Thoughts About Running
How two Alberta schools are using daily exercise to improve academics
Get a Move On
My elementary school i n Toronto had a passionate physical education teacher. He led a club called Kilometres for Kids, which drew students, parents (and pets) to the schoolyard in the mornings. He tracked students’ progress in track events, and presented me with a chart of six years’ worth of personal bests when I graduated in Grade 6. Instead of running a few laps of the track on the day of the annual Terry Fox Run, students ran longer distances – up to 10k – through nearby neighbourhoods. Not surprisingly, the crosscountry team was very popular. Sometimes, I wonder if I would have became a runner had I not attended this school.
Recently, I learned about two schools i n Alberta that have made running, and physical activity in general, a key part of their schools’ culture.
Five hundred kilometres separate Delton Elementary School and Kainai High School, and their differences abound. Delton is a K-6 public school in a low-income, inner-city neighbourhood in Edmonton, not far from a stadium where the Oilers used to play. Kainai is located on the Blood Reserve, which is the largest First Nation ( by area) in the country. It takes more than an hour to drive from one corner of the southern Alberta reserve to another. The school is federally funded but run by a local education society.
Both schools have st r uggled with low attendance and low academic achievement for a variety of reasons. In recent years, each has tried new strategies to better set students up for success. Delton is one of five Edmonton schools participating in a three-year pilot project that aims to give more support to children (and their families) in and outside school. Kainai switched from a traditional semester schedule to a four-quarter schedule in order to help students focus on fewer classes at a time and earn more credits.
At both schools, staff encourage running and being active on a daily basis. At Delton this fall, assistant principal Dao Haddad told me about the school’s running club and yoga sessions, which attract about 30 kids every day. The school also launched a lunchtime running club just for girls – since girls weren’t participating as much as boys were in the coed club. Haddad, who is a runner herself, said she hoped the club would become a reason for girls to come to school as well as a confidence-booster. At Kainai, all students start their day with 30 minutes of walking or running. From the 8:25 a.m. bell until 8:55 a.m., students are moving, either around the school outdoors, around the track across the road or inside the building in the winter. “We need our kids emotionally, mentally and physic a lly prepa red to lea r n,” sa id Charlton Weasel Head, an associate principal and athletic director at the school. The staff at each school also make an effort to increase exercise opportunities throughout the day. At Kainai, students work on projects outside, learn about science during a nature walk or participate in a fitness class during “f lex time” on Fridays.
Exercise isn’t a magic solution that can solve all of a school’s problems. Running 5k won’t help a sleepdeprived student who has not eaten breakfast. But research has convincingly shown that students who are more physically active tend to get better grades in school. Being active helps kids focus in class and develop higher self-esteem. It also helps prevent their risk of developing type-2 diabetes.
Since implementing daily physical activity at their school a few years ago, the staff at Kainai have seen some of these benefits. According to Weasel Head, students seem more prepared to learn. They have been earning more credits, passing more courses and getting increasingly involved in school sports. Delton and Kainai both partnered with Ever Active Schools, a provincially funded project run by the Alberta Teachers’ Association. The initiative tries to help schools build and maintain healthy communities by providing financial and educational support to teachers and staff. But it often takes passionate teachers, volunteers and parents to keep kids moving. Not every kid who runs at school will fall in love with cross-country, but more running will hopefully lead to smarter and healthier kids across Canada.