IHPRA Newsletter
April 2002

Web Page USA Gymnastics recalls America's first international gymnastics team.  A young Herman J. Koehler is standing on the far left.  His uncle George Brosius is on the right. 

Middle School Med Ball Drill #2 is now online.  Thanks Roland Middle School.

If you have read Paradigm 21, located on the resource page, you might have been surprised that so many physical educators in the past were uninterested in teaching rational exercise. The situation is still grim as Americans grow steadily more deformed, clumsy, and inert.  The art of teaching human movement to a diverse group, young or old, is not easily acquired, and amateurism can have a devastating effect on the students.  Competent physical trainers fully understand the three cardinal rules, which are progression, variety and precision.  Progression includes intensity.  Overwork can injure a student, under-exertion will lead to further decline of overall health and physical readiness.

People across the country are signing up to practice Hatha Yoga, but many experts complain that the trend is just another wacky American degradation of a serious spiritual import.

The State of Texas has responded to the epidemic decline of youth physical readiness with a law mandating 135 minutes of weekly physical education for elementary students.

What a mess.  Our culture promotes the junk food that destroys the health and physical readiness of our children?

Chemicals in swimming pools may be hazardous to your health.

Researchers find that Atrazine is mutating the sexual characteristics of frogs.  Link to humans is implied.

Scientists are also concerned about widespread discovery of deformed frogs.  Pollutants are suspected.  Changes in frog populations often predict changes in humans.

Damage done by smoking far exceeds benefits of exercise.

Malformed, inert and clumsy.  What are we going to do?

There is nothing like amateur wrestling to develop tenacity, self-discipline, courage, patience, humility, and total conditioning.  Since the height of the Greek Empire, wrestlers have symbolized the best of manhood.  Cultural decline in the United States continues to chip away at this great art, and we should not act surprised some day as we pay the price for failing to understand, appreciate and promote it.

Overview of School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000

The School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) is a national survey periodically conducted to assess school health policies and programs at the state, district, school, and classroom levels. SHPPS was first conducted in 1994. Results from SHPPS 2000 are published in the Journal of School Health, Volume 71, Number 7, September 2001.

The Triumph of Chastity, 1508

It's springtime here in the Heartland, and the mating season has fueled our timeless effort to get a grip on our sexuality.  Our youngsters must certainly be confused as we allow them easy access to the most decadent sexual images only a click away on their computers.  Catholic children and youth must certainly be a bit confused as they compare the ideal of their religion to the brutal reality of its decay.  The issue of sex education in school is also a hot topic.  Abstinence only proponents are pushing hard to focus on morality and character.  This is not a new approach.  

Dio Lewis was one of American education's champions of chastity.  In 1875 he wrote:

A team from the State Training School for Boys presented conditioning and dumbbell drills at two conferences this month.  One was for physical educators held at the University of Northern Iowa and the other was for Alternative School administrators meeting in Des Moines.  As usual, the team demonstrated that rational exercise characterized by careful progression, variety and precision is appealing to youth.

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