Teach A Healthy Body, Get A Healthy Mind

(CBS)  Over the last year, El Paso eighth grader Valerie Gomez has grown five inches and dropped 25 pounds - quite a change from when CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers first met her 18 months ago.

"I really feel that there's a girl behind a big huge girl that I would like to show everybody else," Valerie said a year ago.

"Last time we talked, you said there was a different girl waiting to come out," Bowers said. "Is she coming out?"

"Yes, she is, she is," Valerie answered. "I think she is. She's not really here, not like all of her, but she's coming out."

Valerie is part of "the fitnessgram," a Texas experiment that mandates daily physical education and annual fitness tests for the state's 2.4 million kids ages 8 to 18.

"Now that they have those standards, it's like a wake-up call for them," said George Nunez, a P.E. teacher. "That gives them an incentive to push."

The idea was proposed in part to help combat the state's troubling childhood obesity rates, but this first-of its-kind study also set out to prove physically fit kids make for better students - and the results are in.

After just one year officials say Texas school kids are performing better on standardized tests. And as fitness rates rose, absentee rates dropped, and so did reports of discipline problems.

And there is a direct correlation between more cardiovascular activity and better grades. At the top performing schools - where at least 90 percent of the kids pass the state assessments tests - 80 percent of the students are fit. And at the poorest performing schools? Only 40 percent make the fitness grade.

Valerie said that it has changed her life.

"Like last year I got tested and I saw that I did bad, and then I did it this year and I saw that I could do twice as much as I did last year," she said. "It really brought a smile to my face."

Texas officials are smiling too, but they're not done yet. They believe the harder they can push the kids to become more physically fit, the harder the kids will push themselves in the classroom.

[Footgaming]

This article was so relevant to the work I have been doing for seven years that i had to blog about it. Wonderful story and dedicated follow-up, Cynthia.
http://exerlearning.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-am-forever-grateful-to-relevant-news.html

[Walterdsmith]

Glad to see experts substantiating what some of, us who have been working out consistently, have known and adocated for years. Within my community I have suggested more physical activities, as remedies, for high crime rates in predominently Black and Hispanic plighted neighborhoods. As a professional body builder and youth advocate, both for more than 25 years, my recommendations and suggestions have fallen on deaf ears. Prayerfully this research will open the hearts and minds of influential state and local officials who are truly dedicated to implimenting activities and programs designed to promote improved education for youth.

[FitDelicious]

I hope PE is part of a bigger picture and that the school systems are also making sure that the meals being served in the schools and snacks/beverages available are nutritious and weight loss friendly (lower in fat, sugar and salt). Better nutrition also leads to better learning, better concentration, and a healthy mind.

Marcia Schurer, Ed.D. Author of FitDelicious: Lose the Pounds, Not the Taste

[nmfujioka]

Thank you for your important coverage in the relationship with a fit body and learning in addition to combating the huge problem in America of overweight children. With the emphasis nationwide on more academics, courses such as PE are often reduced. Yet, private schools often have a much more balanced curriculum including PE. Hawaii is no exception in this regard. Hopefully coverage like yours will get the public schools to also having more balanced approaches including PE. In addition to helping on the health issues, it could also help on the academic front as your program shows so well. Mahalo

[amlaka]

I was amazed by the coverage of ?It has been found that in a new study that children who exercise are likely to perform better academically?..? or words to that effect.

I was fortunate enough to have had a classical education.

I refer you to the Roman poet Juvenal, active in the late 1st century and early 2nd century A.D.:

orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.
translated
It is to be prayed that the mind be sound in a sound body.

The satirical connotation of the phrase, that it would be nice to also have a sound mind in a sound body, is a more recent interpretation of what Juvenal may have intended to express. More traditional commentators believe that Juvenal's intention was to remind those of his fellow Roman citizen who uttered foolish prayers that all that should be prayed for were physical and spiritual health. Over time and separated from its context, the phrase has come to have a range of meanings. It can be construed to mean that only a healthy body can produce or sustain a healthy mind. Its most general usage is to express the concept of a healthy balance in one?s mode of life.
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