“If no one fans the flame, the spark will go out.”
One of the books you should read is called “Spark”, written by John Ratey. It’s all about the relationship of movement and exercise to our physical and mental health. There are numerous stories in the book about people who have made amazing changes to their quality of life and improved their health miraculously through aerobic exercise.
Challenging your muscles and your brain breaks down the cells and causes them to rebuild to be even stronger, to be able to meet greater challenges. Our brains can actually grow new, stronger cells and stave off dementia! The information is all based on research and the personal experience of the author and many others.
One of the personal experience stories that Dr. Ratey tells about is the amazing effects of exercise on the student body at Naperville Central High School in Naperville, Illinois. The school instituted a daily early-morning physical education program, called “Zero Hour” (because of the time of day it took place).
The non-competitive fitness program focused on personal fitness through aerobic exercise rather than team sports. The phys ed teacher at Naperville noticed that when children play team sports, there’s lots of down time when they are waiting for the action and not moving. No movement…no body and brain building.
When the book was written the program had been in existence for about ten years. The students were in the top 1% of the world academically in math and science. Ninety-seven percent of the student body were physically fit (read that, no obesity or type 2 diabetes, which is rampant among teens today). So, ten years later how are they doing now?
Today if you look at the Naperville Central High School Website, there is no mention of aerobic exercise or personal health. There is no mention of international academic competitions or rankings. And no mention of aerobic exercise. There’s lots about team sports. The phys ed teacher who is mentioned in Ratey’s book did not reply to a personal inquiry. What happened?
It’s all about goals. Remember that the goal in traditional education is to find the “good students” and get them through college and into the workforce. “Good students” become “good employees”. There is nothing in traditional education goal statements about nurturing life-long learning or good health and well-being. There is nothing about healthy places, community-building, or problem solving. An ideas that may produce a flutter will eventually die out.
Fairhaven’s community-building curriculum, “Get Real”, looks for the flutters that don’t make it and fans the embers to get the sparks going again. Contact us to find out more about the Fairhaven Learning Project.
Cheers,
Gus
