Daily movement

A problem:

We're built for motion, but we imprison ourselves in desks. Human bodies are designed to regularly move and exert themselves. Human brains seem designed to work best when their bodies are being used. When we've been moving, we're happier and healthier. We have more energy to draw on, and yet (somewhat counter-intuitively) we're calmer, too.

But schools aren't built for motion. Gym class and recess are sometimes seen as add-ons to the school day — ones that, thanks in part to No Child Left Behind, have become rarer in some schools.

Our basic plan:

Two to three times a day, rain or shine, students will go outside and move! Playing organized games, and engaging in free-form play, they should return a little winded.

And inside the classroom, students will have opportunities to exert their bodies in more limited ways: balancing, stretching, and doing muscle-building.

Our goals:

Our school can help kids be fitter, happier, and calmer than they would be otherwise. The exercise they regularly get allows them to be more awake in the classroom, and think more clearly.

If you walk into our classrooms, you might see:

Kids who, come sundown, will fall asleep very quickly.

Some specific questions:

• "Rain or shine"? Am I going nuts here? Obviously there are some weather constraints. (When we have blizzards and hurricanes, kids should stay inside!) What are the practical limits? (I do like the idea, however, of having kids go outside in the rain. It's refreshing — it's wonderful! Can we have kids just store a change of clothes at the school?)
• What are the secrets for having gym class not become terrible?
• What list of outside games and sports should we compose?
• What inside activities should we have? A balance beam? A trampoline? A climbing wall?
• Are there any generally-agreed-upon goals that we should be shooting for? (For example, I ran across the phrase "kids should have 60 minutes of exercise each day!" Is that an Officially Thing?)
• The group PE4Life seems to be a leader in the "make gym amazing" community. Should we approach them for a formal partnership?

Dancing!

A problem:

Human cultures have evolved an amazing tool for binding together groups of unrelated people. This tool creates trust among strangers, trains the body, and increases happiness. (It might even fight depression.)

It's dancing. And schools hardly use it!

Our basic plan:

Every day in our classrooms, we'll dance. When children are young, we'll capitalize on their desire to be wild — to wiggle, giggle, jump, and twirl. As they get older, we'll capitalize on their emerging desire to master precise movement. We'll engage a multitude of dancing styles from around the world.

Our goals:

Moving in synchrony has been shown to create trust, so we'll use dance to create bonds among students and teachers. Dancing is exercise, so we'll use dance to improve student (and teacher!) health. And dancing has been shown to increase happiness (and lower measures of depression), so a goal will be to cultivate happiness!

In addtion, dancing is deep cultural stuff: we hope that students will be able to engage with many diverse cultures (African, Asian, Polynesian, folk American…) through dance.

If you walk into our classrooms, you might see:

Once or twice a day, teachers will put on loud music, and everyone'll break into dance. That's right: it'll be like living in a Broadway musical!

You might see a video being projected that shows others engaging in the dance, to make it easier for our kids to learn the style.

Some specific questions:

• I conceived of this first for our future-Seattle-area school, which will open only with little kids. Island Academy, however, will be opening with mixed ages (grade school through early high school). If the older students balk at dancing, should we abandon it?
• Should we look to get community volunteers for this?
• I'd love to lay out a progression of types of dance that we do, but I've absolutely no expertise here. Anyone interested in talking about this?