Children are physical beings, brimming with energy and enthusiasm. Education at the Russell Byers Charter School acknowledges this simple truth and turns it into a natural opportunity for learning -- both to build healthy bodies and to create healthy attitudes about work, play, teamwork, and conflict resolution.

Healthy Minds
Students are part of creating this culture, which is why they must learn skills that help them function well with others. Chief among these are collaboration and self-mastery. When children collaborate, they help each other take risks and, ultimately, accomplish and achieve more. And when they can master their own physical selves, they can use that control to make broader changes in their world. Physical education teaches these important life skills.

On the most basic level, children learn better when they release pent-up energy during the school day. The straightforward benefits of exercise would be an important contribution of a physical education program under any circumstance, and every student has physical education every day at RBCS. But the RBCS program also promotes students’ overall wellbeing by focusing on three components: skills, knowledge, and behavior. These three areas are completely interrelated, though there are also goals for accomplishment in each.

Healthy Bodies
One of the first goals of the RBCS program is to simply encourage students to become comfortable with physical education, and activities are structured to build skills in an age-appropriate manner. The two main aspects of skill development involve learning about movement and learning games and sports. The regular routine of physical education teaches balance, coordination, proper form, and exercises that promote fitness -- as well as introducing students to structured activities that they can play in school, at home, or in other sports programs.

For the youngest students, in the four-year-old kindergarten, this means learning basic movements like skipping and hopping, gaining familiarity with all kinds of equipment, and playing simple games like Dog Pound -- where certain "dogs" must run by several "catchers" without getting caught. Older students improve on these skills with more advanced exercises and with games and sports that require more rules, teamwork, and competition.

The Physical Education program also increases students’ knowledge about good health. Students begin to recognize improvements in their own wellbeing, and they also learn how to keep their body in good condition by strengthening the heart and lungs, building muscle, and attaining flexibility. Students also learn that by making wise decisions about drugs, tobacco, and alcohol, they will remain productive, active, and sound throughout their lives. When children appreciate their bodies and enjoy how they feel when healthy, they are much less likely to make poor lifestyle choices as they get older.

In related areas, physical education by its nature raises issues around safety, teamwork, and fair play. Physical activities become clear object lessons about these more abstract themes, and young students, who may be less advanced in their verbal skills but comfortable acting out physically, learn to understand and redirect their impulses.

Safety
Safety is a crucial issue and its lessons influence other aspects of the school. Once outside and feeling uninhibited, students can openly demonstrate their level of respect and understanding for the safety of themselves and others. And the consequences of unsafe actions can easily be made clear. Through exposure to physical education, students learn how to act in a sportsmanlike way and how to prevent injury to themselves and their classmates.

Teamwork
Many other behavioral issues come up on the playground, often related to sharing and competition. For example, in most games, students must learn to take turns and share equipment. Students also need to appreciate and applaud the efforts of their classmates, instead of seeking to show off superior skills or win at all costs. Students can also learn that the best competition they have may be against their own abilities.

Fair Play
And certain activities can raise disappointments that need to be resolved. In a game or sport that requires the class to split into two teams, students can learn to fully participate and play by the rules even if they are not on the same side as a their best friends. And in games involving competition, those on the winning side may express excitement -- a natural response that the losing team may see as hurtful. Students must learn to process both their frustration and their elation at the end of a session, then leave the game and move on to class or the next activity.

Like any other skill, students will learn the benefits of beginning and ending physical activities with a sense of camaraderie as long as they are consistently demonstrated. Cooperation and fair play require practice, and the active nature of physical education puts these lessons into an immediate and identifiable context. It can take years for students to fully comprehend the importance of teamwork and sportsmanship, so structured daily activity is vital to reinforcing these critical life lessons. The RBCS physical education program not only helps students perform better in the classroom right now, but it gives them the tools to become better friends, team players, and citizens in the future.