107 MTSU SERVES AS HOST FOR SECOND ‘FIT FOR LIFE’ CONFERENCE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 5, 2006
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919

Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary Fame Will Deliver Oct. 17 Keynote Address

(MURFREESBORO)—Peter Yarrow of the renowned folk group known as Peter, Paul and Mary will deliver the keynote address during Fit for the Future, a two-day conference at MTSU dedicated to enhancing and promoting children’s health via an eight-step model called Coordinated School Health, or CSH.
Slated for Oct. 16-17, the conference is sponsored by the Tennessee School Health Coalition (TSHC) and registration is open to K-12 school personnel, including food support services, counseling personnel and parent-teacher representatives, throughout the state, said Dr. Doug Winborn, associate professor for MTSU’s Department of Health and Human Performance (HHP).
Winborn said a primary goal of the conference is the establishment of a thorough understanding of what CSH is, as well as instilling an understanding of a recent expansion of the School Health Improvement Act of 2000 that requires school children to participate in 90 minutes of physical education each week.
“Many of the problems that kids in school have are health-related,” Winborn observed. “Through CSH, we hope to remove some of their barriers (to school success).”
Indeed, agreed Dr. Janet Colson, a registered dietician and professor of human sciences, CHS education is key to bolstering the overall performance of the nation’s young people. And it is ignorance, she added, that is the greatest obstacle to improving our children’s overall health and well-being, including ignorance on the part of well-meaning educators and school administrators.
“We’re concerned about obesity, suicide, nutrition, sexually transmitted diseases and so forth. Any facet of health, we’re concerned about,” she said. “(But) we have to educate the professionals and the parents … and give them resources to develop programs that will make a difference.”
During a recent visit to one Tennessee school, for example, Colson said both she and her MTSU students “were appalled” to see a teacher line up her students for snacks at a vending machine to purchase snacks and soft drinks.
“That was two hours before lunch,” Colson said. “Whose fault was it? Everyone’s. Parents gave (the children) the money, teachers took them down the halls (to get the snacks), vendors made it available and administrators allowed it.”
In turn, tending to the coordinated health of our children requires a team effort among all who work with or interface with a child in any way, from P.E. and classroom teachers to principals and parents, said Colson, who noted that Tennessee is ranked No. 5 in obesity nationally.
Nonetheless, the greatest resistance to CSH will likely come from school administrators, Winborn said, and “not because they are not interested in the health and well-being of children, but because they are so overburdened and overworked with so many things to comply with.”

However, the conference organizers’ push for complete implementation of CSH—a model that has been adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—is, in a real sense, in keeping with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate that public schools must comply with.
“On one head, Coordinated School Health is all about NCLB,” Winborn explained. “It’s about academic performance, reaching out to every child, and that’s what CSH does.
“Unfortunately,” he continued, “the NCLB Act can be problematic as far as the relationship that is formed between children and teachers. Teachers rely on children to perform on a certain level in standardized testing. The expectation of the administrator is that the children perform that way, because (the administrator’s) performance is tied to children’s performance on tests. And some fear this creates an adversarial relationship between all three entities—students, teachers and administrators—because they are dependent on one another in such a way.”
Aside from traditional academic performance concerns, the Fit for Life conference also will address other health-related issues, including bullying and school violence that may prevent some students from doing well academically.
Folk singer-turned-advocate Yarrow, the CSH event’s featured speaker, is an ideal conference guest whose own bullying experiences bring a real relevance to his message, Winborn remarked. Aside from having a successful singing career, Yarrow is the founder of Operation Respect, a nonprofit organization whose representatives actively work to transform schools, camps and organizations focused on youth into compassionate, safe and respectful environments.
“Peter Yarrow coming for this (Fit for Life) conference is a big attraction,” Winborn said. “The message that he brings through Operation Respect, along with his bullying- and violence-prevention program, is constructed and arranged in such a way that it touches children’s hearts rather than just teaching their heads.”
In addition to Yarrow’s Oct. 17 talk, the conference will feature a variety of breakout sessions for the professional educators in attendance as well as a presentation by Dr. Bill Cecil of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Tennessee who will give a “State of the Health of the Children of Tennessee” address.
“Sessions will be delivered by presenters from Tennessee schools and communities who have successfully developed one or more components of Coordinated School Health,” Winborn said.
The components of CHS, which was developed by Diane Allensworth and Lloyd Kolbe, are school health and safety policies and environment; health education; physical education and other physical activity programs; nutrition services; school health services; school counseling; psychological and social services; health promotion for staff; and family and community involvement.
Colson and Winborn also hope the Fit for Life event will encourage school leaders to apply for money—some $15 million, in fact—that recently was made available for CSH programs in the state.
“Who will it take to make this work? It really takes the administration to be interested,” Colson remarked. “The administration will have to apply for this money, and a match will be required to get it.”
For more information on Fit for Life, including registration information, please contact Winborn at 615-898-5110.
• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To obtain a jpeg of Drs. Winborn or Colson for editorial use, or to schedule an interview with them, please contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at MTSU at 615-