At 6:50 a.m, the September dawn is breaking over an athletic field near the Da’an River.

We are standing outside the main entrance to Tai­chung’s Da­jia Primary School with more than 100 children. The kids, participants in the school’s Zero Hour PE exercise program, are preparing to go for a run. The fall weather is perfect for it.

Da­jia, one of Tai­chung’s bigger primary schools, is fortunate to have a large sports ground with a 250-meter running track. The little athletes gathered here this morning have already developed the habit of jogging to build their fitness and endurance. They run for about 20 minutes, the kids in the best shape completing a dozen or so laps and the less fit kids making it through just three or four. When they’re done, they change out of their sweaty gym clothes and make their way to class, flushed, happy, and ready to focus on their lessons.

A physically and mentally active child is a happy child. Nantou’s Yongxing Elementary offers its students martial arts training from the first grade, and its energetic young students excel both at athletics and academics.

Zero Hour PE originated in the United States and refers to a morning exercise session that sought to get students’ heart rates up to 80–90% of maximum before their first class of the day.

This innovative experiment in physical education got its start more than 10 years ago at Naperville Central High School outside of Chicago. Some 60% of the school’s literacy students volunteered to participate in the program. Once they finished their exercise, they attended a literacy class that measured exercise’s impact on learning.

After just one semester, the reading comprehension scores of students participating in the program increased by 17%, versus a 10.7% increase for students who attended only the school’s normal physical education courses. Based on these results, the consultant directing the study recommended that all of the school’s students have PE courses scheduled immediately before their most intellectually demanding courses to take full advantage of the positive effects of exercise.

On seeing the success that Naperville Central had with the program, other schools around the US began emulating it. Da­jia Primary introduced the program four years ago.

Da­jia principal Chen Lang­yong says that the school had had an issue with working parents bringing their children to school before seven so they could get to work on time. Concerned about student safety, the school repeatedly reminded them not to drop their kids off too early.

When the reminders failed to change parents’ behavior, the school began looking into other approaches. With so many children there early, the school felt it would be worthwhile to arrange something meaningful for them to do, and the Zero Hour PE program looked like a perfect fit.

Initially, a number of parents and teachers were dubious of the idea of exercising before studying. They worried that students who had just been running and jumping wouldn’t be able to settle down for class.

But the experiment showed exactly the opposite. Children who participated in the Zero Hour PE program not only had improved body mass index (BMI) scores, but also had more energy, were in a better mood, and had better focus in class. This was especially true of children who had been rowdy or troublemakers. When these students were able to burn off some energy on the athletic field, they were better behaved in class.

Participation in the program has increased in response to its excellent results. In fact, more than 110 students enrolled in it for the fall 2013 semester.

 

Everybody knows that exercise improves your health, but why is it also so effective at improving learning?

John Ratey, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, explains that when we exercise we secrete the neurotransmitters serotonin, nor­epi­neph­rine, and dopamine. All three have positive effects on the brain: serotonin helps regulate brain activity, and affects mood and impulsiveness; norepinephrine increases focus, motivation, and alertness; and dopamine elevates mood.

Because all three of these neurotransmitters are closely connected to human learning, children who receive enough exercise learn more easily.

Exercise has also been shown to be effective at alleviating some of the emotional and behavioral issues afflicting children today, issues such as hyperactivity and depression. Some of the clearest improvements have been seen in cases of attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Exercise helps because the dopamine and norepinephrine it releases both play important roles in human attention systems. Individuals with ADHD often take Ritalin, which reduces levels of distraction by increasing the level of dopamine in the brain.

When the students at Yeliu Elementary School on Taiwan’s northeast coast go for a run, they do it amidst the amazing natural scenery of the world-renowned Yehliu Geopark.

Exercise is a natural means of giving the brain a boost. Peng Tai-lin, the deputy director-general of the Sports Administration of the Ministry of Education, is among those who have used exercise to change their lives.

Peng, a former deputy chief of the Chinese Tai­pei Olympic delegation, suffered from ADHD as a child. Unable to focus in class, he frequently skipped school and got into fights.

When his vocational high school formed a boxing team during his second year there, Peng joined in hopes of learning to fight better. Much to his surprise, he became interested in the sport for its own sake. He also noticed that working out stabilized his moods, improved his sleep and generally left him in better spirits.

After a time, he decided he’d gotten pretty good at boxing, and began challenging people who’d previously bested him. He beat one of them in no time at all. Another saw which way the wind was blowing and acknowledged Peng as his better without a fight.

Realizing that he truly had gotten very good, Peng stopped looking for fights. Under the patient guidance of his coach, he came to appreciate the athletic training process: setting a goal, formulating a strategy, striving to achieve it, and never giving up. He shed the obstinacy and unruliness of his youth, and grew into a considerate and accommodating young man.

Peng graduated from vocational high school, took a part-time job, and began preparing for the university entrance exams. After three disappointments, he finally gained entrance to the Department of Industrial Education at National Taiwan Normal University. After completing his bachelor’s degree, he entered graduate school, obtaining public funding for his studies and ultimately going on to earn a PhD in industrial education from Penn State University in the United States.

 

The benefits of exercise are numerous, but Taiwan’s overemphasis on advancing to the next tier in our educational system leaves us a great deal of room for improvement in how we deal with exercise in our schools.

According to a 2012 report from the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF), Taiwan’s children tend to “love physical activity but don’t engage in it,” “spend little time in PE classes or sports clubs,” and “are physically unfit.”

The CWLF study showed that 90% of Taiwanese children claim to enjoy physical activity, that 55.4% prefer physical activity to playing computer games, and that 63.7% prefer physical activity to watching TV. Nonetheless, fewer than 30% of our children get more than two hours of exercise per week outside of school. Instead, kids spend seven times more time watching TV than being physically active, and five times more time online.

In addition, Taiwan’s primary and secondary schools offer fewer hours of physical education than those of other nations. For example, primary school students have only 80 minutes per week of PE, compared to 200 minutes in France, 185 minutes in mainland China, 100 minutes in the United States, and 90 minutes in Japan and Singapore.

The lack of exercise has resulted in an abundance of pudgy, physically unfit Taiwanese children. The report showed further that 28.1% of children get sick every month, more than 40% have BMIs that indicate they are either too thin or too heavy, and 57.7% become winded after running just 400 meters.

Taiwan’s primary-school physical education classes are being systematically revamped with an eye to improving the fitness of our younger generation. The pictures show a young swimmer at Taichung’s Toujia Elementary; archery class at New Taipei City’s Dapu Elementary; and tennis and martial arts practice at Nantou’s Yongxing Elementary.

Given Taiwanese children’s enthusiasm for physical activity, why do so few engage in it?

According to Hung Yu-shen, a researcher with the CWLF’s research and development office, our primary-school PE classes are short not only of time, but also of content, often consisting of nothing more than ball sports, running, and gymnastics. PE class periods are also frequently used to screen films or “borrowed” for testing.

A lack of professional PE teachers accounts for much of the lack of content so prevalent in our PE classes. A June 2013 physical education white paper from the Ministry of Education noted that 82% of Taiwan’s primary-school PE teachers were not graduates of a physical education department. That is, the vast majority of our PE instructors are teachers trained in other fields who have been asked to teach PE on the side.

“How can we expect PE teachers who are not well versed in the field to produce interesting physical education curricula?” asks Hung.

For example, many teachers like to have their students play dodgeball, which the kids seem to enjoy and which is easy for the teacher. But Chou ­Chien-chih, a professor with the University of Tai­pei’s Graduate Institute of Sports Pedagogy, notes that it’s always just a few very skilled players making the “attacks” in dodgeball, and typically the less coordinated children who are the targets of those attacks. Over the long term, such games are likely to affect children’s interest in sports and their self-confidence.

Taiwan’s primary-school physical education classes are being systematically revamped with an eye to improving the fitness of our younger generation. The pictures show a young swimmer at Taichung’s Toujia Elementary; archery class at New Taipei City’s Dapu Elementary; and tennis and martial arts practice at Nantou’s Yongxing Elementary.

Children’s play time is even more limited after school.

The CWLF found that homework, cram school and arts classes, and even just parental demands that children “study,” make it impossible for kids to be physically active.

Making things even more difficult for young kids is that adults and older kids tend to monopolize the basketball courts in our parks and the table tennis tables in our neighborhoods. As a result, young kids prefer to play Wii Sports and other virtual “sports” at home, with some even thinking that playing on the Wii is an adequate substitute for playing outside.

But virtual sports fail to provide the social interaction and the physical, mental and spiritual experience of real sports. Moreover, the games don’t teach proper technique or the proper application of strength, increasing the likelihood of injury should children try to transition directly to real-world sports.

“In basketball, you need quick hands, quick feet, quick eyes, and quick decision making, not to mention a feel for your teammates, to respond to the attacks of different opponents,” explains Chou. “The real game cultivates a kind of metacognition that the virtual game can’t match.”

Taiwan’s primary-school physical education classes are being systematically revamped with an eye to improving the fitness of our younger generation. The pictures show a young swimmer at Taichung’s Toujia Elementary; archery class at New Taipei City’s Dapu Elementary; and tennis and martial arts practice at Nantou’s Yongxing Elementary.

How can we make our kids more athletic? Schools are crucial. If they take up the challenge, they can help kids build a solid athletic foundation.

Tai­chung’s 1,800-student Toujia Elementary School is one of the few schools in Taiwan with a swimming program. It is the only primary school in Taichung with a heated swimming pool, and was the first public primary school in the country to teach first-graders to swim.

The MOE is actively promoting swimming as a PE class for primary-school students, but most schools don’t offer it to students until they reach the third grade. Even then, the length of PE classes presents a problem. Most are only 40 minutes long, and once you account for the time it takes students to change and warm up, not to mention classes cancelled because of cold, there’s little time left to actually swim.

Toujia Elementary’s approach is to start students in the class in first grade, and provide them with one 80-minute class per week. They’ve also hired eight outside swimming coaches to work with the school’s own PE teachers.

The curriculum itself is also varied. Younger students play games that involve hunting for “treasures,” blowing bubbles, and floating by the pool’s side. These get them accustomed to being in the water and help get them over their fear of it. Students in the middle of the school’s age range first focus on learning to breathe while swimming, and then progress to learning the front crawl and the backstroke. The school’s oldest students are taught the more difficult breaststroke and butterfly.

The school’s methodical, long-term training means that by the time kids graduate, they are able to swim at least 50 meters using the front crawl and backstroke, and 25 meters using the breaststroke.

Taichung’s Toujia Elementary School provides its students with practical training in swimming. By the time they graduate, they’re all swimming like pros.

Can the Tou­jia Elementary experience by applied to other schools? Can schools that lack Tou­jia’s facilities find some other way to make kids fall in love with exercise?

“You have to tailor sports education to your students.” Liou ­Yiing-mei, director of National Yang Ming University’s School Health Research Center, says that team sports such as basketball and soccer that emphasize cooperation and movement skills are a good fit for extroverted children. But introverted children often get more fulfillment out of activities like gymnastics and dance that focus on controlling the movements of your own body.

She also mentions that many girls don’t enjoy competitive contact sports, and do better with things like jumping rope, ice skating, hula hooping and playing featherball.

Liou once ran a study that had kids at a number of Yi­lan County elementary schools jump rope for 30 minutes per day. After 20 weeks in the program, the students in the exercise group had gained an average of 1.5 centimeters in height more than the control group. “Physically coordinated girls tend to be good at jumping rope. If they know that jumping rope is going to make them taller and give them a better figure, they’re going to enjoy it even more,” laughs Liou.

For kids who just aren’t very athletic, Liou recommends they start with activities that don’t require much initial skill, such as walking and running, then progress to large-ball sports (such as basketball) and small-ball sports (such as table tennis) as a way to train foot-eye coordination and hand-eye coordination.

Human beings are built to be active and learn. Nowadays, the trend in education is to help kids excel at both. Don’t just sit there and talk about it: get up and move!

 

Taiwan’s primary-school physical education classes are being systematically revamped with an eye to improving the fitness of our younger generation. The pictures show a young swimmer at Taichung’s Toujia Elementary; archery class at New Taipei City’s Dapu Elementary; and tennis and martial arts practice at Nantou’s Yongxing Elementary.

Taichung’s Dajia Elementary School is actively promoting “Zero Hour PE,” an exercise program that runs before school starts and aims to improve students’ focus and energy levels.