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Hesson presents at physical education conference

Dr. James Hesson, division of physical education and health, gave a presentation Oct. 20 at the 44th Annual Conference of the Western College Physical Education Society (WCPES) in Reno, Nevada.

The title of the presentation was "Personality and Career Choices."

The presentation started with each person in attendance completing a very brief personality inventory to help them identify consistent character traits.

Next, Hesson explained a little about the strengths and weakness of each dominant personality category and that none of us has character traits in just one category, but that in fact we are all unique. Diversity is individual. Diversity is not about race or gender or religion or age or culture or any other category, it is about individuals. However, each person has consistent character traits that may influence their career choices.

The career choices examined were subdisciplines of health and human performance (physical education). During the last 20 or 30 years specialization into subdisciplines has caused a splintering effect. This specialization has strengthened physical education academically but has weakened it as a cohesive profession. Each subdiscipline now has its own meetings and people in that subdiscipline tend to socialize and communicate only with those in their subdiscipline. Hesson then emphasized professionalism and involvement in professional organizations that bring us all back together and strengthen the entire field.

Hesson says physical education and health are more important now than ever. The director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has just identified obesity in the United States as an epidemic. The current statistics indicate that one out of every five adults in the United States is obese and three out of four adults are overfat. A recent Report of the Surgeon General has raised the same alarm with detailed studies of the health problems in the United States caused by inactivity and poor eating habits. It is not just the adults, many of our children are also overfat and most are in very poor physical condition.

At a time when we need to be adding quality physical "education" and health "education" many schools are reducing or eliminating this important aspect of education or allowing unqualified people to teach it. It appears that many of those in the positions of power, who can make this important curriculum decision, have not been well educated about the benefits of regular, healthy physical activity and healthy lifestyle choices. If you don't take care of your body where will you live?

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