Teaching Methodologies: Principles and
Practices for Meaningful Educatonal Reform

February 27, 2002

Statement by Joel Kirsch, Ph.D.
American Sports Institute

INTRODUCTION
At the nonprofit American Sports Institute (ASI), we define education as: The process by which all learners acquire the attitude, knowledge, skills, and wisdom necessary to fulfill their potential as they pursue their bliss. We view education as a lifelong journey that addresses the whole learner-physically, mentally, spiritually-through a balanced and integrated process.

We also believe at ASI that human beings are natural learners, and that education in our schools is less about imparting information to students than helping them find meaning and fulfillment in their lives as they pursue endeavors they are interested in and enjoy. As Galileo once said, "You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help one to find it within oneself."

Sadly, this is not the case for the vast majority of students in our nation's and California's schools. Most kids are bored and disengaged. They are not excited about their academic courses. They do not go to school to get an education. They go to school to get out. Teachers and school administrators are overwhelmed and frustrated. Parents are concerned.

This perspective is based upon an ongoing attitudinal survey that ASI has conducted over the past four years. During this time, ASI has surveyed thousands of legislators; educators, including superintendents, principals, assistant principals, counselors, and teachers; parents; students; and ordinary citizens to respond truthfully and from the heart to a simple, two question survey about our schools:

Question 1: "On a scale of 10 to 1, with 10 being totally excited and 1 being totally apathetic, how excited are middle and high school students about going to school for their academic courses only. This does not include the social or extracurricular aspects of school?"

Question 2: "Are kids natural learners or unnatural learners?"

The range of responses for the first question has been between 2 and 5, with the greatest number of responses being 3. However, everyone says that kids are natural learners.

This begs the question: If kids are natural learners, but the response given most often is a 3 and the overall range of responses is 2 to 5, the conclusion is obvious and inescapable: There is something fundamentally wrong at the core of our nation's and California's educational systems.

Those who get into an extended follow-up discussion after the first two questions are often asked a third question by ASI that is preceded with this hypothetical scenario: For just a moment, suppose that all the college prep courses that California high school students have to take to get into a University of California school-advanced algebra, calculus, chemistry, physiology, American literature, U.S. history, government, foreign language, etc.-were extracurricular activities, and that they were not required to get into a UC school. Further, just like the current extracurricular activities, these extracurricular activities in this hypothetical scenario are only offered after school, students have to attend practice two to three hours every day, and, once the students get home and eat dinner, they still have two to three hours of homework waiting for them in their required courses. On top of all this, the students get no academic credit for these extracurricular activities.

Now for the third question: Compared to the number of students who go out for the current selection of actual extracurricular activities-sports, dance, theater, music, etc.-how many students would go out for the extracurricular activities in this hypothetical scenario?

The response is the same from everyone: Very few.

Compounding this fundamental problem at the core of our nation's and California's educational systems, current research shows that the very process we use to educate students in our schools is contributing to the children becoming physically unfit, overweight, and obese, which often leads to diabetes, heart disease, and cancer in adults. The college preparatory curriculum mandated by the University of California and California State University systems contain no physical or bodily domain requirements. As a result, college prep has become, for many, the unintended equivalent of disease prep.

In reference to this growing problem, Dr. James Hill, a leading nutritionist at the University of Colorado, says, "We've got the fattest, least fit generation of kids ever." And outgoing U. S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher has made the following two statements, "In the last 20 years, the incidence of overweight and obesity has doubled among children and tripled among adolescents," and "The schools are critical points of intervention. (They) have a responsibility to our children that we're not living up to."

Given the apathy in our classrooms and the deteriorating health of our students, it could be said that figuratively and literally, our schoolchildren are dying to learn.

GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM

So what's going on here?
We keep operating as if the problems in education today have to do with what's in our schoolchildren's heads. The focus of our efforts to change our schools has been to intensify academic requirements, intensify coursework, and, to the exclusion of almost all other evaluation tools, intensify state and federal testing. But the real issues in education are not about what's in our students' heads. Rather, they have to do with what is in their hearts-both figuratively and literally.

An analogy can be made here to losing your car keys. You drive to a friend's house for dinner with three other people. It's tough finding a parking spot, so you park a half-block down from the house under a light on the opposite side of the street. You get out of your car, keys in hand, and walk across the street. You go to slip your keys into your pocket as you step up onto the curb. Because you and the others are talking it up, you don't hear your keys fall to the pavement.

After a great dinner with lively conversation, you and the three others walk back to your car. You reach into your pocket but your keys aren't there, and you know you didn't take them out of your pocket while in your friend's house. So, you begin looking for your keys by your car which is under the streetlight. You can't find them, so you get the others to help you look for them. No one can find them, so you go back to your friend's house to get a flashlight. Still no luck.

The issue is that you don't even think that the keys could be on the dark side of the street where there is no light. You're looking for the keys on the lighted side of the street because that's where your car is, and that's where there's a streetlight. So you keep looking and looking and looking to no avail. And, you intensify the effort to find your keys.

Unless you're willing to let go of your current position and perspective, and be willing to move away from the light to embrace the dark side of the street, you'll never find your keys. And for our schools to be places where students truly learn and find meaning and fulfillment, we must be willing to look for the keys to education on the dark side of the street. If we do, if we're willing to move into the dark and keep our eyes open long enough, even if this creates a little fear for us, eventually we begin to see the light, only in a different way. And, we find the keys we dropped.

We keep trying to solve our problems in education by intensifying requirements, by intensifying coursework, by intensifying state and federal testing. In other words, we're doing more of the same things that go us in trouble in the first place. We aren't willing to go into the dark and keep our eyes open. We're not getting off our position. We're not being flexible.

George Leonard, a social theorist and author of Education and Ecstasy and numerous periodical articles on education, has documented this sad state of affairs over the past 20 years. Winner of 12 national awards for education writing, more than any other American, Leonard begins his article "The End of School" in The Atlantic Monthly, May, 1992, with the following: "School as we know it is doomed. And every attempt to improve-but fundamentally preserve-the present system will only prolong its death throes and add immeasurably to its costs, both financial and social."

Leonard continues in the article: "Like most of the dozens of reform proposals from other organizations which followed, A Nation at Risk (the report by the National Commission for Excellence in Education that sparked the educational reform movement in April, 1983) was preoccupied with course requirements at the high school level-four years of English, three of math, three of science, and so on. As if four rather than three years of English for students already turned off by the present system would really make much difference.

"The interesting thing about the National Commission report (along with most of the other proposals) is that with all its talk of 'fundamental' change, it proposed nothing really new. Let's ratchet up the present system, the report seemed to say. Let's get tough on students and teachers. Let's have the same, but better and more of it."
In his award-winning articles on the National Commission's report, Leonard also points out that not one word is mentioned about the student and how he or she learns.

SOLUTION OVERVIEW
So, if our problems in education today are more about what is in our students' hearts than their heads, then what is going on with their hearts? If the students are apathetic and unhealthy, where do we look for the keys that will change the current situation?

These issues of the heart have to do with: 1) states of consciousness and the individual learner; and 2) a balanced and integrated or holistic approach to wellness, an interaction of physical, mental, emotional and social wellness that creates a spirited sense of place and belonging for all students. This is the context for learning, or the learning environment.

The issues of states of consciousness and the learning environment are both addressed by two highly respected researchers, Dr. David Shernoff and Dr. Barbara McCombs.

Shernoff's work focuses on what are called flow states. This field of study was first developed by Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a world-renowned expert on the psychology of subjective experience. Flow is defined and described here by Shernoff, a former student of Csikszentmihalyi's, and a research associate at the Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who has applied the study and practice of flow to education: "A state of mind brought on by intense involvement in an activity, promoting growth as the individual exercises and develops more developed skills to meet increasingly complex challenges. "Flow has been described as operating concurrently with clear goals and feedback on progress; single-minded focus of attention; increased concentration; a break with awareness of time and self; and a balance between the challenges of an activity and the skills required to meet them. As a state of total immersion, flow is commonly reported during recreational and athletic activities, but can also promote optimal learning experiences in educational contexts."

Shernoff's work with flow and learning examines how flow leads to students being fully engaged in the learning process. He defines student engagement as "the combination of three common facets of flow experiences and optimal motivation to learn: concentration, interest, and enjoyment." In other words, when flow is occurring for an individual in a learning situation, the student is fully engaged because his or her levels of concentration, interest, and enjoyment are all at high levels. When this happens, there are changes in the perception of time and self, tasks are accomplished in a seemingly effortless manner, and there is a great sense of fulfillment.

Dr. McCombs has addressed the issues of states of consciousness and the learning environment through her work with the American Psychological Association's Task Force on Psychology in Education. This body of work is called learner-centered principles and practices. McCombs is a senior researcher at the University of Denver Research Institute, and director of the Institute's Human Motivation, Learning and Development Center. She has more than 25 years of experience directing research and development efforts in the areas of human motivation and learning.
McCombs states that learner-centered principles and practices are based on extensive research. This research deals with the latest scientific understanding of learners and their individual characteristics, and the dynamics of learning. The approach is holistic, with the learner placed in the center of instructional decision-making rather than the needs of the instructor, and includes shared teacher and student responsibility for learning. This shared responsibility includes, among other elements, a balance of teacher and student choice and control, and integrated and thematic curricula and assessments that are perceived as personally relevant and meaningful to learners.

If education is to truly be holistic, focusing on the whole child, then the physical domain must be a balanced and integral part of the total learning experience. If not, major problems develop, including eventual chronic diseases as well as a deterioration in the ability of students to think clearly and process information.
Dr. Tim Byers is the associate director for Cancer Prevention and Control, University of Colorado Cancer Center. Since 1971, Dr. Byers has served as a physician, lecturer, and branch director at several universities and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Byers also served as one of 30 worldwide experts in the most recent study on the effects of overweight and obesity related to cancer, conducted by the World Health Organization and its cancer research division, the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France.

In his research, Byers points out that, "In the past 20 years, there has been a quite remarkable set of observations and discoveries about obesity in America. Obesity is increasing much faster than ever before, both in adults and in children. We are now seeing rising rates of diabetes in obese children of the type formerly thought to occur only in adults. Coincident with these trends, there has been a growing consensus about the health risks of obesity in children and the importance of obesity and physical inactivity as factors causing cancer, heart disease, and diabetes."
Dr. Byers responds to these trends in the following manner: "The future burden of chronic diseases that our children will bear early in adulthood should be a particularly sobering challenge to our responsibilities as adults. As we contemplate the future, we need to seriously consider how we can improve personal, family, and community (including school) support for healthy eating and physical activity for all, especially our children."

A DILEMMA
As we see from the work of Shernoff, McCombs, and Byers, flow states, learner-centered principles, and an equally valued and emphasized approach to health and fitness are needed for students to find meaning and fulfillment in our schools. However, a major hurdle to overcome is the inherent resistance to change in any major institution, including education. This includes those who simply don't want to change because they've been doings things their way all these years, and things are just fine, thank you; those who want things to change but disagree with what needs to happen; and those who want things to change, agree with what needs to happen, but just can't see how it can get done.

The author encountered this last scenario directly in April, 2001, while testifying before the California State Assembly Education Committee on behalf of AB 367, which dealt with physical education requirements in our schools. The author testified that given the deteriorating health and fitness levels of California's students and its impact on the students' lives and academic performance, it was imperative that the schools take the time to deal with this grave problem. If not, the schools would be negligent in their duties.

At the end of the author's brief presentation, an assemblymember spoke up and said that he understood how big a problem the health and fitness issue is. But, if he had to decide between increasing money and programs for math or health and fitness, he would choose math because the students have to know how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide; they just have to or they won't be able to function in society. Because of time constraints, there was no time for the author to respond.
The assemblymember knows there are problems with all aspects of education. However, given the current situation, he felt he would have to make a decision one way or another if the situation were to be presented to him. The issue here is that the assemblymember did not know that he could have both-students learning math and students becoming healthy and fit-all at the same time. But because he was locked into one way of thinking, he wasn't even aware that there are other ways to deal with this dilemma. In this case, it is not an either-or situation that is the problem, but a way of thinking that makes the situation either-or rather than doable on all fronts.

ONE MODEL AS A SOLUTION
The American Sports Institute has developed K-12 programs that effectively address the issues outlined in this paper. While not knowing Drs. Shernoff, McCombs, and Byers when these programs were first developed and implemented, the perspectives of these three researchers are validated through ASI's educational programs.
In fact, in determining whether or not one of ASI's programs-Promoting Achievement in School through Sport (PASS)-was truly learner-centered, Dr. McCombs came to the following conclusions: "The students in the PASS program report high levels of motivation and their achievement is at high levels. What this says to us is that PASS addresses the needs of the whole learner-intellectual needs, motivational needs, and other needs such as students' physical and social needs. It engages students by its holistic approach and, in turn, their achievement is enhanced. . . . PASS can become a model for defining those qualities of total school reform that are needed to both engage students and help them achieve high academic standards. . . . .The sound, research-based practices that are incorporated into the PASS program were demonstrated to pay off for students and teachers alike, thus making it a model for total school reform." (See attached McREL report.)
So, what is the perspective and what are the principles that ASI has used to create "a model for total school reform?"

At the American Sports Institute, we believe educators can enable students to find meaning and fulfillment and scholastic success, while, at the same time, maximizing their potential for health and fitness in the following four ways:

1. View the learning of any discipline, including sport, as a holistic, integrated, and balanced experience comprised of the arts, humanities, and sciences. - When studying a specific discipline, such as sport or anything else, and the discipline is viewed as being holistic, then all the subject areas of learning-math, language arts, science, social studies, foreign languages, the arts, and physical education-can be integrated into a total learning experience for the student. It really doesn't matter what the discipline is. All disciplines, if viewed as being holistic, require the application of all subject areas in a balanced and integrated context if true learning is to take place and if high levels of health and fitness are to be established. Here, the curriculum is built around the whole student.

This is different from having students sit in first period math, second period science, third period English, etc., etc., in classes where one teacher has no idea what the other is doing, and where the student is learning a subject without any relation to a project or goal the student is invested in. There is no learning context in this situation. Here, the student is made to fit into the curriculum. This is a dis-integrated approach to learning. And dis-integrated learning modalities lead to disintegrating students and disintegrating schools.

2. View human beings, especially children, as natural learners who find meaning and fulfillment by striving to fulfill their potential as they pursue their bliss. - Research and surveys show that human beings are natural learners. And, when a student loves a discipline, whatever it is, the student will learn everything about that discipline because the student is interested in and invested in it. As in item 1 immediately above, in this instance, the curriculum is built around the needs and interests of each student. In these situations, students experience high levels of flow.

This is different from having students study subjects they're not interested in. Without a strong interest in a subject, the student must force himself or herself to learn, which creates tedium and a feeling of "let's just get this over with." There are no flow states here.

3. Use the positive aspects of sport culture as a model for reforming our schools. Along with other elements, this includes the Fundamentals of Athletic Mastery (FAMs). - While there are a number of negative aspects to sport culture, there are far more positive ones. These aspects are what call so many Americans to participate in athletic endeavors. There is something about sport that brings meaning and fulfillment to so many of us. It is one reason why author Joyce Carol Oates has called sport America's religion. These positive aspects can be a model for making our academic courses as much a calling, as meaningful and fulfilling as sport. The positive aspects of sport culture include:

a. Rituals and Ceremonies - Just about all sporting events have rituals (the playing of the Star Spangled Banner before athletic events, a coin toss among team captains) and ceremonies (the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, recognizing athletes for their individual accomplishments). Rituals and ceremonies create a sense of culture and recognition of the participants, and the athletes experience a sense of place and belonging.

In most schools, on the very first day of the school year, books are issued, course work engaged in, and homework given. No classroom culture is created before the work is engaged.

b. Rites of Passage - In sport, athletes are always recognized for transcending previous limitations. There is not only the gaining of accomplishments but an honor bestowed upon the athlete for transcending his or her limitations. This honor may include assuming a role of authority or taking on specific responsibilities indicative of the limitation transcended. Like rituals and ceremonies, rites of passage create a sense of culture

In school, students do their work, get their grades, and go onto the next grade level at the end of the school year. There is only a rite of passage upon graduation.

c. Self-Paced, Mastery-Based Learning - All athletes grow and develop at different rates. Given this understanding, it doesn't matter that some athletes move on faster or slower than others. It's just the way it is. No one has to move too fast or too slow because of how others are developing. In addition, no athlete moves to the next level of play until he or she has mastered the current level. This way, an athlete's skills are always evenly matched or just slightly below the challenge presented so the athlete can grow and develop.

In our schools, all students move in lockstep with the pace of the curriculum that is established by the teacher who gets his or her orders from the State Department of Education as to how much material must be covered in a school year. For those students who take longer to learn, they become overwhelmed and get left behind by their classmates. For those who learn quickly, they become bored by the slow pace. In addition, for all those who do not master certain parts of the curriculum, they are left shortchanged when it comes to needing to know the material as a stepping stone to other learning, as in geometry and with foreign languages.

d. Relevance - In sports, athletes are motivated to spend countless hours on the basics because they are relevant. Here, it's not drill and kill but drill and thrill because when the basics are mastered and applied, the student sees the results right away. The athletes know why they are doing the drills, they see the significance of them.

In our schools, students are told they must learn something because they'll need it some day in life whether or not they see the relevance of it. While students may need to learn something, if they do not see the need, they will resist and perform below their potential.

American writer Elbert Hubbard addressed this issue when he said, "A school should not be preparation for life. A school should be life." And it was John Dewey, the father of modern-day education, who warned, "Education is a process of living, not a preparation for the future."

e. Engagement - Athletes are always engaged in the learning process. They know they must be actively engaged in the learning process or they simply will not improve their skill level. A coach does not enhance her athletes' skills by having them read a book, take a test, and then go on to the next chapter. The athlete learns by doing, by being fully engaged in the learning process.

In most classrooms, students spend most of their time passively listening to lectures, reading, answering questions, and taking tests. There is little, if any, real-life connection to the subject. The learning is about government, it is not government itself. The learning is about geography, it is not being there in person.

As the Native American saying goes, "I hear and I forget. I see and I may not remember. I do and I understand."

f. Teaching By Coaching - If a coach wants his athletes to learn a new skill, he first demonstrates how to do it, explains why it should be done a certain way, and then has the athletes do it over and over, with the coach stepping in when necessary to make corrections, until the athlete can perform the skill at a high standard. The coach gives ongoing feedback until the athlete has mastered the skill.

In our schools, teachers usually demonstrate once, explain once, and the students then work on the assignment. Feedback comes in the way of grades on papers rather than through constant feedback from the teacher until the work has been mastered.

g. Demonstration Learning - In sports, the athletes show, perform, or compete in front of others from the community to demonstrate their skill level. Family, friends, and community members attend the athletic events in which the athletes are evaluated. The athlete's skill level becomes a community issue. Being subjected to the scrutiny of others adds to the positive tension and motivation for wanting to do well.

In most instances in our schools, a student's academic performance is scrutinized by one person-the teacher. Often, this comprises very little social incentive for the student to perform well. When the community isn't involved in some way in the evaluation of a student's performance, the student questions whether what he or she is doing is truly important.

h. Team-Oriented Learning - Coaches know that teams are made up of individuals. In order that the individuals see themselves as part of a larger cause, something that goes beyond themselves, they must experience a sense of place and belonging.

When participating in team sports, athletes learn that their effort and their growth and development are important to the success of the team. If one person doesn't do his or her job on a particular play, the whole team suffers. And if everyone does their job, the entire team benefits. From this experience, athletes quickly learn that, "You count!!! You matter to all of us!!! And so does everyone else." As the Jewish teacher Hillel once wrote, "If I am not for myself, then who will be for me. And if I am only for myself, then what am I?" Therefore, everyone is constantly monitoring the performance of everyone else. When someone is giving their best, they are acknowledged for it. And when someone is not giving their best or is struggling to do their best, the other teammates step in to turn this situation around. In a sense, everyone becomes a coach or teacher.

In our schools, students do their own work and get their own grades for their own benefit. There is little, if any, sense of belonging to something bigger, of contributing to the growth and development of others. This creates a highly competitive environment where many students feel left behind by the very process that is supposed to educate them.

i. Character Development - Coaches know that the quality and success of a team is directly related to the character of its players. Character keeps athletes vigilant in victory and strong in defeat. Character enables athletes to deal with adversity. The attitude of one athlete can lift or destroy an entire team. Coaches often say they would rather have a good player with a great attitude than a great player with a bad attitude. This is why good coaches are constantly working with their athletes on character issues.

In our schools, the major focus is on subject matter-math, language arts, science, etc. In other words, knowledge rather than the subjects that really matter, and the reason schools are there in the first place-the students.

Character education needs to be a major focus in our schools. Mohandas Gandhi spoke of knowledge without character as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. And it was the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. who wrote, "The function of education . . . .is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. . . . The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals."

The author spent five years researching what it was that outstanding athletes and coaches said determined success or failure, fulfillment or regret. After reviewing thousands of articles, interviews, and books, the following eight Fundamentals of Athletic Mastery or FAMs were derived. While there are eight major FAMs, there are many more subset topics related to each of the eight. The FAMs can be applied to all learning experiences as a way to measure how well the athlete/student is performing:

a. Concentration - The ability to focus one's mind on whatever one chooses despite noise, movement, or other distractions.

b. Balance - The quality of stability created by attending to the details of all necessary elements in a particular system.

c. Relaxation - A state of presence in which an individual functions in an even-tempered, low-stress manner while maintaining proper levels of alertness and intensity.

d. Power - The ability to apply the appropriate amount of force over a prescribed area in the least amount of time.

e. Rhythm - A state in which movement is graceful, efficient, and seemingly accomplished with little or no effort, as if the impetus for the movement comes from a momentum of its own.

f. Flexibility - The ability to adapt positively to changing situations.

g. Instinct - A natural impulse or sensation that is manifested through nonrational modes of awareness.

h. Attitude - A state of mind that incorporates the combined elements of patience, perseverance, and staying positive.

4. Develop a reformed and refurbished approach to physical education and incorporate this new approach into all courses. - Many people view physical education as doing calisthenics and playing games in gym clothes. While this is important for health and fitness purposes, it is a very limited view of physical education. For students to fulfill their learning potential in our schools, we must expand our vision of what physical education means.

For example, ASI has developed simple physical activities that are used in standard classrooms to increase the energy levels of tired students and reduce the energy levels of hyper students. These activities are done in elementary classrooms as well as English, math, science, etc., courses at the middle and high school levels.

In addition, current research shows that appropriate forms of physical activity increases alertness, decision-making, creativity, and memory in all disciplines. In one study conducted at the University of Southern California, subjects alternately sat or stood for 15-minute periods while making rapid decisions on a computer program. The scores of the eldest and more sedentary improved the most when standing. And the more difficult the task, the more everybody benefited by standing up. It was determined that standing increased heart rates by about 10 beats a minute, which stimulated brain areas that control arousal.

All of the research presents the distinct possibility that our students would do much better in their academic courses if a reformed and refurbished approach to physical education was embraced by the State Department of Education. For example, standing at an elevated desk when writing a language arts class essay may produce better ideas and better writing. Ernest Hemingway wrote this way. Or going for walks may stimulate ideas for discussions in social studies classes.

While the current research is very promising, this really isn't anything new. Great figures have known for centuries what the research is revealing today.

By my body's action, teach my mind. - William Shakespeare

My primary process of perceiving is muscular and visual. - Albert Einstein

It seems when my legs begin walking my mind begins working . . . .any writing I do sitting down is wooden. - Henry David Thoreau

Never trust a thought you came upon sitting down. The muscles must be in celebration with the mind. - Friedrich Nietzsche

I have walked myself into my best thoughts. - Soren Kierkegaard

This reformed and refurbished approach to physical education must be addressed immediately. Attention must be given to the health and fitness status of schoolchildren regarding nutrition and physical activity and their implications related to overweight, obesity, and chronic diseases.

According to outgoing U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, overweight and obesity is now second only to smoking as the leading cause of death in America. Currently, 430,000 Americans die annually from tobacco-related illnesses, and 300,000 die annually from diseases related to overweight and obesity. Satcher has said, "Left unabated, the problem of obesity will soon be responsible for more preventable deaths and diseases than tobacco is today."

For schoolchildren, the implications are staggering. Nationally, the incidence of overweight children in the United States aged 4-12 has gone up dramatically in the past 12 years. It has increased 50 percent among white children, 120 percent among Latino children, and 175 percent among African-American children. Prior studies show it took 30 years for the overweight prevalence in American children to double. At current rates, projected over 30 years, this would be a 125 percent increase in white children, a 300 percent increase in Latino children, and a 438 percent increase in African-American children. These statistics have profound implications for California in that during the 1990's, 47.5 percent of all births in the state were to Latina women.

To compound this problem in California, only 23 percent of the grade, 5,7, and 9 students tested in the latest Fitnessgram, the test used to determine the health and fitness of California students, passed in all six of the measured categories. In response, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin said, "I am concerned that more students were not successful in meeting all six fitness standards. Especially alarming is that nearly half were unable to achieve the minimum fitness standard for aerobic capacity, which
is perhaps the most important indicator of physical fitness."

Further, according to the Public Health Institute, nearly one in three California adolescents is considered at risk of becoming or is already overweight.

Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, sums up all of this in the most sobering of terms. "This dramatic new evidence," says Dr. Koplan, "signals the unfolding of an epidemic in the United States. With obesity on the rise, we can expect diabetes to increase sharply as a result. If these dangerous trends continue at the current rates, the impact on our nation's health and medical care costs in future years will be overwhelming."

STORIES
What have been the results of ASI's approach to learning? The answer to this question is best told by those who have been immersed in ASI's programs since 1989. At today's hearing, you will hear from administrators, teachers, and students about their experiences in ASI's educational programs.
Also, attached are copies of class reviews from two substitute teachers who sat in for teachers of an ASI program who were out ill. While the written reviews are five years apart, the tone of the reviews are quite similar. In addition, attached are four unsolicited emails the author has received over the years from former students of the same ASI program. Again, while the stories are different, there is a similar tone that weaves them together. (See attached handwritten class reviews and emails.)

CONCLUSION
There are two absolute truths regarding the vast majority of California's schoolchildren: They are apathetic about their academic courses, and their overall health and fitness levels are extremely low.

California's students should not be dying to learn. College prep should not be the equivalent of disease prep. Our schools can be sanctuaries for the human spirit, sacred places where all students acquire the attitude, knowledge, skills, and wisdom necessary to fulfill their potential as they pursue their bliss. The students can be in an ongoing, lifelong process of coming alive simply because they are natural learners.
The students shouldn't be trying to get out of school. They should be at the school doors much sooner in the mornings than the teachers, demanding to know why the thresholds they cross over everyday to fulfill their dreams and aspirations cannot be accessed earlier and earlier. They should be sad rather than relieved that the school year is ending. They should be healthy, fit, and totally alive.

In order to realize this vision, it is not the children who must change, but the institution of education itself. Since the Nation at Risk report in 1983, the focus of our efforts to change our schools has been to intensify academic requirements, intensify coursework, and focus almost exclusively on state and federal testing as a form of evaluation. This approach is simply more of the same things that got us in trouble in the first place. We keep working on the kids heads rather than looking into their hearts.

The educational institution itself must go beyond the current reform efforts that really amount to no true reform at all. We need to take a long, serious, and maybe even painful look at ourselves, not the kids. Just as it may be somewhat uncomfortable or unnerving when it comes to men and women performing self-examinations for the detection of cancer, we have to do the same with ourselves regarding our schools.
By now, it is plain to see that it is not the reformation of our schools that is required, but the transformation of the policies, procedures, and practices that are wrapped in the very paradigm that we as educated adults have created that has led to the dilemma we find ourselves in today. Whether it's from a perspective of educational transformation or a specific look at the deteriorating health and fitness levels of America's schoolchildren, outgoing Surgeon General Satcher said it best: "The schools are critical points of intervention. (They) have a responsibility to our children that we're not living up to."

Will this happen? Will the institution of education be able to transform itself and meet its responsibilities? Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian educator and social theorist who coined the term, "The medium is the message," has another saying that is attributed to him, one that weighs heavily on this question and provides a subtle yet undeniable admonition. The saying goes, "I don't know who discovered water, but I know it wasn't the fish." While it may be uncomfortable for us, in McLuhan's terms, we have to metaphorically become amphibious and get out of education's water, at least temporarily.

We must have the courage to come out of the water to gain a different perspective on education, and then do things differently. In the words of poet Maya Angelou, "Courage is the most important virtue." And from Eleanor Roosevelt, we hear these words faintly in the recesses of our minds, "We must do the thing we think we cannot do."

This afternoon, you have heard expert testimony that it is, indeed, possible for California's schoolchildren to find meaning and fulfillment in our great state's public education system. We have learned that academic excellence and excellent health and fitness are not separate or dual entities, each fighting for its own precious yet limited time and funding, but are one-in-the-same in the very being of every schoolchild if we choose to look at the child in a holistic way.

By viewing the learning of any discipline, including sport, as a holistic, integrated, and balanced experience comprised of the arts, humanities, and sciences; by viewing human beings, especially children, as natural learners who find meaning and fulfillment by striving to fulfill their potential as they pursue their bliss; by using the positive aspects of sport culture as a model for reforming our schools, including the Fundamentals of Athletic Mastery; by developing a reformed and refurbished approach to physical education and incorporating this new approach into all courses; and by informing all of these elements with the principles and practices of flow states and a learner-centered approach, we have found at ASI that not only can you lead the proverbial horse (read: student) to water, but it will drink and drink and drink, time and time and time again from the trough of its own bliss. And, it is this very water that invigorates the student-horse's body, quenches its natural thirst for learning, and leads to the horse doing just about anything its benevolent trainer wants it to.

At the American Sports Institute, we envision a time when athletics will return to their rightful place of honor in the arts and humanities, and when physical education will assume a more integral and respected position in the educational enterprise. For it may well be that sport and physical education, reformed and refurbished, may provide the best possible path to personal enlightenment, and educational and social transformation in this age.