TPM #309: Gym Teacher To The Picket Line.
Some historical perspective on why our physical and mental health has declined so much and 7 ways to reverse this trend.
Good Morning.
In this edition of The Physical Movement, we explore a topic close to my heart and part of my soul.
The year was 1994. February 1994. On a bus from Montreal to Quebec City with a team. On a mission, and a purpose.
Similar to the bus rides from my hockey playing days, but this was different. We did have hockey sticks, but not with the intention of hitting the ice to compete.
The sticks were posts for placards. The placards were to be held on the steps of the National Assembly in Quebec City. Our team of physical education teachers were on a 3 hour journey to make our voices known.
To be heard.
We were protesting the latest round of Physical Education cutbacks in the schools. The cutbacks would cost me my job.
More importantly, it was another nail in the coffin of student health and wellness.
Actually, it was more than a 3 hour journey, in fact it was more like a journey of a lifetime.
Becoming a “gym teacher” or Physical Education (PE) specialist represented a lifelong goal of striving to impact others the way PE had impacted my life. Physical Education specialists have varying personality characteristics, however what links us all is that PE affected us positively. It might have been that special teacher. Or perhaps the confidence gained through the play environment. Or both. Or something else. But is was positive, and it was life changing.
So much so, we wanted to make it our career.
University studies and a teaching degree. Job interviews and getting a teaching job. In my case, getting a full time job as a PE teacher was no easy task. It took me part time and temporary jobs for the better part of 5 years after graduation. My first job had me move away from home and family.
My 2nd full time job landed me at Dawson College in Montreal, closer to home at the time. I was part of a department of over 30 PE specialists. We provided a program for the ages. Subjects like Stress Management, martial arts and Outdoor Education. Aquatics and Learning to Skate. We had many students on the ice, in the outdoors and/or in the water for the very first time at an age (collegiate level) when most would not consider these activities.
After 2 years at Dawson, the word came down. The government was cutting the PE requirements by 50% for the students. Budget cuts. 50% of the staff was out.
This was not good news on multiple levels. Not good for my employment. But the real issue was the impact on the students. Those we had smiling and moving and learning had their opportunities reduced by 1/2.
I had just gone through a similar exercise in my first full time job, teaching students K-6. After 2 years, the position was reduced from full time to ½ time.
These moves seemed counter intuitive.
Daily PE helped with physical and mental health and academic achievement, yes?.
We studied that in university.
Was everyone not aware? This would be like stopping the medicine that was needed to cure an illness. In fact, it was exactly that.
So we stood outside protesting in the freezing cold in Quebec City to an audience that had made up their mind. The government agencies were not listening. I remember thinking that these policy makers must have had a negative experience in the school gym, they saw no value in what was being offered.
The negative impact is still being felt today.
Personally, I was fine. I left school teaching after that year and pursued my passion in health promotion another way.
Fast forward to 2025 and there are very few PE specialists left. Most universities that offered PE specialist degrees stopped doing so because the jobs dried up.
And the impact on the kids without quality daily PE has been horrific.
Participaction, a Canadian organization that promotes active living issued their 2024 Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth and gives a grade of D+ for overall physical activity and sedentary behavior.
4% of children and youth (five to 17 years of age) met the combined 24-Hour Movement Guidelines in 2024.
Supporting study:
https://www.participaction.com/the-science/children-and-youth-report-card/
Despite these trends, that have been documented for years and years, Physical Education continues to be treated as expendable.
It was not always this way.
Physical Education was a staple branch of the educational curriculum dating back to the 1800’s as governments looked to prepare young people for military service. As far back as 1909, Physical Education started to become a standard in the North American curriculum to varying degrees. Over time, it moved away from militaristic drills and calisthenics to more of a play based focus.
By the 1930’s this play based focus took over and in the 1940’s university degree programs in Physical Education were launched
The momentum grew from there with physical fitness and health promotion becoming a bigger and bigger part of the school focus across North America.
In the United States, John F Kennedy established the physical fitness program in 1961 to delivery on the priority of strong body and strong mind.
Here is the JFK message on physical fitness at the time:
Here is great 5 minute clip on JFK sample school PE program in the early 60’s
It was in the late 1980’s that Physical Education started to get on the radar of budget cuts, and marked a decline that we are still feeling today.
It is perhaps not a coincidence, that the physical and mental health of our society has never been worse than it is currently, with it being especially harsh impact on our school age children.
So how do we climb back?
It would start at the grass roots level with the parents. As parents we have the biggest role to play in the role modeling and promoting of healthy habits.
Without role modeling of parents around activity, our youth are in for a tough go. Reducing screen time, coming up with scheduled family activity time is a great first step to getting back on track.
Parents must also advocate for PE to come back into the schools. At least push them to implement what is in the curriculum. If the schools are not going to budge, then opportunities for outside of school activities are essential.
Let’s face it, no one will care more for you and your kids health than you.
No one else will advocate more for our own health than we will.
The time of relying on outside agencies to do so is long gone.
Advocating community driven play times and areas as well as schools need to bring pact, as John F Kennedy said “Do not have the majority of our population sitting on the sidelines”.
That is what we have now. The fear he had in the 1960’s is the norm in 2025 in most of the western world.
Yes, schools have a role to play. But ultimately healthy behavior starts at home.
Making sure your local school board has a PE curriculum would be the first step and making sure that it is implemented would be essential.
Schools in some countries have reversed the trend to cutbacks and inactivity.
In 2010, Finland embarked on a national action plan to increase physical activity in schools. The Finnish Schools on the Move program – a suite of measures, from peppering 15-minute breaks throughout the school day to conscripting older kids to lead games and activities at recess – has been adopted by 90 per cent of Finnish municipalities and is having a gradual but positive impact on activity levels. The initiative was the government's response to reports that only half of Finnish youth were meeting the World Health Organization's guideline of one hour of moderate to vigorous activity a day. In Canada, the figure is a dismal nine per cent.
More on the Finish program here: https://liikkuvakoulu.fi/english
Recreational opportunities accessible to all need to come back to the communities.
Communities can provide incentives to organizations in making healthy living opportunities available to more than just those who can afford it.
Here are 7:
Gyms could be given tax breaks in return for offering basic fitness classes. After 30 years working with gym owners, I don’t know many who would pass up having an impact in the community by serving our next generations, especially if their time was valued with some financial incentives.
Performance centers (every community has a few places where athletes train) could be provided the same for offering movement ed courses to the community.
Each community center with a pool could offer free learn to swim in return for operational incentives. Same applies to martial arts classes, self-defense and stress management courses.
Arenas could be incentivized to offer learn to skate classes for individuals of all ages. Less and less Canadians are skating. If not in an elite sport, then chances are they are not learning to skate.
School gyms and fields could be opened and funded with tax incentives to the school or the qualified PE teacher. The PE teachers should not have to provide their expertise for free. IF budgets are tight, give them a tax break.
Every community has companies who would be open to incentives in return for contributions to program funding.
Companies could be provided incentives to support employee wellness. (Some of the biggest employers in our communities are municipalities). A tax break in return for participation or volunteering opens the door to that role modeling mentioned earlier.
Community leaders need to adopt a framework that will cut through the bureaucracy and effect positive change.
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If community leaders, who rely on votes to be in their position, do not feel the pressure to demand steps be taken, it will not happen.
If the community leaders do not know WHAT to do, this will not happen.
Another component to getting our health back is increasing health promotion and awareness. One of the mistakes that PE teachers made in my day is assuming the good work within the PE setting would be enough to make it sustainable.
Not true.
Whatever the initiative to get people moving needs to be promoted and held up as the new standard.
Social media have provided the tools to get the message out quickly.
Parents, educators, community leaders the time is now.
It starts with good role modeling and can evolve to change the status quo.
After 35 years of decline, let’s step up and forward to make the difference so we can all benefit.
No amount of protesting with posters on hockey sticks will work.
Getting the family out for a walk will work.
Opening up our gymnasiums and pools will work.
Relying on our local health and wellness experts will work if we help them help our communities.
Getting 15 minute hourly activity breaks during the school day will work.
We need more but these are strong steps forward.
There is a lot at stake.