The Arete School of Sport Culture and Wellness

[Music]

we want the best for our children for

the nation our cherished public school

system holds this promise it is the

beacon of our democracy the citadel of

our freedom the champion of our equality

but as everyone knows this cherished

institution is in trouble

[Music]

our public schools are so important

because a public education can change

your future not just your future but

generations to come and I know this

firsthand we've got some major problems

in our schools

we've got academic stagnation dropouts

we have kids who are bored and

disengaged also we have a huge issue

with childhood overweight and obesity

and at the adult level this is turning

into diabetes heart disease and cancer

everybody thinks that all of these

things that I just mentioned are

problems they are not problems these are

symptoms of a problem the problem is we

are not physically active enough we sip

too much and all of these things that I

just talked about regarding the schools

regarding the health of Americans has to

do with us not being physically active

enough and our schools are well

intentioned but they are operating on

the wrong side of humanity yeah there is

a relationship between facility and

academic achievement and there's always

YouTube facilitating cognition but the

mind works much more efficiently when

the body is working with it and through

the importance of movement for example

we know that the that is a very strong

connection between the physical activity

and community but for months a and when

that doesn't happen the brain is not

very happy there's a positive

relationship that more physically active

children have higher grades or better

academic achievement you know when kids

are physically active they seem to

thrive you know it makes a lot of sense

to use positive aspects of sports

culture as a foundation for our schools

throughout my life I've seen how the

combination of arts music and sports all

come together when you address the needs

of the whole child kids end up loving to

learn and want to go to school I know I

was one of those kids

we're creating a tuition-free privately

funded community-based k12 school the

RSA school of sport culture and wellness

we've done a pilot version of the RIT

school that was very successful as a

matter of fact researchers at a division

of the US Department of Education

evaluated the program and they called it

a model for total school reform just

wanted to let you know that Coulterville

Greely school has been selected as a

2008 California Distinguished school one

of the key findings from the evaluation

committee was our commitment to aerobics

every morning and the program woven

throughout our daily school lives it's

just brilliant to see something that is

so profound and like how it affects the

kids and how they can transition and and

get that their thinking caps on and but

it's also it's great to see how easy it

is for them as soon as they have the

skill set but we practice every day of

the fam Sun Demento athletic mastery you

know the instinct rhythm power attitude

flexibility all these things they are

confident to know that if they play that

in sport they can transfer that into the

classroom the pilot version of the

arcade school is important for me

because in high school I was someone who

had a real hard time in structured

classes and it really gave me a

different approach in learning how to

focus and set goals and actually achieve

in sort of a traditional school setting

using the positive aspects of sports

culture and a foundation for learning

with a huge plus for me my body

my mind work together and I've realized

this through physical activity I'm a

better student and a better person

because of this I learn all these

fundamentals that I knew we're gonna

help me in the future there's really a

need for intervention earlier in life to

help individuals educate themselves

about not just how to take care of their

minds but how to take care of their

bodies at the RIT school we're going to

apply the principles and practices that

work in sport culture physical education

and wellness to the entire curriculum in

order to generate high academic scores

high health and fitness scores and most

important high motivation scores kids

are not little robots that you sit in

front of a TV screen and you're teaching

this in that their imagination has to be

paid they have to be passionate about

what they're learning they have to be

engaged physical activity in the arts

will be at the center of the curriculum

and math language arts the social

studies the sciences will be built

around the physical activity and the

arts science really needs to be engaging

in order for kids to to have that

connection with it and to take it in so

many different directions I think the

unique thing about music is that I see

it has it touches aspects of cognition

or thinking abilities but it also

involves the motor system in the body

the RIT School will serve as a model for

both transforming America's public

school system and dealing with childhood

overweight and obesity and it will also

be a resource and training center for

educators across the country and around

the world upon our feet

transforming our public schools up on

our feet transforming our public schools

we can do this

we can do this one monkey that we can do

this no podemos hacer

[Music]

you

you