Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

CHAPTER 5: Fostering the 8 Strengths of Character—Outcome 6discipline and a healthy lifestyle means not only leadingthat kind of life yourself, but also trying to be a positiveinfluence on others.Valuing self-discipline means not onlyleading that kind of life yourselfbut also trying to be a positiveinfluence on others.Many young people, to their deep regret, learn too latethat real caring sometimes requires care-frontation. Somesee their friends killed in car accidents where drinkingwas involved—and later wish they had done something totry to prevent it. Others see friends suffer from poor decisionsin relationships. The story on page163 shows the power of care-frontation,which is often needed in our efforts to helpone another become self-disciplined personswho pursue a healthy lifestyle.Fitness for Learning, Fitnessfor LifeAccording to Child Trends: “Insufficientphysical activity and poor nutrition combine to comprisethe second leading preventable cause of death inAmerica. Lack of exercise and poor diet play roles in obesity,coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, type 2diabetes, and some cancers.” Child Trends reports that, inspite of this knowledge, “a third of high school studentsfail to meet current public health recommendations ofthree or more sessions a week of continuous, moderateto-vigorousphysical activity.” 17John Allegrante, president of the National Center forHealth Education and co-editor of the book Derryberry’sEducating for Health, reports the following in an EducationWeek essay titled “Unfit to Learn”:◆ Between 1991 and 1995, the percentage of studentsattending daily physical education classes droppedfrom 42% to 25%.◆ A California Department of Education study reportedthat students in grades 5-9 who met physical fitnessstandards in three or more areas were superior to lessfit students in math and reading. 18A Wellness ProgramWe visited a National School of Character that hasWe first makeour habits, andthen our habitsmake us.responded to the challenges posed by the facts citedabove. A year ago, this school replaced its old physicaleducation and health education classes with a new WellnessWorkshop designed to help students form and sustainhabits of healthy living. The premise of the newapproach: If we expect youth to make a commitment tophysical fitness in their adult lives, they must begin tomake that commitment now.The Wellenss Workshop isn’t tied to a class period; ratherstudents have to do 40 hours of wellness activities over thecourse of the semester. The school’s wellness coordinatorexplained:Because this is a lifelong skill, kids need to learn now howto fit wellness into their lives. The wellness class requiresthem to do that.—JOHN DRYDENWe do meet as a class twice a week for thefirst six weeks; then we turn them loose. In ourclass sessions, we begin with the question,“What does it mean to be healthy? Mentallyhealthy? Physically healthy? EmotionallyHealthy? Socially healthy?They each do a family history, interviewing variousfamily members. This makes it up closeand personal. One boy came back and said, “My dad diedof a heart attack at 38. That scares me.”One high school requires a WellnessWorkshop so that students learn howto fit wellness into their lives.The rest of the Wellness Workshop involves these steps:1. Students set three goals for physical health and three goalsfor mental/emotional/social health. These must be specificgoals on which they can make measurable progress.2. Students develop a plan—what exercise they’ll do, whatkind of meals they’ll eat, and so on—for how they aregoing to work on their wellness goals.3. Fitness tests are provided at the beginning of thesemester and along the way. A computer programcharts the results so that students can see their gains.Students share their personal profiles in order to motivateeach other.4. During the semester, students are asked to reflect onhow well they are following their plan. What’s working?What isn’t?164Smart & Good High Schools