by Katherine Woodward Thomas | photos by Cynthia Smalley
Andreas Wenger, a two-time Ironman triathlete himself, teaches sixteen Physical Education classes each week at LFCSA to our little ones, and he loves every minute of it. Although he claims, “We’re just having fun!” the classes he delivers are deliberately designed to foster well-being and academic success for our children. Mr. Wenger bases his P.E. program upon the Physical Education Framework, which suggests that a healthy, physically active child is more likely to achieve academic success. He works hard to ensure that each child participates fully, encouraging even the slowest ones to reach their full physical strength, dexterity, and potential. While being careful to never push a child beyond his or her limits, he encourages everyone to do their best, often telling a child, “You can do this!”
Originally from Switzerland, Mr. Wenger first came to California in 1995 on vacation. The youngest of his two children, Tristan, is currently in the first grade at LFCSA. Being a P.E. teacher is a new profession to Mr. Wenger, but he feels that his background as an Energetic Structural Integration Therapist, a Swiss-German system of deep tissue massage that helps to align the pelvis, has helped prepare him for this work.
One of Mr. Wenger’s primary values in physical education is to emphasize teamwork and cooperation, insisting that the children minimize competition between them. If the children start acting competitively, he stops them immediately, reminding them often, “It’s not about winning, but about making winners out of everybody.” He keeps the emphasis on fun and exercise, and discourages score keeping, which he feels could potentially discourage the smaller, slower children.
Although California State Law requires 100 minutes per week of physical activity per child, Mr. Wenger points out that our children at LFCSA receive 120 per week—80 minutes of P.E. class and 40 minutes of dance taught by Ms. Martorelli. The activities he offers have a lot to do with the equipment we have on hand. Last year the children worked out much on the Stegel (our gymnastic apparatus), and played a lot of soccer, with soft soccer balls to ensure their safety. Yet, this year, with monies raised from the Winter Program DVDs we parents purchased while dropping our kids off at school in the morning, Mr. Wenger was able to purchase soft sticks and soft hockey pucks, which, he reports, the children love. He also has the children running relay races with batons they pass to one another, jumping rope, and he has taught them climbing on the big yellow net that he installed in the auditorium. The favorite new activity of most of the children is playing with a giant ball that they use like a volley ball.
Since Mr. Wenger’s classes are all offered either on the playground or in the auditorium, he must remain adaptable, as these spaces are usually shared with other classes that are happening at the same time as his. For this reason, he often does not know exactly what they will be doing in the class until the last minute, and he has learned to be highly flexible and creative, often preparing three to four potential activities that could be done that day depending upon their circumstances.
Mr. Wenger’s devotion to the physical well-being of our children is paying off. Recent testing indicates that our kids are fairing above the norm when it comes to physical fitness. In spite of the growing national trend of child obesity, Mr. Wenger takes great pride in the fact that the work he does is educating our children to be happy and healthy.
