Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Physical educators face the daily challenge of providing young people with the necessary skills to live a physically active and health-enhancing lifestyle. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE, 2004) identifies six standards that should serve as a foundation for physical education programs. They specifically charge physical educators with ensuring that students demonstrate competency in the motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical activities (standard 1), participate regularly in physical activity (standard 3), and achieve a health-enhancing level of physical fitness (standard 4). Darst and Pangrazi (2009) further suggest four unique contributions that physical education makes to the lives of students: (1) the achievement of daily physical activity, (2) the achievement of a...

