American Circus Educators Magazine Spring 2014 (Issue 1, Vol 1) | Page 6

FEATURE
As a Board Member of AYCO and
Chair of the Advocacy Committee,
my charge has been to support circus
arts practitioners and educators
by raising awareness about the role
circus arts can play in enhancing
student learning , health, safety,
and well-being.
LET’S

GET
PH S
I C AL
Y
BY CARLO PELLEGRINI
Carlo Pellegrini is co-founder of Amazing Grace CIRCUS! Inc. in Nyack, NY, with Janet Hayes, OTA.
AGC! teaches C.I.R.C.U.S. to children and teens—Confidence.Imagination.Respect.Cooperation.
Understanding.Success—so they can take center ring in their education, community and lives.
For the past 10 years, I have also
been a steering committee member
for the Rockland County Depart-
ment of Health’s “Steps to a Healthier
Rockland” program in Pomona, New
York, chaired by Carrie Steindorff.
Our primary initiative was to create
a Physical Activity Workgroup in the
hopes of addressing the rising rates
of obesity and to help make children
more active during the school day.
Because the program included circus
activities, and because it provided
a potentially novel perspective on
physical activity and academic work,
I would encourage other circus
educators to consider its model.
The hypothesis of the program was
simple: children learn better and
retain knowledge in a more useable
form when they are physically active
inside the classroom during regularly
scheduled class time. This activity
can take many forms. A program called
Instant Recess, for example, employs
popular music and physical moves in
10-minute bouts throughout the
school day. The Energizers program
allows students to get moving for
10-minute intervals using grade-ap-
propriate, teacher-led activities.
There are many reasons that such
programs are becoming more popular.
Generally, of course, there is sub-
stantial evidence of a relationship
between physical activity, fitness,
and improved cognitive and executive
functioning, and physical activity
06