After receiving recognition at a bronze level for having one of the best athletic programs in the county, and for having successfully created a healthier generation, Felix Varela has garnered much attention.

On Tuesday, October 14, three representatives from the Division of School Sports and Youth activity and the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau from the city of Macau, China, paid a visit to our school. As a way to observe our school’s department of physical education, the representatives spent the entire day touring the campus and speaking with the administration. Chan Ka Hou (chief of department), Silvia Ribeiro Ossorio Hong (the sub director) and Kong Chi Meng were deeply interested as they studied our school.

Unlike Varela, the schools in the city of Macau, China are having difficulty establishing a program that offers valuable results.

The challenges China’s schools are facing differ from those we face in the United States. Unlike America’s constant battle with overweight and inactive children, the Chinese battle with children being severely underweight. Due to malnutrition, instructors have difficulty implementing rigorous exercise routines because of the fear of students passing out.

As a leader in the physical education department, Ms. Lisa Spinosa, the P.E. department chair, attended the meeting to emphasize to the representatives, the importance of using science and fitness to inform students about nutrition and dieting correctly.

“If students are aware of what is healthy for them, they can make better choices when it comes to food,” she said.

She also indicated that in order for this to function correctly, the teachers must be educated correctly. The teachers must be trained to make students excited about being involved in physical activities.

Along with that daunting challenge, the schools in Macau also face tough zoning and population issues. Macau contains 100 schools, 90 of them being private and 10 being public. The largest school contains 2,000 students at the maximum. None of these schools have a fitness center, or even a gym. Many times, the students have to walk to a nearby park after school in order to complete their physical education classes. These classes contain 50 students per class and have two 45 minute P.E class sessions daily. This seems minimal compared to Varela’s two hours for continuous P.E, whether it’s in the gym, on the court or out on the track.

Our school encouraged the Macau representatives to use new innovative ideas to get their students interested in physical activities. In order to keep physical education compelling, they must maintain all levels of education with different forms of activities. Non traditional activities such as aerobics, spinning classes in high schools or the use of Dance Dance Revolution in middle schools, keep the students motivated and interested in physical activities. This has been proved with our school’s success. The largest academy in our school is the Physical Education Academy, and unlike all of the other academies, teachers have been added rather than removed.

The representatives from China served as ambassadors for physical education and personal health on the global scale. Our school was able to take part in the sharing between nations of one important aspect of life and health.