ALL ACTIVE, ALL SUCCESSFUL

Schmitz Park Elementary School

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SEATTLE, Washington—"When kids first come to me, they often have a frumpy kind of 'try to make me have fun' attitude," says PE teacher Barbara McEwan at Seattle's Schmitz Park Elementary School. "One of my goals is to have enough great equipment here that all the children find something they absolutely love to do." When kids are having fun, they're more likely to meet McEwan's even more important goal: to help her students raise their overall level of fitness. In this, she has been remarkably successful. "The kids get very motivated," she says.

You can see their enthusiasm the minute you walk into the Schmitz Park gym. Some days, you'll see kids climbing vertical rock walls or hauling themselves across cargo nets. Or you might open the door onto 40 children zipping around on unicycles or balancing on stilts, large spools, and balls. Other days you can find them bouncing on pogo sticks or racing around in an intense game of wheelchair tag.

"We don't have any kids who need to be in wheelchairs right now," says McEwan, "but we have had some in the past. When we did, we really wanted to find ways to give them a good exercise program, too, but the other kids were no match for them in a chair. So now we have many of our kids learn to steer and do wheelies, and they really enjoy it. When kids come along who do require chairs, they'll have other children to race."

Several years ago, after a lawsuit against the school prompted the removal of the monkey bars and rings from the playground, kids were losing arm strength. "I had to figure out what else to do," McEwan says. With the proceeds of an Eastertime chocolate-rabbit sale, the school bought a climbing wall. "It's really helped," McEwan says. "Some kids won't ever be able to do a pull-up, but everyone can learn to hold their body weight for a while."

McEwan likes the unicycles for teaching balance to kids from kindergarten on up. She speaks with pride of her class of 10 advanced kids who can idle—that is, rock back and forth—for five seconds to 30 minutes at a time. And, although it has been a struggle, she's been able to find ways to get girls interested. "Girls are less willing to take falls," she says, "but if they do it with partners and take it slowly, they find they like it, too. We're about half girls, half boys now," she says.

The result of this approach is verifiable success. Schmitz Park has been the Washington state champion for 10 of the 11 years it has been participating in the President's Challenge Physical Fitness Program. McEwan considers the program fairly demanding. Children are tested on five skills: pull-ups, reaching beyond their toes, running a mile, shuttle running (which tests quickness), and curl-ups. The standards are adjusted for sex and age. For example a 10-year-old boy is required to do six pull-ups, while a 10-year-old girl must do three to reach the "presidential" level. "Most children can do at least some of these fairly easily," says McEwan, "but at least one item on the test usually gives them some trouble." Kids who reach the 85th percentile or better on every fitness item qualify for the "presidential" (highest) award. At Schmitz Park, 60 percent of students are presidential winners.

McEwan finds as a rule that enticing elementary students to run a mile is the hardest task. "Basically, we do it with games," she says. "We use games where they have to keep running, or if they are tagged 'out,' they go do five handstands, then come back in." Not only do McEwan's students test well, but their squeals and smiles during class clearly show their delight. "I love to see them get hooked on juggling or something like that," McEwan says. "And all the time I get kids who have gone on to middle school coming back to tell me how much they miss the PE we do here."

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