Getting students motivated to move
Lyndsay Verrill said she could have passed the Presidential Physical Fitness Challenge when she was tested last spring at her middle school, but she chose not to exert herself to perform the required sit-ups, pullups, and running.
"It's just the pressure of everybody watching you," said the tall, trim eighth-grader at the John Wynn Middle School in Tewksbury.
Lyndsay had a lot of company. Out of 347 Tewksbury middle schoolers tested last year, none achieved the "Presidential Level" of fitness, which requires such things as performing about 45 curl-ups in a minute and running a mile in less than 8 minutes. Only 10 achieved the less rigorous "National Level" of fitness.
Such findings don't come as a shock to Judy Hopkins, the Wynn school's nurse. Hopkins, who has worked at the school for 17 years, said she records heights and weights of every student annually, and she is certain that bodies are getting heavier.
"You can just see that standing in the hallways," she said.
Contributing to the lack of fitness among Tewksbury's youth is the layout of the town itself, which discourages walking. The former farming community, which is sliced in half by Route 38, lost its country atmosphere years ago, when Main Street became a state route with an Interstate 495 exit. Traffic clogs the center corridor at rush hours, and because Tewksbury has no sidewalks, walking or riding a bicycle through town can be a harrowing experience.
To worsen matters, the downtown is not a popular destination -- a fact noted in the town's recently drafted master plan. Unlike neighboring Andover's vibrant downtown of shops, restaurants, and banks, Tewksbury's downtown consists of the library, Town Hall, and fire station. No opportunities for shopping here; no walking from the drugstore to the bank.
"When I went home, we played outside until dinnertime," said school nurse leader Marcia Osterman, referring to her own youth. "Kids live on busier streets. There are a decreased number of neighborhoods."
The town's master plan, adopted by the Planning Board on Sept. 15, calls for a better mix of businesses along Main Street and a traditional village center in the area around Town Hall.
In the shorter term, a new program could give a boost to the health of middle school students. The town has just received a $153,000 US Department of Education grant to cover the cost of indoor and outdoor exercise equipment for the Wynn school, including computer software for monitoring progress.
It's not so much the physical challenge that gets in the way of the students, but students' motivation, said physical education instructor Thomas Morrill. "It's hard to get them motivated and to understand the implications" of developing sedentary habits early in life, he said.
To counter the apathy, Morrill teamed with director of community services Cynthia Basteri last year to write a 43-page grant proposal that resulted in a financial award from the Carol M. White Physical Education Program through the US Education Department. The money will enable the Wynn school to purchase equipment for a wellness center and a challenge course.
"The program is designed to make students take personal responsibility for their health," said Morrill. "I want them to understand what it is to be healthy. You don't have to be an athlete to be healthy."
In a few weeks, an array of equipment will arrive, including stationary bicycles, a treadmill, and two weight machines, all to help students increase cardiovascular and aerobic fitness, and upper and lower body strength. An outdoor ropes course is planned for helping students build self-esteem and teamwork.
The program is called the "New Physical Education." A typical middle school gym class is focused on competitive team sports, said Morrill, but some children are more motivated to rock-climb, kayak, or ski. Morrill's program is designed to instill in children the desire to do these activities right through adulthood.
The program will expand to the general community by next fall, according to Basteri, who emphasized that it's also designed to help those with normal or below-normal weight levels.
Morrill, an educator in the system since 1999, who has struggled to combat the fitness pitfalls, said that until he teamed up with Basteri, the solutions he had come up with were vague. The pairing led to success, and in a few weeks, eighth-graders like Ashley Mahoney, Nicole Pondelli, Megan Geen, Scott Oberg, Ben Lucchesi, Anthony Hill, and Tim Aalerud will join Lyndsay Verrill and the rest of their classmates in a new fitness approach.
"I'm looking forward to it," said Tim Aalerud, echoing the comments of the others. "It will be fun."
Joyce Pellino Crane can be reached at crane@globe.com.
