The Iowa native who leads the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports will be in Grundy Center later this week for a “global forum” focused on physical education. Shellie Pfohl is a native of Dubuque who earned a bachelor’s degree in community health education from the University of Northern Iowa.
“I think there are a lot of differences among countries. There are differences among communities within countries, but I think that there are things that we can all agree on that can and should be taking place as it relates to physical education,” Pfohl says. Pfohl is coordinating the first lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign to try to reduce childhood obesity by encouraging kids to be more active. Pfohl says schools may want to incorporate more technology in phys ed class and Grundy Center P.E. teacher Rick Schupbach agrees.
“This is a gadget society,” he says. “We have kids that are so used to the technology and what we have to do is engage them and get into their quality world and one of the ways in which I think we can do that is introduce the technology to them.” Schupbach uses “active” video games in his P.E. classes and teaches his students to monitor their heart rates to see if they’re getting a workout.
The Grundy Center School District opens its exercise facilities to the community, so students and their parents can exercise before and after school, too. Grundy Center Schools and the University of Northern Iowa are co-sponsoring the global forum on physical education this Thursday and Friday. The two fitness experts made their comments Tuesday on the Iowa Public Radio program, “The Exchange.”