"I want to see bodies flying through the air," calls out physical education specialist Pat Vickroy, as fifth-graders in groups of three take turns leapfrogging each other and rolling out of the way on mats scattered throughout the courtyard. Their laughter and whoops nearly drown out the music on the boom box at Eliot Elementary School in Gilroy.

 

Next, students construct human pyramids. Some strike artistic poses while others collapse into a pile of giggles. The goal is to improve balance, flexibility, muscular strength and endurance while building trust and encouraging teamwork.

 

After 30 minutes, the class ends abruptly. That's all Gilroy allocates per week for elementary physical education with a PE specialist. "Since they cut our program in half five years ago, I only see students for 30 minutes one day a week," says Vickroy, who covers four of the eight elementary schools in the district. "We used to have a quality program."

 

Regular classroom teachers in Gilroy are supposed to take up the slack in meeting the state's PE requirement, but it isn't necessarily happening.

 

"At some schools, teachers are being discouraged from taking students out at all," says Vickroy, a member of the Gilroy Teachers Association. "I've had teachers tell me that if they take students out for PE, they get written up or get into trouble. Recently, at one school (not Eliot), the principal wanted to take recess away from the kindergarten class. When the teacher asked about fitting PE in, the principal said, 'I don't care about physical education. I care about meeting state standards.'"

 

If Vickroy's fifth-grade class is any indication, students in Gilroy could use more activity. Several of the 28 students could be described as overweight.

 

Following PE, students line up for a school lunch that offers french toast with butter and syrup; pizza; burgers; burritos; peanut butter and jelly sandwiches; chocolate milk; and healthy food, like apples, small salads, and packages of celery and carrot sticks. Some students drink sodas and eat chips brought from home.

 

"I've seen an incredible increase in student obesity over the last 10 years," observes Vickroy. "It crosses all ethnic backgrounds. Some students are severely overweight. They are limited in their ability to move."

 

"Physical inactivity," he cautions, "is the second leading cause of preventable death in America, and it's fast becoming No. 1."

 

Three years ago, Vickroy was so angry about his district's dismissive attitude toward physical education that he refused to administer the state-mandated physical fitness test to students. "There was no point, since students had no quality program to prepare them for the tests," he says.

 

He was written up for insubordination and his job was threatened. When he filed a grievance, the district hired a substitute to administer the test. For the past two years, he has administered the test under protest.

 

"It's hard for me to understand the administrative mindset that ignores the benefits of physical education," says Vickroy. "Research shows that physical activity increases academic performance and reduces the health risk to our nation. But rather than doing more, we're doing less."

 

What's happening in Gilroy is not uncommon. Increasing numbers of educators and health care providers are sounding the alarm about the ramifications of reduced time spent in physical education classes combined with an increasingly sedentary lifestyle and poor nutrition.

 

Seventy-seven percent of California students tested in 2001 flunked the state's physical fitness test. The Fitnessgram is administered to students in grades 5, 7 and 9 and includes three components - aerobic capacity; muscular strength, endurance and flexibility; and body composition.

 

More than half of the state's ninth-graders ran the mile so slowly they failed the aerobic portion of the test. The test showed that more than a quarter of the state's students are overweight - some only slightly, some by more than 100 pounds.

 

Another study from the University of California shows that a third of California's African American and Latino children are overweight. Among white students, those who are overweight are more likely to be economically disadvantaged.

 

Pediatricians throughout the state are reporting a startling increase in Type II diabetes, which was almost unheard of in children a decade ago. The Oakland Unified School District recently hired a nurse educator to train teachers to recognize symptoms and handle diabetic emergencies.

 

In February, Oakland became the first district in the state to banish soda and candy sales in its schools in an effort to do something about the problem, a move that was followed by Los Angeles in August.

 

The U.S. Surgeon General has declared childhood obesity a national epidemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that hospital costs related to childhood obesity have more than tripled in the past two decades - to nearly $130 million.

 

More than 30 national organizations recently joined former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher at the first Healthy Schools Summit: Taking Action for Children's Nutrition and Fitness, held in Washington, D.C. First Lady Laura Bush served as honorary chair of the summit, which hosted prominent speakers discussing the long-term implications of poor nutrition and physical inactivity.

 

"Society is being penny-wise and poundfoolish when schools have to drastically reduce physical education programs and struggle to provide an environment that supports nutritious eating due to budget constraints," said Satcher. "We need to reverse the trends that are leading to increases in preventable conditions, such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis."

 

By not paying attention to the physical needs of students, "we're shortchanging ourselves for the future," says Terry Shoup, an elementary school PE specialist in San Bernardino. "We'll pay for this down the line with unhealthy adults and high medical and insurance costs. Believe me, it's going to be very expensive."

 

There are other ramifications for students and society. For example, obesity can cause excess estrogen production in girls, resulting in early puberty.

 

When puberty comes earlier, so does sexual awareness, says Aleta Oryall, a sixth-grade language arts teacher at Aptos Middle School in San Francisco. "Girls can become sexually active at an earlier age, which can lead to trouble."

 

Oryall, a member of United Educators San Francisco, is especially concerned about immigrant girls, who may not have been taught about saying no to sex - or using birth control - at such a young age.

 

Lack of exercise and unhealthy eating habits can also affect behavior, making students "squirrelly" in class - or lethargic.

 

"When I take my students on a walking field trip to San Francisco State University, many of the kids are complaining by the time they've walked a quarter mile. Students don't see walking as good for its own sake."

 

Shoup in San Bernardino has noticed that students are unhealthier than ever before in his 36 years of teaching. "You ask them to jog a couple hundred yards and it's like you asked them to run across the country. Today's kids lack endurance. They also lack body flexibility. I'm almost 60 years old and they are not as flexible as I am."

 

It's no longer the norm for students to walk or ride their bikes to school, or play outside after school, notes Shoup. Instead, they are inside watching television or playing video games.

 

"I had one mother tell me her son was really into sports. She said he couldn't wait to get home and turn on the ballgame.

 

"I said, 'He's not into sports; he's into television.'"

 

"Kids are out of shape and overweight," says Dawn James, whose dance classes at Skyline High School in Oakland can be taken to meet a PE requirement. "When I inherited this dance program, I found some really old dance clothes from years ago. I literally had to throw out everything because nothing fit. Kids today are definitely bigger, that's for sure."

 

Some schools meet or exceed PE requirements; others find ways to get around them. High schools once required students to take four years of PE, but that has been cut in half, with many students opting out through waivers, say teachers. Middle school students are required to have 400 minutes every 10 days. Students in grades 1-6 are required to have a minimum of 200 minutes every 10 days, or 20 minutes a day, but seldom get even that. The San Francisco Chronicle estimates that most elementary students in the state get about 15 minutes of organized exercise a week.

 

Meanwhile, in September, the Institute of Medicine recommended that people who want to stay healthy exercise at least an hour a day - double the previous workout recommendation.

 

"In some districts, they are doing a good job of meeting physical education requirements; in others, they are not," says Dianne Wilson-Graham, a physical education consultant for the state Department of Education. "There is so much pressure in other areas, such as reading, language arts and mathematics, we are seeing substitutions made in place of physical education."

 

Some teachers, who do not want to be quoted, say their administrators consider recess and lunch time to count toward meeting the PE requirement. One principal has told teachers that passing periods between classes are to be considered PE.

 

Elementary schools throughout the state have cut programs with PE specialists in order to save money. Many regular classroom teachers say they lack the expertise to teach physical education, especially when it comes to conveying knowledge of physiology, the body's mechanics, and promoting fitness. The average credentialed teacher has taken only one class on the subject.

 

Many classroom teachers say it's a moot point - there just isn't enough time to teach PE.

 

"The focus is on those test scores - everything else be damned," says Shoup, a member of the San Bernardino Teachers Association. "It's really a shame. Many schools aren't meeting the physical education requirement. Others are technically meeting the requirement. But whether the requirement is adequate is another issue."

 

Some PE enthusiasts have gone so far as to recommend that PE be included in the state's Academic Performance Index (API). SB 1597 by Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), which would have legislated such a move, was shot down in the Senate Education Committee last spring.

 

Another way school districts are cutting down on physical education is by cramming large numbers of students into classes.

 

In one of her classes, James in Oakland says half of her 51 students are asked to "hold up the wall" and stand to one side, allowing the other half enough room to dance. "The room cannot safely hold that many students. In this room, I should have 32 students, max."

 

Even in the wealthy district of Danville, overcrowding is a problem, says Rick Steen, a teacher at San Ramon Valley High School.

 

"Last year's freshman PE classes opened up with 54 and 55 in each," says Steen, a member of the San Ramon Valley Educators Association. Even though the numbers have since been reduced to 47 and 52, "these are huge classes. It impacts our ability to be creative. Expectations are not as great. Instead of having one person in rotation for something, you might have three. It shortchanges the kids."

 

Kids are being shortchanged at a time when research shows that PE actually enhances academic learning. The irony is not lost on educators whose administrators justify cutting PE to improve academic achievement.

 

"Studies have shown that when students are physically active, it sets the stage for learning," says Suzanne Mullins, a PE teacher at Hillsdale Middle School in El Cahon. "I find it very ironic that they are cutting PE classes and recess to make way for academics when the two go hand in hand."

 

Exercise trains the brain to respond to challenges quickly, improves academic performance and diminishes violent impulses, according to researchers.

 

"It is helpful to think of the brain as a muscle," says Dr. John J. Ratey, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "One of the best ways to maximize the brain is through exercise and movement."

 

Physical activity also relieves symptoms of depression and anxiety.

 

Mullins, who serves as president of the Cajon Valley Education Association, considers herself lucky that her administration supports physical education.

 

"But it seems like every couple of years, the trend is to say, 'Let's have PE just three days a week and add a reading class.' Then I go to the principal armed with research that proves reading scores are likely to go up more if kids are active."

 

Dawn James, a member of the Oakland Education Association, finds it frustrating that PE is usually the first thing to go when there are cuts. "It's not valued. They are continually cutting programs and lowering requirements."

 

But the benefits of PE make it worth fighting for, she says.

 

Athletics in general and dance in particular can provide lessons in socialization. "Students learn how to work cooperatively, which is a skill they will need forever. They learn to be respectful. They learn tolerance and acceptance," says James.

 

"When kids are moving, working hard and learning to be part of a team, they seem to be more motivated in other areas of their life.

 

"As cliché as it sounds, success breeds success."