Editorial: Students benefit from creative exercise programs

A social media post out of Naperville raised a question that many parents of elementary school-age children are thinking.

"Is it just me or did we get more recess time growing up than 20 minutes a day ...?"

Indeed, many did. But today with pressures on schools and children to do better with academics, recess and P.E. sometimes take a back seat.

We've been backers of physical education and have lauded many of our districts that have led the nation in their broad-based programs. And studies back up the notion that kids need some free time to get their minds working as hard as we expect them to during most hours of the school day.

In fact, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working to combat childhood obesity, recommends schools provide quality physical education, recess, intramural sports and physical activity breaks as part of its overall recommendation that children and adolescents need 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day.

That's why a program highlighted this week in a story by Daily Herald staff writer Madhu Krishnamurthy is so important.

Two large suburban school districts - Elgin Area School District U-46 and Barrington Unit District 220 both are participating in an online program that gets kids active and learning right at their desks with three- to five-minute moderate to vigorous movement breaks.

It's unique and it's fun, and every suburban school district ought to do something similar.

"The kids are begging for it. They love it. And the teachers have found very creative ways to use it for transitions between subject matters," said Tracey Jakaitis, U-46 physical education, health and wellness coordinator.

The online program GoNoodle is used by more than 500,000 teachers in their classrooms nationwide and more than 1 million families have signed up to play GoNoodle at home, Krishnamurthy reports. More than 1,000 teachers in the Elgin and Barrington districts have signed up through a $43,000 grant from AMITA Health Alexian Brothers Women's and Children's Hospital in Hoffman Estates. It's a model private-public partnership that benefits local schoolchildren.

By next month, kids in those two districts will have logged 5 million minutes of physical activity in their classrooms.

Teachers say the students are more motivated and engaged in the schoolwork as a result of the program, an outcome studies show is real and one that should make any skeptic of this type of program smile.