At first, Rick Hornstra sounds a little like the wannabe drill sergeants and win-at-all-costs coaches lodged in baby boomers' collective memory as the gym teachers of old.
"Do as many pull-ups as you can and, when you can't do any more, what are you going to do?" the Lennox Middle School physical education teacher barks to his class of eighth-graders.
"Do five more!" his class responds, just a half-beat more slowly than would a squad of green Marines.
But the vast differences between "gym class" a generation ago and "PE" now become obvious almost immediately.
The pull-up bars, for example, are not even 3 feet off the ground. Students pull their chins toward the bar while lying on their backs and resting their heels on the sand.
Hornstra raises his voice not to intimidate but to be heard over the din of the adjacent San Diego and Century freeways and the airliners flying low and right over the campus. And though he wants his students to give 100%, he won't allow any of them to do or say anything to embarrass classmates who fail.
"Up Jimmy one! Down Jimmy two!" he says to a student giving it all he can. "Way to go, Steph! Way to go, Carrie! Very nice. Way to go, Robert!" One particularly valiant effort prompts a round of applause from the class.
That kind of encouragement is important, given that some students struggle to pull themselves up even once. One heavyset boy strains and wriggles in paroxysms of effort. He digs in his heels to gain leverage. But it doesn't work and he collapses onto the sand, beads of sweat on his forehead.
In fact, about half the seventh-graders at this 2,000-student campus cannot fulfill the state's expectations for upper body strength, according to test results released this week. Only 10% of the school's students are considered fit.
That's considerably worse than the county or state as a whole. But hardly anyone comes out looking good on this test. The reasons are well known: Children spend increasing amounts of time staring at screens--TV, computers, videos and Gameboys--and not enough time playing tag, riding bikes and climbing trees. They also eat too many French fries, burgers, tacos and pizzas.
Minority and poor children, like most of those who attend Lennox, are often worse off. For many, time after school is spent indoors: caring for younger siblings, doing chores or simply taking refuge from the dangers--real or perceived--of their neighborhoods. Parks and sports leagues are scarce.
