Keeping kids in motion: twin teachers set example for lifetime fitness

Melpomene Journal, Fall-Winter, 2002 by Debbie Mazzocco

Twins Joan and Joyce Spehar have a combined 40 years' experience reaching physical education. Each left once to work in the business world, but returned for the love of the kids. Thousands of tikes and teens have benefited from their tutelage, and what they have to say about the state of physical education in the public schools bears listening to. In short, there's not enough money to do what's needed. And the needs are greater than ever before.

This petite identical duo -- trim, fit, confident and energetic - grew up in a northern Minnesota family in which everyone participated in sports. Joan and Joyce and their five siblings were routinely rousted out of bed and into their backyard, where their dad taught them to field grounders and throw the ball back home. The entire Spehar Clan, as they call their extended family, was heavily into participatory athletics. In contrast, today's American kids' world is rife with television and computers, video games and movies-on-demand, high-fat packaged snacks and drive-through food.

"I truly believe kids need physical education now more than ever," says Joyce. Joan would agree. Her mantra: "We want to have kids in motion."

Both teach in the Anoka-Hennepin School District, a large suburban school system in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area of Minnesota. Comprising more than 40 schools and other learning facilities, the district has an annual operating budget exceeding $300 million. Because of steadily increasing costs and reduced revenue from the state, more than $10 million has been cut from the 2002-03 budget. And deficits are predicted for the next several years unless state funding is increased or district voters agree to pay more taxes.

Dodging the bullet

At Evergreen Park Elementary in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, Joyce teaches her first- through fifth-graders two 30minute classes per week. Daily would be optimal, she says, but even three times a week could make a huge difference. As the district looks at possibilities for elementary-school cuts, it's always the "specialist" classes -- including physical education, art and music -- that come to the top of the list. And facilities could be better. At one time, Joyce gave a "follow-up" lesson plan to classroom teachers each week, so the students could get another 30 minutes of phy ed time. But the gym wasn't big enough to accommodate the extra sessions. For now, Joyce is dodging the bullet. But the future is uncertain.

At Champlin Park High School nearby, Joan is one of three women phy ed teachers who have started a special elective class -- Group and Individual Recreational Lifetime Skills (GIRLS) -- to lure junior and senior girls who've already fulfilled their state-mandated phy ed requirements, hoping to keep the students' interest, and the teachers' jobs, alive.

Throughout the district, Joyce and Joan know of fellow phy ed teachers whose jobs have been cut or reduced to part-time hours. Others, fearing the next round of budget cuts will affect them, have moved on to jobs in other districts.

In the face of these challenges, the Spehar twins continue to prod and encourage and coach the students in their charge.

When Joyce arrived at Evergreen Park a few years ago, all of the students were required to run a mile. When she saw natural athletes enjoying the run but others lagging behind and getting discouraged, she rallied her fellow teachers to change the requirements. Now the young ones run a half-mile.

"You need to stay very positive with the students, teach them the basics and go at it slowly," says Joyce. "It's a slow progression, along with a positive, kind and encouraging attitude."

Cooperate and create

Part of that attitude is encouraging the kids to imagine and create and play, getting away from the TV and into the outdoors as most of their parents and grand-parents did. As summer vacation draws near, Joyce teaches a unit to help them do just that. The children are divided into groups and each group is given some equipment -- maybe tennis balls or a basketball, a hula hoop or cones - and charged with creating a game or an obstacle course. The challenge is to cooperate and create, to learn ways of playing outside. "Kids have lost some of that," she says.

Another important factor for Joyce is encouraging cooperation between boys and girls, and among kids of varying athletic abilities and experience. The first-grade boy, she says, is more likely than the girl to arrive at school knowing how to throw a softball, probably because his dad has taught him. But for softball and other sports, Joyce starts everyone at the beginning level, on an even par. To boys' cries of "You mean we have to play with the girls?" - or girls' similar complaints -- she replies with a firm stance that no one in her class should think they're better than anyone else. "It's really important we correct that," she says.

Over at Champlin Park High, Joan also teaches coed classes. But the new GIRLS class is one that makes her eyes light up. "We wanted to do something about the low number of females who take phy ed in their last two years of high school," she said. The girls canoed, did aerobics, learned kick-boxing and self-defense, heard inspirational stories of high-achieving women, and celebrated the semester's end by trekking out to a frozen pond behind the school for boot hockey and a bonfire. The course attracted two classes of 30 girls during the 200 1-02 school year; this year double that number have enrolled.