Greg Lemond backs MN phy-ed bill

Tour de France cycling champion Greg Lemond joined backers of a bill to require at least one physical education course to graduate from high school in Minnesota.

"You could have the best schools in the world," Lemond told a House panel Wednesday morning, "And if your kids can't pay attention and their brains are asleep, they're not going to absorb what they need to learn." Lemond, who now calls Minnesota home, said he suffered from attention deficit issues as a child in Reno, Nevadad.

He said he never really began focusing on school until he took up cycling. "I ran into a former teacher after I started competing and she said, 'Thank God for cycling because I thought you were headed for the penitentiary'."

The bill, authored by Representative Kim Norton, would create statewide standards for physical ed and require all students to take at least one half credit during their four-year high school careers.

"Obesity is a growing problem in Minnesota," the Rochester Democrat told members of the K-12 Education Policy Committee, "Nearly a quarter of Minnesotans are currently obese and 63% of Minnesotans are overweight or obese."

A co-sponsor, Republican Bob Dettmer of Forest Lake, told his colleagues that even moderate exercise appears to enhance learning in other courses and reduce stress.

"It might behoove as legislators maybe to exercise in the morning before we get here," he remarked, "Based on the economic environment we're working in, to exercise before we start our daily routine here at the State Capitol."

Dettmer, a long-time wrestling coach at Forest Lake High was also a master fitness trainer in the United States Army Reserve.

He said the lack of physical education is painfully obvious in the numbers of new military recruits who show up for basic training in poor shape.

In addition to Lemond the other star witness Wednesday was Dr John Ratey, a medical doctor a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

In a series of books Ratey has drawn links between physical and mental fitness, based on research tracking school performance in places that have implemented vigorous exercise programs.

"The first thing that happens when you begin to exercise your children everyday and vigorously," Dr. Ratey told lawmakers, "You show the minimum drop in the first three to four months is a 50 percent drop in discipline problems."

He said when students stretch themselves and gain more physical endurance it translates to more perseverance in their academic lives, which helps with problem solving skills.

Children who don't get enough exercise, he argues, can fall into a pattern of "learned helplessness" in which they give up on complex tasks too quickly. Proponents acknowledge that phys-Ed curriculum, equipment and staffing it won't be an expense all schools are willing or able to take on in tough times.

The point out, on the other hand, that Minnesota's obesity-related medical costs are $1.3 billion per year and growing.

The panel took no action on the bill Wednesday.

By John Croman, KARE 11 News

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