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February 3, 2008

Finding more than physical balance in gym

By Patrick Butler

CONTRIBUTOR

Marcia Berke has been trying to put some balance in her students’ lives in more ways than one.

The new physical-education department chair at Resurrection High School, 7500 W. Talcott Ave., recently bought four “bosu” balls and four rocker boards with part of the $1,140 grant she received from the Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Both the “half balls” and the skateboards-with-an-attitude are used for Pilates and balance training, Berke said.

“So far, the dancers and the cheerleaders seem to do the best.” But it’s the non-athletes among Resurrection’s 750 girls who “find it a challenge” that Berke has really been trying to reach.

It’s also a way of balancing everyone’s physical, social and spiritual health, said Berke, an innovator and 2006 Illinois Health Educator of the Year who used “computer babies” — virtual dolls that act just like real infants — in her previous job teaching health classes at Notre Dame High School for Girls.

It was a class assignment that stayed with the girls 24/7 as a way of teaching what premature parenthood is really like.

“The girls had to ask themselves, ‘How am I going to support this kid? How am I going to be up all night and still go to school the next day?’” said Berke, who now teaches health along with phys-ed at Resurrection and says she just may use the “computer babies” in one of her classes.

Not that today’s teenagers don’t have enough real stress, Berke said, noting that kids probably never had it rougher than they do today, what with everything from increasingly ferocious competition to get into the better colleges to class bullies, who have become such a serious problem that teachers’ associations offer seminars on how to deal with “mean girls.”

And there’s no question that when a student is always worried about something, it shows up in the form of headaches, nervous stomachs, loss of appetite or just not wanting to go to class.

If there’s one thing Berke wants her students to take with them at the end of the year it’s a sense of values kids pick up at home or at school — or hopefully in both places.

“The real lesson is when they go out the door to the real world, what do they value in themselves and how do they keep it? Self-respect. What you are as a person. Have you a goal to shoot for?”

All of which naturally leads into the spiritual realm, said Kathleen Heneghan, Resurrection’s grant coordinator and a “Rez” alumnae herself.

“I think part of our mission statement has always been to serve the physical, intellectual and spiritual needs of the students. We see them as a package. We find the girls in athletics tend to be the same ones we see on the honor roll. Everyone thinks the jocks are different from the brains, but we find they’re often the same ones,” said Heneghan.

While she doesn’t claim girls with good grades who are active in sports tend to be more religious, Heneghan said she’s often seen girls with a serious commitment to athletics and academics involved in activities like Kairos retreats (loosely translated to mean “God’s time”) formatted especially for high school and college students.

“Juniors and seniors have the opportunity to become Kairos leaders. That whole package of self-esteem and a willingness to take on leadership roles I think all goes together,” Heneghan said.

Hopefully, “when they get to college, they’ll seek out the Newman Center. They’ll find ways to get involved and become fully engaged, not as observers, but as actors,” she said.