From Arizona, which apparently is the first state to require student athletes to pass a test based on a traumatic brain injury video they must watch, to Virginia, which became one of nearly two dozen states to write concussion prevention among students into law in the past six months.

In the August edition of ASBJ, I tackled the issue of youth concussions, which remains a largely misunderstood injury.  Among one of the more intriguiging revelations in the story: restricting physical exertion of injured student is only half the battle– in fact, it’s even less.

“We spend 90 percent of our time in the clinic, around how to return that kid to school,” Gerald Gioa, chief of neuropsychology at  Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C., told me. “The sports side is the easy part. I can easily restrict sports it’s not so easy to restrict the academic side.”

To learn more about this serious, yet highly preventable injury, read the August cover story, online for free for a limited time.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor

But it’s not just what we eat, it’s also what we do, or don’t do. A new study by the National Wildlife Federation shows that kids today spend much less time outdoors than their parents, now that computers, video games, and television seem to have taken over our lives. Today’s kids spend an average of more than seven hours a day using electronic devices — and they spend half as much time outdoors as they did just 20 years ago.

Children who go outside for play are more active and less likely to be overweight, more creative in their play, less aggressive, and more focused, the report says.

We know every child is not destined or interested in trying out for the basketball team or running track—but that doesn’t mean they won’t find a sport they’ll enjoy, perhaps even a team sport at school.

An article in ASBJ’s August issue looks at some of the “emerging” school sports that are getting kids off the sofa—badminton, bowling, flag football, and a host of other activities. Soccer has been rising steadily since the 1980s, particularly in ethnic communities, and now the popularity of lacrosse is spreading beyond its traditional areas in the Northeast.

None of these are close to the popularity of football, track and volleyball—but the good news is that they offer an alternative to video games.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor

Perhaps it’s our country’s growing fondness for “futbol” or maybe my expanding network of international friends, but it seems like the countdown and the inevitable Friday finale to the World Cup is all I seem to hear about lately.

I must admit, there is something to be said about the excitement and energy that can engulf a community when teams duke it out in a championship game. It actually reminds me of an ASBJ story I wrote a few years back on, of all things, diversity and immigration and how each impacted schools.

I’d selected the Twin Cities, which isn’t the first place you’d think of as a cultural melting pot. But with immigrants comprising more than a quarter of the state’s residents, St. Paul housing the largest urban contigent of Hmong people, while Minneapolis boasts the largest Somali population, the area has a rich and diverse demographic.

Which, no doubt, presented some academic challenges to the St. Paul Public Schools, but also an interesting, worldly and unique perspective on what learning means.

Humbholdt High School is a perfect example. It had never been particularly noteworthy for its athletics but its boy’s soccer team was especially abysmal. Ever since 1987, when it shared the conference title, it has suffered loss after loss, once losing 60 games in a row.

But in 2007, under the leadership of a new teacher and coach, things started to turn around and as the wins started to rack up, the excitement began to bubble in the building and the neighborhood.

It was only Matt Osborne’s second year at Humboldt, where he co-teaches social studies with an ELL instructor. In fact, it was from these very classes that Osborne did his heaviest recruitment, beefing up his team with Hmong, Somali and Latino students; students who could barely communicate with one other, or even with him, but who all shared a love of the sport.

Previous coaches had managed the cultural differences by grouping students by their own ethnicities. But Osborne forced them to work together, prefacing practices with 40 minutes of get-to-know-you type exercises.  

“I’d have them draw pictures of what they liked to do and then we’d shuffle and hand them out and they would have to find them and in the process learn things about each other,” Osborne told me. “They thought I was crazy at first, but they started to buy in to what they were doing, that they were changing history.”

Indeed, as the team clinched game after game and approached the section semi-finals, school spirit soared, community members frequently called to ask for the game time, and motorists honked as they passed the team during practice.

Unfortunately, their runaway success was stopped by a suburban team, which treated soccer like training ground for hockey and brought that same level of physicality to the grassy fields.

In the end, the Humboldt team captured the No. 1 seed in their section. But most importantly, the team captured the imagination of many, proving you can bring together disparate parts of a community and build cohesion, mutual respect, and understanding.

Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor

If you’re a subscriber, you get access to our archives all the time. (And if you’re not a subscriber, why not?) In honor of the summer season, go to our  Health and Wellness archive.

The archive is full of interesting and informative articles on universal breakfast, school leader stress, keeping employees healthy, the school leaders’ role in school health, the link between student achievement and physical activity and nutrition, and many others.

But don’t take my word for it. Check it out for yourself at http://www.asbj.com/TopicsArchive/HealthandWellness.aspx.

Texas district may give students week off for passing tests
Dallas Morning News, May 11
High school students in Mesquite, Texas who pass state assessments and their classes could skip the last week of school next year while their peers get intensive academic help under a plan expected to be approved by the school board.
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Nevada district to eliminate administrative jobs to save $1.1 million
Las Vegas Sun, May 11
The Clark County school district expects to save $1.1 million a year from an administrative reorganization that shrinks five regional districts into four and eliminates another office.
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California budget crisis threatens high school sports
San Francisco Chronicle, May 10
The state budget crisis has prompted school districts to contemplate painful cuts to sports programs–including the possibility of eliminating athletics entirely–and forced them into frenzied fund-raising.
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Fertile N.Y.C. job market dries up overnight for new teachers
New York Times, May 10
As a result of efforts to cut costs and avoid teacher layoffs, New York City principals may only fill vacancies with internal candidates for the 2009-10 school year, leaving new graduates and aspiring teachers from programs like Teach for America and the city’s Teaching Fellows scrambling for jobs.
More

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