Walk the Talk

“People’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument."

This quote goes along with the good old saying that “actions speak louder than words” and “walk the talk”
I believe that one of the requirements to be an outstanding physical educator is to follow these three simple quotes. How can you expect your students to commit to physical education and healthy life styles if you yourself are not doing the same? No one wants an out of shape over weight personal trainer, then why would anyone want an unhealthy person teaching their children the importance of physical education?
We all should lead by example. The excuse “because I said so” did not work on us when we were younger so how can we expect it to work on our students. In my opinion if you want your students to live healthy lifestyle and participate in regular physical activity, us as the PHYSICAL EDUCATORS need to lead by example and live the lives that we want our students to learn to live.
Nothing makes me more upset then when I am in an activity class and some of my peers who are also physical education majors admit that they rarely participate in physical activity outside of our classes. I asked one of my friends to go running with me at the beginning of the semester and she responded with “I hate running why would I do that to myself?” She is a physical education major. I was in one of my adapted classes last week and at the end of the class my professor brought to our attention that there was going to be a 5k ran at the beginning of October to benefit children with disabilities. She looked around the gym at all of us and said “it’s only 3.1 miles that should be easy for all of you.” The reactions on some of my classmate’s faces appalled me. Two girls laughed and said to each other that they had not run that far in the past year. Another boy laughed and said that he could maybe get that far on a bike.
These are the types of people that I believe will struggle to get their students to fully commit themselves to physical education because they see that there teacher is not doing it so why should they?
Moral of the story, LEAD BY EXAMPLE.