Schools on board with Skate Pass program

By Carolyn Sloan

Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com



The kids think it’s pretty cool. Dawne MacLeod couldn’t agree more.

Admittedly, skateboarding isn’t exactly her forté, but she’s all on board when it comes to inspiring youth to feel good about physical activity. So when Annapolis County’s active living coordinator André Bouchard mentioned a skateboarding program that could be used in the schools, she quickly recognized an opportunity to appeal to a broader range of students who may not be interested in traditional team sports.

Active living consultant for the Annapolis Valley Regional School Board, MacLeod has been working with Bouchard and sports animator Jennifer Grant to bring the Skate Pass program to local schools, making AVRSB the first school board in Canada to take this initiative.

Skate Pass was developed by a company based out of Colorado as a phys ed or after school program. In adopting the program, Annapolis Valley schools will be joining school districts from Colorado, Indiana, New York, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Germany, where the Skate Pass curriculum has been receiving rave reviews.

It’s part of what is being termed “The New PE,” which is an approach to physical education that recognizes the need to provide students with alternatives to traditional sport at school by introducing more individual, non-competitive activities, such as skipping, yoga, speed stacking, Dance Dance Revolution, and even hip-hop dance.

“I don’t really know anything about skateboarding, but I know that the kids like it,” says MacLeod. “Let’s look at all the cool things that can be offered… I think we have to get out of the mould of where we’ve been.”

From her point of view, the important thing is that non-active kids are turned on to physical education to the extent that they will continue an active trend throughout their adulthood. With rates of obesity and diabetes on the rise across the country, and with more and more incidents of illness directly related to inactivity alone, kids aren’t getting what they need from the current system, she says. For the majority of students who aren’t into traditional sports, the two times a week they spend in PE class just isn’t enough.

“Why would kids strive to be fit if they’ve never known what it feels like to be fit?” says MacLeod. “We’ve got to give kids the opportunity to be fit everyday.”

Part of the beauty of the Skate Pass program is that it involves skateboards specifically designed to be used inside a school gymnasium. The program also teaches kids how to skateboard safely and responsibly. The school board recently ordered helmets, knee pads, elbow pads and wrist pads which students will be required to wear.

While there is a perception that skateboarding is dangerous, Bouchard explains that it is statistically safer than many traditional sports such as basketball and hockey. Furthermore, by bringing it into the school gym, youth who are currently skateboarding out on the streets will finally have a safe environment in which to practice the activity.

In addition to receiving support from the school board, the Skate Pass program has received backing from the county as well. The municipality has contributed a grant of $1500, and in return, are hoping to be able to use the in the summertime to offer skateboarding programs through the recreation department.

“It’s pretty exciting to be on the cutting edge here in rural Nova Scotia,” says Bouchard. “It’s the coolest thing around.”

In addition to holding skateboarding workshops for kids this spring, the school board is flying in Eric Klassen of Colorado, one of the program’s creators, to hold a four hour session for active living consultants and school animators from school boards across Nova Scotia. It will then be up to MacLeod and Grant to train student leaders and PE teachers, and to come up with ways to incorporate the curriculum in the schools.