Movement as a Foundation for Health Education [Podcast Series]
[:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Dr. Tyler Spencer
Dr. Tyler Spencer is the Founder and Executive Director at Grassroots Health.
He has a PhD in Public Health.
[1:08] Grassroots Health origin story
“So the origin story for me was having had this life changing experience as an athlete implementing sport for development programs in Sub Saharan Africa, and then coming home and realizing wow, there, there really needs to be a more significant and innovative response at home.”
[4:35] Physical activity as core to the curriculum
“Yes, physical activity is an absolute core component of every single element of the curriculum. And you're exactly right, physical activity for many students is a hook to be, to want to be involved, to have fun, to engage with the curriculum. Physical activity, I think probably for the audience of this podcast, is also a method for helping students retain the information. It's also helpful for keeping students focused throughout the school day, being able to move their bodies.”
[9:23] Incorporating fun and games
“And one of the really exciting things, I think, with a middle school student, this is probably a lot more possible than maybe with a high school student, is we created games that a lot of them are based on sports, but they're not called that sport. And they find ways to keep young people moving physically, without them tying some sort of stereotype where I'm not meant to be participating or competing in this way with my fellow students.”
[13:56] Collegiate athletes coaching middle school students
“What we're able to do is show a young student athlete that a lot of the skills that they have developed to get to where they are in academics and in sports, are translatable into something that has tremendous purpose and has the potential to impact a number of young people's lives. And that, for us, it's one of the most rewarding things to see when you see a college athlete come into the program…”
[18:33] Treating movement and health as a core topic
“What I would love to see in our country is and in our school systems across the country is really a focus on treating movement and health of a young person as just as important as those other topics.”
[25:45] A bottom-up and a top-down approach
“But at the same time, we get really frustrated now that we've done all this work and research around system level challenges, and what are the system level solutions? You know, we as an organization can implement solutions immediately, that helps schools to work around the existing systems challenges, you know, okay, if you only have an hour of time to do health and PE, let's find a way to do them both at the same time. So that's kind of like working within the structure.”
