Physical Education, Recreation, the Environment, and our Quality of Life*

by Don DeGraaf, Ph.D.
Calvin College

* This paper was presented at the The Guangzhou Institute of Physical Education on January 2, 1996.

As one enters the train station in Guangzhou, China, there is a large sign which says in Chinese and English, Think Globally, Act Locally.  In essence this sign is proclaiming the same message that John Muir, an American naturalist, advocated when he stated “when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” In a sense physical educators have always acknowledged this fact by reaching out to all aspects of the human spirit. 

This philosophical base is best exemplified in the typical triangular model used by physical educators which connects the mind, the body and the spirit of individuals to promote a balance in people which results in an improvement of their quality of life.  That model can be enlarged to further the impact of physical educators upon the quality of life of society.  With this thought in mind, this paper argues that the physical education model should be changed to a diamond shape which includes the mind, the body, the spirit and the environment.

By expanding the vision of physical educators to include the environment in which we all live, physical educators can continue to address the “complete” individual.  Such an addition would be especially prophetic today as we struggle with environmental problems on a global scale and we realize the true inter-connectedness of our world.  The addition of a fourth component into the physical education model would also re-connect physical educators with the allied professions of health and recreation. 

Welcome to PIVOT!

Authors contributing to PIVOT are professionals from various health and human movement disciplines- health, physical education, recreation, dance and sport.  It is our intention to present you with timely issues related to the joy of human movement, the perplexities of our bodily limitations, and what it means to be created in the image of God.  Our interests range across a wide spectrum, from disordered eating, to sport and civic engagement, to the integration of faith and learning in the human movement classroom, to the Christian mandate to be good stewards of all God’s world, including our own bodies.  We are interested in issues of healthy and active aging in a culture that worships youth, the co-curricular nature of sport in Christian liberal arts settings, and how the triumvirate mind-body-spirit health model might be better served by the addition of a fourth component- that of an environmental land ethic that ties all of creation together for the sake of community and future. 

As Christian college professors, we too struggle with issues of work-leisure-spirit balance in our own lives.  How does God’s call to be diligently at work in His kingdom, and to not weary in doing good create inherent tension when we feel the urgency of our own need to be still and know God? 

We have titled this weblog PIVOT because we will intentionally address those pressure points around which our lives turn as we ourselves train in godliness- and even as we train and mentor young people in our disciplines- that we may have the mind of Christ and heart and hands that are offered unconditionally to His service.