increase their fitness levels, one must put the work forth to reap the benefits. We tossed the idea around of having little competitions between schools, having a mandatory fitness break in every class for 5 minutes each class, make the students wear pedometers and sit on stability balls and the list goes on. But, what it boils down to-is we need change and we need it fast, even if we do step on the toes of academics and parents. The solution we came up with is to make physical education mandatory for all grades. Currently in most elementary schools, the kids are lucky to get an hour or two of physical activity a week as most teachers are not qualified or do not care to take away from time in the class room to make kids sweat. When I grew up I was the greasiest fat kid around, every break we got, we played some sort of game that got our heart rates up, now some schools don't let the kids out of the schools during recess and lunch! In high school the kids are only required to take physical education until grade 10, then it becomes an elective for their senior years. I understand that is not the education systems responsibility to fight obesity and encourage healthy lifestyles for our future world leaders, but when was the last time anyone used calculus or trigonometry in their daily life (that is not a mathematician)? I know that this argument can go further with all academic programs-how beneficial is some of the math we learn in high school when most kids have no understanding that it is more important to make more money than you spend (a lot of kids start racking credit card debt early on), or how beneficial is breaking down Shakespeare when most of the kids are unable to write a form letter or resume? What I am getting at is that I understand that it is not the school systems job to teach some of these things, but maybe it would be a better world if it did. I have to blame a lot of today's problems on smart people. There seems to be a tendency to over think the obvious. I will break it down for you in Joe's terms which will later be filed with the bureau of useless information:

Over thinking from super smart people makes us that are just kinda smart or think we are smart seem not so smart. I do not want to make parents of kids that are in academic programs to think I am picking on them, I want them to see a different point of view from someone that has no kids, but works with a lot of them. Like everything in life, we need to have balance! As it is right now, the majority of our youth is not getting it. Teachers and parents put all the merit into academic programs so their kids can end up getting into a good school and becoming successful. What they tend to forget, is that kids need to be kids-not robots. Socializing and exercising may not be more important than academics, but they need to be a small piece of the puzzle. The majority of the kids that I have worked with on a one on one basis are either socially awkward or athletically awkward. Some may say so what-Some may say I'm a moron, but I say this in an angry ranting style (I'm punching the hell out of my keyboard as I type this)"I am sick of talking to the side of kids faces or the tops of their heads because they can't make eye contact with anyone because the only contact they have is with texting, emailing or facebooking. How are these kids going to be future leaders of our world if they don't feel comfortable looking you in the face or actually telling you in person how they feel without some sort of key board in front of them?" I see this as a real problem, but you ask "what does this have to do with fat kids"? Here it is, I am going to solve the worlds problems (one at a time).

1. Kids that are involved with other kids on a team or in a group athletic style setting are forced to interact with their peers (and it is time where they cannot text message under their desks).

2. I don't need to list the benefits of exercise. Do I? Before I forget-If your kid is fat, that does not necessarily mean he or she is unhealthy-you should be able to judge this yourself by what you are feeding them and knowing what type of activity levels they have or do not have. I liked to call myself big boned or husky-as my mom didn't let me eat crap and as I mentioned, I was greasy with sweat all the time, not because I snacked on crap but because I was always playing outside.

3. We have identified that obesity is on the rise and that their are many health problems associated with being over chunky. So let's do something about it, even if it means that little Billy has to learn a little less on Trig and a little more on the skip rope. Which brings me to my favorite story of the high school phys ed program in the States that noted some of the kids in their PE classes were not as good as others when skipping rope, so they took the ropes away and made the class all skip without a rope so nobody felt bad. How nice, I wish Mr. Callaghan would have noted that I sucked in math and maybe made the rest of the class be as crappy as I was so I would feel better. That may have been a bit harsh, but why do we need to spare every ones feelings, If these kids do not get a taste of these small failures in life how will they ever succeed. We are not all built to be athletes, nor are we all built to be mathematicians, scientists or trades people for that matter. I accept that math was not a skill I possessed, but I had to work at it, just as PE may not be a skill that some kids excel at. So, how about if kids are clearly academics, we accept that- but they still need the balance of getting involved with programs that take them out of their comfort zone and will help them in the future to enjoy the millions they should make as geniuses without having to worry about the complications associated with liposuction. On the same token, the athletes need to accept the fact that they may not be math geniuses and find a path that will help them along the way.

4. Winning and losing. Youth sport and development is not solely about winning and losing. But in life, we have success and failure-like in sport and PE games. I am not comparing losing your A block PE Badminton tournament to not getting your dream job, but it does teach the kids that you must move on. And the cumilitive wins and losses can teach the child to deal better with their future successes and failures. Competition is life whether we want to believe it or not. It starts with who gets the best boy or girl friend or both and works its way to our jobs, what type of car we drive, how many toys we cummilate and so on. Either way, it is something we have to deal with all the time!

5. How do we change the entire PE curriculum. First, you hire someone that actually cares about the future of children as opposed to their future. Unfortunately a lot of people in this industry start out with great intentions, but their morals and teachings turn into feeding their self fulfilling prophecy. What I am getting at, is they over complicate everything to validate their positions instead of looking at what is common sense and realistic. It is simple, if we make PE mandatory and only 1/4 of the kids participate as hard as they can, 1/4 go through the motions, 1/4 complain the entire hour and go through the motions half heartedly and the final quarter do nothing, we still have 75% of the kids not texting, or sitting in front of a computer. Realistically, I feel that is the correct programs are offered and PE teachers are taught to think outside of the text book, we could increase those percentages so that the majority of the class is participating. Read on for my suggestions:

At Carson Graham, my buddy John Buchanan developed a strength and conditioning course that would be offered to the students in place of PE. I was very excited when I heard this 7 years ago. The class was full the first year and has now grown to 8 full classes! Tim Murdy (formerly of Rockridge) and Perino Zambon (still there) developed a Rugby Academy which included a strength and conditioning class about a year after Johns class was started, It has now morphed into 5 full time blocks of strength and power along with two strength and conditioning classes. These classes do not take away from PE, along with Dance and similar classes, these teachers have gone against the grain to offer something more for their students. My Buddy Bob (formerly of Windsor) went onto develop similar styles of classes that still go on 5 years later. I am a big fan of these styles of classes. For the non-athlete that doesn't enjoy the daily head shots that know his glasses off in dodge ball, this is an opportunity for the student to compete with him/herself. They are not graded against the rest of the class, but themselves. If they show no improvement, it means they have not done the work they have been asked to do, simple! The teachers college should be promoting their future employees that they need to think outside the box for kids to be active. In the elementary school system, many of the teachers are academics and do not really know what type of curriculum to follow so the kids end up losing out. How about a few structured games that every class needs to incorporate at least 3 times per week for 30-40mins? Maybe even let the kids be involved in the decision making process. I disagree with the PE curriculum that teaches the PE teachers to teach the kids every aspect of the sport they are learning. How about, teach them the rules and safety guidelines, give them a few technical tips and let them go. I can't tell you how many times Ive watched a PE teacher spend 20 minutes of a class showing kids how to bump a volleyball shoot a basketball. I understand that the kids have to have an idea of what they are doing, but how about give them 3-5 mins of instruction, let them try it out, give them some more instruction, let them try it out etc...Or just keep doing what you are doing and kill any interest the kids may have had at one point.

My Final Thoughts: Not all teachers are bad or do a poor job. It is not my intention to rip on teachers, it is the curriculum and our culture that needs to change. We have to all work together in understanding this problem as just having phys ed classes are not enough to help these kids out. I want to help this situation and encourage your feedback so that I can quote Rocky from Rocky 4 "If I can change, you can change, we can all change" . Pretty deep huh (just kidding and not sure if the quote is even right). Honestly, please feel free to contact me if you have any suggestions on how we can better this situatuation or you would like some feedback on your schools programs so I can help. I would also like to point out that I am not trying to make the parent of an overweight kid, or overweight kids for that matter feel terrible about themselves. I want to get to the bottom of the problem before it becomes habit and we are too late. We need to stop this trend with this generation right now! Hope everyone is well, and I am still happy to be home!!!!

Yours in Strength
Joe McCullum