As promised here is the REMARKABLE story of how Naperville High School turned around their entire concept of PHYSICAL EDUCATION (PE) that led to 19,000 students not only be being the most FIT in the USA but first in SCIENCE and MATH!

How did just changing the old way of PE or PLAY lead to these people REMARKABLE results?

If you want the entire story read Spark by John J Ratey MD.

What happened in the Cliff Notes (Google) summary is that several pioneering teachers realized that not every student was situated to be on a team sport like football, baseball, basketball, etc.

I was the poster child of this problem myself while in high school at Bolles. I was overweight and definitely out of shape. I was always picked LAST.

Were YOU in the same boat as me?

These two pioneers at Naperville realized this had to change! They began to see if there could be ALTERNATIVES.

Today those alternatives have grown to EIGHTEEN including rock wall climbing, kayaking in the swimming pool, swimming, and even REQUIRED SQUARE DANCING by every ninth grader entering Naperville High!

Why the SQUARE DANCING?

Not only does it require MOVEMENT but it is leads to developing SOCIAL and COMMUNICATION skills, which are unfortunately missing with our tethering ourselves to smartphones and social media.

In your corporation or company have you thought of ALTERNATIVES to gyms or paid gym memberships for your employees? In my case I didn’t pursue REAL physical MOVEMENT until I was 42 and challenged by my friend and West Point grad Charles to do my first triathlon!

More in next post!

Hugh Simpson
#chiefplayofficer