Human health is on the decline, but new discoveries in science promise to bring a new respect to the body.

1. the state of physical
education in america
“making a case for the body”
october 23, 2009
frank forencich, exuberant animal

2. the state of the
animal

3. circadian disruption
neurologically
threatened
hypervisual stimulation
chronic low-level fear
touch deprived assaulted by noise
overworked and
multi-tasked, compromised immunity
temporal poverty
socially confused,
metabolic syndrome, isolated, asc
insulin resistance
abnormal digestion
adrenal exhaustion and fake foods (EFLS)
insufficient locomotion:
excess visceral fat sedentary, aphysical
existence, kinetiphobic
endocrine disruption
sensory deficits
nature deficit,
biophobia

4. obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer,
depression...
“300,000 premature deaths due to inactivity and poor
diet each year...
a 9-11 every week...”
World Health Organization (latest stats):
By 2015, 700 million obese and 2.3
billion overweight.
60 % body dissatisfaction

6. discover magazine, may 2009

8. epidemic of depression
Major study on global burden of disease
conducted by World Health Organization (1996):
“by 2020, depression will be second only
to heart disease in terms of disability or
disease burden.”
antidepressants are now the most
widely prescribed drugs in america.

9. blame it on descartes
1596 – 1650
“it is certain that i, that
is to say my mind... is
entirely and truly
distinct from my body,
and may exist without it.”

10. radical skepticism:
don’t trust the senses

11. “i am a brain, my dear watson,
and the rest of me is a mere
appendage.”
Sherlock Holmes
(Arthur Conan Doyle)

12. testing,
grading
“hard
sciences”
“soft sciences”
humanities
physical education

14. renaissance: a new integration
movement public
training health
cognitive-academic
performance

15. "The human brain and the
rest of the body constitute
an indissociable organism,
integrated by means of
mutually interactive
biochemical and neural
regulatory circuits...mental
phenomena can be fully
understood only in the
context of an organism’s
interacting in an
environment."

16. brain-derived neurotrophic factor
“miracle grow for the brain”

18. end of the
“dumb jock”
stereotype

19. New Scientist
October 17, 2009

20. strategic, intentional
use of movement

21. aka “somatic cognition”
intelligence is distributed
throughout the body

22. sedentary v. active cognition

23. holistic education
"watching a child makes it
obvious that the development
of his mind comes about
through his movements ...
mind and movement are parts
of the same entity."
Maria Montessori 1967

24. the power of plasticity
ORIGIN mid 17th cent. (in the
sense [characteristic of molding] ):
from French plastique or Latin
plasticus, from Greek plastikos,
from plassein ‘to mold.’
myelination
ltp
neurogenesis

25. myelin
speeds
transmission
notable
examples:
locomotor
development
PFC development
only insulates
axons

26. long-term potentiation
the cellular mechanism of learning
“cells that fire together, wire together.”

28. human emotion networked
through observed movement
psychophysical
contagion

29. frans de waal

30. “To learn from others, apes need to see actual fellow apes:
imitation requires identification with a body of flesh and
blood. We’re beginning to realize how much human and
animal cognition runs via the body. Instead of our brain being
like a little computer that orders the body around, the body-
brain relationship is a two-way street. The body produces
internal sensations and communicates with other bodies, out
of which we construct social connections and an appreciation
of the surrounding reality. Bodies insert themselves into
everything we perceive or think.”
“The field of embodied cognition is still very much in its
infancy but has profound implications for how we look at
human relations. We involuntarily enter the bodies of those
around us so that their movements and emotions echo
within us as if they’re our own.”

31. increased appreciation for...
• emotional intelligence
• self-regulation
• impulse control
begins with
the body!

32. training and growth orientation

33. “training trumps talent.”
deep, deliberate, mindful practice

34. the growth
mindset
ultimately
prevails over
the belief in
fixed abilities.
“reward
effort, not
achievement.”

35. focus on education
training = learning = education
it’s all one process!
all education is physical!
all teachers are pe teachers!
physical educators as leaders at
the center of the curriculum

36. the ultimate objective:
fall in love
with
movement!
make it
sustainable