Chicago Sun-Times

Start-up offers more gym, less junk food
August 15, 2004
BYKATE N. GROSSMAN Education Reporter

The "bus'' at Chicago's new Namaste charter school has no wheels, no driver, no seat belts. It's strictly human power.

Each day, the "bus" will pick up most of Namaste's 90 students in groups, and they'll walk to the Southwest Side McKinley Park school.

The group travel plan is one of the innovations to be unveiled in coming weeks as schools raise the curtain on another year.

For Namaste, a struggling public start-up, it's not about saving money. It's one of many efforts to change the way its students and parents live.

"Health, nutrition and physical fitness have been forgotten, and that's a main key to help kids to achieve higher," said Allison Slade, the school's high-energy, 28-year-old principal.

A 2002 California Department of Education study found higher achievements associated with higher fitness levels.

Slade hopes to combat childhood obesity by emphasizing gym, nutritious eating and health education. Young Chicago public schoolchildren are more than twice as likely to be fat as their counterparts nationwide, said Dr. Matt Longjohn, director of the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago's Children.

Namaste is part of a broader assault on the problem this year.

Many suburban schools are taking the lead -- with state-of-the-art fitness centers in Naperville District 203 and in District 214, which includes six northwest suburban high schools. Their programs teach kids to take care of their bodies, not just how to win.

CPS officials also have taken some systemwide steps. This fall, vending machines will not sell pop, and snack machines will offer healthier choices. CPS also launched a task force to improve cafeteria food and health classes.

But this doesn't compare with Namaste's offerings: healthful foods at meals, first-grade primers with health-related themes and a comprehensive curriculum.

Namaste, which is starting with kindergarten and first grade, is also way ahead in exercise. Most Chicago grammar schools offer gym only 40 minutes a week. Many do without recess. Namaste students will have 60 minutes of gym daily, and recess each day.

Parents also will be invited for breakfast weekly, where they'll learn about asthma and diabetes and buying healthy food on a budget.

And Namaste teachers will use the Reading in Motion program, calling for dance and music to help teach reading. Students will learn, for example, how to use their bodies to "sketch out" the alphabet.