Survival of the Fit
How Physical Education Ensures Academic Achievement and a Healthy Life

Daniel Fulham O'Neill (Author)

9780807764763

Paperback / softback, published 18 December 2020

216 pages
22.8 x 15.4 x 1 cm, 0.3 kg

Young people in America are facing a health crisis of epidemic proportions—yet no one is taking action. Children are born as active, curious, imaginative beings with a built-in physical identity. Survival of the Fit offers a new and revelatory plan to nurture this identity and save the health of America’s youngsters. One of the keys to this plan is rebranding physical education (PE) and making it available for every child, every day, in every year of school. In addition to establishing historical references and a scientific basis for this rebranding, the author provides a downloadable template for PE classes at all school levels. He lays out a blueprint to help educators and parents bring this “PE revolution” to their school with no increase in the school budget. Sounding the alarm regarding America’s health crisis, Survival of the Fit explains how we can use existing tools, knowledge, and infrastructure to make needed changes with immediate results for every school, not just a privileged few. Everyone interested in seeing improvements in the physical, mental, and emotional health of our children will want to put this book to use.

Book Features:

• Introduces the concept of physical identity, an inborn trait that animals from octopi to humans are born with.
• Presents the reasoning for restoring youth competitive sports to community control even for high school students.
• Discusses how we can win the war against bad food and addiction to two-dimensional entertainment.
• Showcases original research, as well as comments and criticism from active educators.

• Contents (Tentative)
• Acknowledgments xi
• 1. 
  Our Physical Identities: Inborn, Important, and Impaired 1
• Introduction: No STEM Without Fitness 
  1 Physical Identity and the Primitive Brain 
  4
• The Power of Play 
  5
• Timing Is Everything 
  7
• Society and Identity 
  8
• Children and Identity 
  9
• Uncle Sam May Not Actually Want You! 
  11
• 2. 
  The Rise and Fall of Physical Education 
  15
• Evidence-Based Physical Education: Why Rebranding Is Needed 
  15
• What We Do Not Do in Our Daily Lives (Baby Boomers Take Note!) 
  17
• What Children Do Not Do After School 
  18
• Mother Nature to the Rescue 
  21
• They Don’
  t Have Time, and It’
  s Dangerous 
  21
• What We Do Not Do for Work 
  23
• The Adulting of Youth Play 
  24
• A System Put in Place for a Very Different Time 
  26
• Physical Education and Interscholastic Sports 
  28
• In Support of Organized Sports: Making It Fun for All Participants 
  32
• Myths and Identities: Do Not Expect Too Much from a Game 
  35
• The Athletic Lottery Winners 
  38
• Wild Game 
  40
• The Right Side of History 
  42
• What’
  s So Funny ‘
  Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding? 
  43
• Don’
  t Become What You Eat 
  45
• 3. 
  Roadblocks to Rebranding Physical Education in Today’
  s Schools 
  47
• Experience vs. Expertise 
  47
• Federal Input for Physical Education 
  50
• Physical Education in American Schools Today 
  52
• 4.Removing the Roadblocks: Establishing Rebranded Physical Education 
  70
• Mother Nature’
  s Last Stand 
  70
• Money, Money Everywhere, but Not a Drop for PE 
  71
• PE: The Only Subject That May Need Standardized Testing 
  72
• If You Can’
  t Teach, Don’
  t Teach PE: Goal Setting for the 21st Century PE Teacher 
  75
• Contagions You Want to Catch 
  78
• Competitive Sports Are Sports—
  They Are Rarely PE 
  79
• Lifelong Activities 
  80
• If Exergaming Is My Only Option, Give Me Football 
  82
• There’
  s No Telling Where the Money Went 
  83
• Follow the Money 
  85
• If You Want to Know Something, Maybe Just Ask 
  88
• Survey Says . . . 
  91
• Mission Statement 
  96
• 5.Revolutionizing and Rebranding PE for Physical Identity 
  98
• Our School Is in Motion: A Social Contagion 
  98
• Goals for the Rebranded PE 
  99
• Sample Curricula 
  115
• The Revolution Starts Now (and WILL be Televised!) 
  165
• Think Globally, Act Locally 
  169
• Mission Statement (Reprise) 
  170
• Letters From the Front 
  172
• Action List for Revolutionaries 
  177
• Time and Money 
  178
• References 
  181
• Index 
  191
• About the Author 
  199