编者按: Tammy Smith自2009年起担任Delta County Schools的董事会成员. 5,000名学生区分布在1,中西部山区157平方英里, 包括像三角洲这样相当孤立的社区, 霍奇基斯和西德拉奇. 史密斯是这里的终身居民，在霍奇基斯拥有一家小公司. She went to the then-Mesa College (now Colorado Mesa University) on a basketball scholarship and has coached school athletic teams.
Do you feel children’s physical fitness is part of a school district’s responsibility?
我认为在某种程度上是这样的. The problem is I feel like it’s more expected now from parents that the school districts do all of this rather than take responsibility at home. I think the direction we’re going is really good; we’re going towards children having a more active life. By overhauling our PE program we’re explaining more to kids why you should be fit and eat well and have good exercise with that. 教育是其中的一部分, 为了过上更健康的生活, I think that is the school district’s responsibility because a lot of kids are not going to get that at home.
Do you feel some parents are kind of giving things up to the school that they don’t have time or energy for?
I think there’s just an expectation that parents expect the school to teach their kids everything; or they don’t have time at home because they are working two jobs or may be single parents. So I think they put a lot more on school districts and expect a lot more out of them, 我认为体育运动只是其中之一.
描述你所在地区的学生人数和地理面积.
We have about 5,000 kids, and those kids are in about five communities over 110 square miles. We have four high schools; we have a charter school; we actually have a Montessori school and a technical college in our district. 所以我们很独特. 我们有两所非常小的高中和一所非常大的高中. 每个社区的人口都是不同的. 在更大的学校, it has a larger Hispanic population so we have to find a way to incorporate things for all kids. 我们的足球队是全县足球队, 而不是取消一个孩子可能会感兴趣的项目.
Because it’s pretty spread out and rural, do you have kids who spend significant time on the bus?
We have kids who will get on the bus at 7 in the morning and school doesn’t start until 8. 是的，每天单程40到50分钟. But that’s also part of living in a small community and living in that rural atmosphere. So that just means that much more time those kids are sitting and they’re not getting exercise.
A lot of the reason people are thinking about and working on these things are the growing obesity issues among children. 你认为达美航空是这一趋势的一部分吗?
我认为我们看到越来越多的孩子肥胖, 这很大程度上是因为父母太忙了，晚饭吃快餐. We know more and more families who eat out more and so they’re not thinking about healthy choices. 在我们地区，他们实施了食品指南. 我们发现，它并没有抓住真正需要它的孩子. 那些孩子仍然自己带午餐，没有做出健康的选择. 反正他们吃的也不是健康的食物. 在反面, we have athletic kids who are using a lot of calories and they eat the lunch but they are having to supplement with other things later in the day because they get hungry. We’re probably going to have to educate parents as well because kids learn a lot of this by age 5 and have learned those eating habits at home. 通过实施更多的体育运动——不仅仅是锻炼，还有教育和营养, what to eat and what not to eat and why – we can solve some of those issues at an earlier age and not end up with so many obesity problems.
那么，达美航空试图改变体育运动和体育活动的哪些方面呢, 而不仅仅是体育课时间?
We actually got a PE grant about three years ago, and we are writing our own curricula. 在课程中, 它包含了我们谈论的很多方面，比如营养, how long you should be active and what part being active plays – making it more of a health and wellness and activity program rather than just going into the gym and playing kickball for an hour.
Do you have a districtwide mandate about how much PE time or activity time kids get?
We have that as part of our graduation requirement that you have to have so much PE or activity. Within our district, the kids who are very athletic, they can get those credits playing sports. 如果你不做运动，我们有体育课，你可以在那里获得学分.
有人反对过吗, either about the requirements for graduation or teachers who already feel like there’s not enough time in the day because of the academic testing requirements or other needs?
过去几年一直有人担心因为在德尔塔县, 我们的预算一直很紧张，所以我们削减了一些开支, 这样一来，我们就不会提供那么多体育课程了, 特别是在我们的低年级. 他们仍在进行体育锻炼，但可能不是每天都进行. 员工们希望看到这类项目能定期恢复. I do know our staff feels the crunch of all the mandates coming down; it’s so much more work for them to do the programs than it used to be. 我认为这有时会对孩子们造成伤害. 如果由我来决定，我会让每个孩子每天都上体育课.
通过实施更多的体育运动——不仅仅是锻炼，还有教育和营养, what to eat and what not to eat and why – we can solve some of those issues at an earlier age and not end up with so many obesity problems.
But as a board member, translating that to actual policy, maybe the resources aren't there? 是什么阻碍了我们?
是金融方面的. We’re going to keep pushing and hopefully build to the point where PE is every day, every kid. 要做到这一点需要接受大量的教育, including parents; it’s educating people that it’s important for a lifetime of health.
我们不只是让孩子们出去跑一英里，因为我们想这么做. 有时候孩子们回家会说, “Oh, 他们今天让我们跑了一英里,而不知道为什么这很重要.
小城镇和大城市有什么不同吗?
不同的是，每个人都认识彼此, and you know the parents and the kids and you know the backgrounds of everybody involved. So sometimes that makes it easier to deal with things because you know where people are coming from and you can use those relationships collaboratively. 如果你觉得一个孩子可能会达到一个危险的肥胖点, 你可以和家人坐下来谈谈，然后说, we think it would be helpful if they started participating in this or that activity.
在接下来的几年里，你希望看到体育领域发生什么变化?
我希望看到体育运动继续融入到整体健康中. With the lack of resources and finances, sometimes electives are the first thing to go. So the PE grant has given us the chance to push things forward and make sure our kids and our schools become healthy and happy, 生产的地方. And to get kids thinking about going out and taking a hike or doing something outside or go to the gym – for their lifetime after they get out of school. A lot of kids play sports in school but then when they get out, they are no longer physically active. 所以这是在给他们提供工具，让他们在离开我们的地区后成为健康的成年人.
本文最初发表于2015年冬季期的《十大菠菜靠谱平台》杂志.