Last year, a focus was made on building rest into physical education.  It was purposefully counter to tradition and expectation.  This year, I doubled down and gave them time to do what they’d like with.  Of the ninety-minute long block period (a systemic adjustment that made this experiment possible), I asked for approximately a half hour.  That first third of class had a focus, task, and/or challenge.  Once complete, students could decide to continue, play something else, or be ‘done’ for the day.  The idea was to see if they knew or could learn how handle themselves when not directed.

PE classes have the largest swath and largest number of students in all of public education.  I could tell you of all the symbols they are tagged with, the multitude of labels meant to inform you of all the ways this particular child struggles (tied, of course, to how much funding the school gets for their ‘care’), but I don’t take much stock in them.  I’d much rather a person show me who they are than to treat them according to a disability.  I will assume you can by what you are willing to try.  Your own mouth or your own behaviors must tell me otherwise, and I trust myself to pick up and reflect subtleties that will not force you to engage with something you will fail at.

One of our biggest mistakes is separating health from PE.  I’m not referring to class days and gym days.  I’m talking about how doing (or not doing) is an application of learning. (What is learning for other than to apply it to some aspect of your life to make it real?) We understand that physical health should incorporate an aspect of actual moving, so we gave it a classroom free of obstacles that act as a barrier to moving through it, with plenty of open space.  We could do the same for the mind and spirit.  What are you willing to try?

Results from one class, that were nearly identical to the other three.

I didn’t do anything extraordinary other than giving them control over most of their time.

At the beginning of the semester, I asked them how well they were able to take care of themselves.  Then I gave them the opportunity to do it.  Simple, right?  On average, over 95% of students reported they were better at taking responsibility for theirselves, were better at recognizing wants and needs, were better at knowing what to do when not told what to do, and learned more about themselves.  I can’t imagine a better outcome for young people in this world.

On the weightlifting front, I used a similar format.  The workouts (of their choice/ design and my structure) ran approximately 40min if they took their time and utilized efforts that required bouts of recovery.  The rest of their time was theirs to relax, work on other body parts, other things, or to play with some sports equipment I always brought.  What I found was that most enjoyed ‘their time’ so much that it motivated them to do/ get through the workout.

Of my two sections, one had lifters that tended to be more serious and purposeful (varsity athletes) and one had more of the bodybuilding/ potential competitive athlete vibe.  The latter was genius at creating playful games (using jumprope to create a foursquare grid, building a fort out of foam boxes and seeing how many could fit inside), but even the former recognized what it truly was that they were after:

Nearly 50% did not choose weightlifting or training.

Let it be known that each and every one of these students could set an intention (a HOW) for their lift AND communicate it with words.  They knew how to make the work align with their desires.  That alone is some A.P. Human Studies content, blanketed in a place where meatheads have been known to accumulate.

This is the game.  The game has always been spinning gold from dirt.  It is a reflection of me.  When you do not acknowledge judgment you are free to accept everyone’s choices as to how they show up in this world.  We’re all doing the best we can with what we have, and growth looks as unique as effort does.  Our values might not be the same but a sense of a shared humanity can be.