THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: July 26th, 2005 12:01 AM
The old Romans had a term for it: mens sana in corpore sano ­ a sound mind in a sound body. But the Romans didn't have the WASL or No Child Left Behind. Or public schools, for that matter.

Washington's public schools have to do it all: educate minds and instill physical fitness. And they have to do it for all their students, not just the gifted and the advantaged. This is not easy, as Tacoma educators will attest.

Last fall, the Tacoma school administrators met with an uproar after an assistant superintendent advised elementary principals not to schedule regular recesses for their young students outside the lunch break. The PTA, teachers and public didn't like that.

Yet the attempt to de-emphasize recess was a part of a push to re-emphasize academics to make sure children were being grounded in the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic. This is precisely what the federal No Child Left Behind Act and Washington's own education reforms demand ­ and rightly so.

Now it turns out that Tacoma's schools have been unknowingly violating another state mandate ­ to provide 100 minutes a week of physical education to all students in the first through the eighth grades. As things stand, Tacoma children in the first five grades are getting, at most, 50 minutes a week. Many other districts appear to be in the same boat.

These fitness issues are hitting the fan as districts scramble to comply with a new state law that requires them to have nutrition and fitness policies in place by Aug. 1. The academics can't be given short shrift. But neither can the physical requirements of growing up healthy.

Some of the best results of this law won't be found on the playgrounds but in the cafeterias. School lunches throughout the United States have traditionally been long on fats and carbs, featuring such kid-pleasers as corn dogs, mashed potatoes and gravy, hamburgers, cookies, fries, chicken nuggets, and pizza. Vending machines added candy and high-sugar soda drinks to the mix.

School food may not be to blame for the surge in obesity America's children have suffered in recent years, but it certainly hasn't helped.

Districts throughout the South Sound are changing that.

Puyallup school administrators, for example, have been working with local pediatricians on an obesity-prevention initiative. The Tacoma district's proposed fitness policy would bar sales of soft drinks from vending machines during school hours. Schools, teachers and fundraisers would be urged to offer wholesome fare, not junk food, as treats.

These new fitness policies promise a big improvement in students' eating and exercise habits. The kids better get used to it: Higher standards for physical fitness go hand-in-hand with the higher standards for academics.