Sep
24
Three Specific Instances
Fifty Out of Fifty Chose Pull-Ups
A second grade teacher (Ms. Dari Spotten) had invited a rural second grade teacher to bring her class to our school (Jefferson Elementary) in order for them to get a taste of what an inner city school was like. The day was tightly planned right down to the minute, and the last two things on the agenda were recess and Pull Your Own Weight. But as the day came to a close the teachers both recognized that they only had time for one of these activities, so they put it up for a vote…recess or PYOW? I’m here to tell you that 50 out of 50 second graders chose to do pull-ups over recess. Who said kids can’t learn to love pull-ups?
Paying for the Opportunity to do Pull Ups
At Jefferson School back in the nineties we had an annual fun night, which was a PTA sponsored fundraiser where parents and teachers would donate a dish of something to eat, and booths would be set up all around the gym with various games that would attract and amuse the kids. Access to the food and the games was accomplished by purchasing tickets from the PTA table for a quarter a ticket.
On one of these occasions the PTA decided that a pull-up bar was going to be one of the booths, and that yours truly would be the official counter of pull-ups. Believe it not that fun night went on for over two hours and I had kid standing in line eight to ten deep, PAYING for the opportunity to get on the pull-up bar in order to show their proud parents how strong they’d become. At the end of the evening I had lost my voice from counting pull-ups. And if kids can learn to love pull-ups, why can’t they learn to love reading, writing, and arithmetic too? My bet is that they can.
No Way! That’ll Make Me Weak…
I was talking to a kindergarten class about Pull Your Own Weight when one little boy in the back raised his hand and proceeded to tell me and the rest of the class “Coach, my uncle Willie tried to talk me into smoking a cigarette last night, but I said NO WAY! That will make me WEAK!” At this point his fellow classmates all gave him an impromptu high five signifying their agreement. That may have been the single most gratifying moment of my entire seventeen-year teaching career. It goes to show this program goes well beyond preventing childhood obesity, and proving that EVEN KINDERGARTNERS GET IT.
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