The Arete School: An In-Depth Perspective

Introduction

This is about a school, a school unlike any other. This school will be a tuition-free, privately funded, community-based school that will act like a public school but will get the kinds of results that are lacking in the public-school system.

This public-private, hybrid school will value and attend to the needs of the whole child—physical, emotional, and social needs as well as mental. This school will produce students who attain high academic and high health and fitness scores at the same time. This school will produce students who love to learn.

This school will be ethnically diverse, with students coming from disadvantaged, mid-level, and advantaged backgrounds. This school will have strong parental involvement and close ties to the community. This school will operate year-round and be open daily from early morning until late evening.

This school, as with public schools, will be open to all students in the surrounding communities. This school will be a resource and training center for current and future educators. This school will be a model for transforming America’s public-school system.

Background

America’s cherished public-school system is the beacon of our democracy, the citadel of our freedom, the champion of our equality. But this cherished beacon, this cherished citadel, this cherished champion is in trouble.

Over the past half century, billions of dollars have been spent and thousands of programs put forth to turn around our public schools. Sadly, there hasn’t been much change. Hard data are available to validate these concerns, including the latest research showing that student engagement is extremely low in academic classrooms.

If this weren’t enough to make Americans sick, over the past 25-30 years, the health and fitness levels of schoolchildren have deteriorated to the point where overweight and obesity among our nation’s youth, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, is now at epidemic proportions. This is predisposing an entire generation to diabetes, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, dementia, and other chronic diseases.

Current Situation: The Research

The trouble in our schools and with our schoolchildren is validated many times over by numerous research studies. The results of some of these studies are listed immediately below. Additional research results and related data are available by clicking here or on the Bad News link in the upper-right corner of this page.

1. Nationally, the high-school dropout rate is 22%; for Latinos and African Americans, the dropout rate is between 30%-35%.
2. The high-school dropout rate in America’s 50 largest cities is 48%.
3. Annually, 1.2 million students drop out every year nationwide; that’s 7,000 students every school day.
4. For America’s high-school seniors, only 26% are proficient in math, and only 38% are proficient in reading.This means that annually, whether because of dropping out or low levels of knowledge and skills, two-thirds of all high-school students who leave school are not only ill-prepared for college or work, they can’t read well enough to catch up.
5. Students are earning better grades in ‘tougher’ courses, yet, actual learning is stagnant or declining. The data: 40% of high-school 12th-grade students lack math skills commonly taught in 7th and 8th grades.Since 1983, reading skills have declined for 12th-grade students of all backgrounds; and 70% of 8th graders are not proficient in reading—and most will never catch up.
6. Nationally, 75% of high-school students admit to cheating, and if you include copying another student’s homework, it’s 90%. The interesting twist here is that the students with the highest GPAs cheat the most, even though they’re quite capable of getting the high grades without cheating.
7. The United States is the only industrialized country in the world in which today’s young people are less likely than their parents to have completed high school.
8. Nationally, 75% of all high-school students are “chronically disengaged” in their academic courses.
9. When comparing levels of engagement in six location areas—at home, out in public, at work, in academic classes, in non-academic classes, and being on school grounds—students are least engaged in their academic classes.
10. When comparing levels of engagement in six types of activity—school work, paid work, passive leisure, active leisure, maintenance, and other—except for maintenance and other which are incidental activities such as brushing your teeth or taking out the trash, students are least engaged in their school work.
11. Prior studies show that it used to take 30 years for the overweight prevalence in American children to double—to increase by 100%. Over approximately the last 25 years, the prevalence of overweight has tripled in children and adolescents in America.
12. In 1994, 7% of children 2-5 years old were overweight. By 2004, the percentage had doubled to 14%. Today, one in five or 20% of American four-year-olds are not just overweight but obese.
13. Today, one-third of American children and adolescents are either overweight or obese.
14. Overweight or obese children and adolescents are more likely to be overweight and obese as adults. Approximately 80% of children who are overweight at 10-15 years of age are not just overweight by age 25 but obese, predisposing them later in life to a host of chronic diseases, including high blood pressure; high cholesterol; liver disease; asthma; Type 2 diabetes; heart disease; stroke; cancer of the uterus, breast, colon, kidney, liver, pancreas, esophagus, stomach, and gallbladder; and other chronic diseases.
15. Fewer than 10% of U.S. high-school students are eating the combined, recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables.
16. The older children get, the less physically active they become. While 90% of children 9-11 years old get the recommended minimum of 60 minutes daily of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity or MVPA, by the time kids reach 15 years of age, fewer than 30% get the recommended number of MVPA daily minutes.
17. When it comes to actually providing PE on a daily basis for all students for the entire school year, only 3.8% of elementary schools, 7.9% of middle schools, and 2.1% of high schools do so.
18. Each year, America’s dropouts cost the nation approximately $200 billion over their lifetimes.
19. Overweight, obesity, and physical inactivity are estimated to cost America $340 billion annually in direct and indirect costs.

Student Attitudes

In America’s public schools today, most kids go to school not to get an education but to get out. Rather than loving to learn as they once did as young children, as they move up through the educational system, they become increasingly apathetic about learning, resigned to simply go through the motions. For the most part, the students are bored and disengaged in their academic courses.

The nonprofit, Marin County, CA-based American Sports Institute (ASI) has conducted an attitudinal survey over the last 12 years related to the students’ state of mind regarding school. This two-question survey has been presented to thousands of legislators, state education officials, district superintendents, principals, counselors, teachers, parents, students and the general public. The questions are:

• Question 1: On a scale of 10, with 10 being totally excited and 1 being totally apathetic, how excited are middle and high school students about going to school for their academic courses only? This does not include the social or extracurricular aspects of school.
• Question 2: Are human beings, especially children, natural or unnatural learners?

The range of responses for the first question has been between 2 and 5, with the greatest number of responses being 3. However, everyone says that kids are natural learners.

This begs the question: If kids are natural learners, but the response given most often to the first question is a 3 and the overall range of responses is 2 to 5 on a scale of 10, the conclusion is obvious and inescapable: There is something fundamentally wrong at the core of our nation’s educational system.

Given the low academic performance, the high level of apathy, and the deteriorating health of our students, it could be said that figuratively and literally, America’s schoolchildren are dying to learn.

Institutional Response

As the data show, over the past half century, the remedies implemented to turn around America’s public schools have fallen flat. Legislators; education officials at the federal, state, and local levels; and teachers have put forth high-stakes testing, increased requirements, more and longer school days, intensified course work, cuts in electives, and charter schools as remedies. These measures have proven to be ineffective.

In addition, school officials readily admit that the health and fitness levels of their students are extremely low. But since the school officials are not held accountable for this, and room and time in the curriculum is at a premium, little attention is paid to this growing problem.

This health and fitness issue is a greater concern than most people, including educators, realize. A crucial element that has gone missing in all the school-reform efforts over the past half century is a respect for and a full integration of the physical domain in the body-brain, total-learning context of every child. In fact, this may be the key element that has been missing in all school-reform efforts to date and why little has changed in 50 years.

Six sections below, in Why This Approach Has Worked. Why This Approach Will Work, the rationale for a fully-integrated physical domain in a body-brain learning context will be presented.

All of this begs another question: With our schoolchildren dying to learn, what type of school needs to be created to address this concern, and how can this school become a model for transforming America’s public-school system?

A Different Response from the American Sports Institute

Given the current state of affairs in our public schools, the need becomes clear. At the American Sports Institute, we believe that what is called for is not just a reformation of our public-school system, but a true transformation of this system. What America longs for is a transformed educational system that:

• Truly values and is responsible for the whole child—physical, emotional, and social needs as well as mental;
• Understands the real needs of schoolchildren and designs the learning process so that these needs are fulfilled;
• Provides curricula that are engaging, relevant, and challenging;
• Creates a learning environment that is a sanctuary for the human spirit, an environment that is safe, nurturing, and provides a sense of place and belonging;
• Enables all students to realize their full potential, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

What Qualifies the American Sports Institute to Be Involved with Education?

Since 1989, the American Sports Institute has been involved with educational change in a transformational sense. ASI isn’t looking at how public schools should be reformed, but rather, how they can be transformed.

In this context, ASI conceptualized, developed, and pilot-tested the curriculum; conducted teacher training workshops; and implemented a train-the-trainers program for the Promoting Achievement in School through Sport (PASS) program. PASS is a daily, yearlong, academic course in which middle and high school students learn how to improve their grades, behavior, self-esteem, and physical performance.

This is done by having the students set individualized academic and physical goals and then work toward achieving these goals by applying the principles and practices that work in sport culture, physical education, and wellness to their academic and physical pursuits. To date, approximately 4,000 students in California, Illinois, North Carolina, and South Carolina have gone through the PASS program.

The PASS program has been evaluated by researchers from the Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL), one of 10 research centers affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement. In their report, the McREL researchers state, “PASS addresses the needs of the whole learner— intellectual needs, motivational needs, and other needs such as students’ physical and social needs . . . . making it a model for total school reform.”

In addition to being implemented in a one-period-a-day context, the principles and practices of the PASS program were applied across the entire curriculum throughout the full school day at a small, K-8 public school just north of Yosemite National Park. This included the implementation of an aerobics-based program for all students at the beginning of every school day.

As a result, and combined with other changes, the school increased its state test scores 212 points over six years, earning the honor of being designated a California Distinguished School. In the words of the principal, “One of the key findings from the (California Department of Education) evaluation committee was our commitment to aerobics every morning (his underline) and the PASS program woven throughout our daily school lives.”

Having created this model for total school reform in the context of a single academic course, and having successfully pilot-tested the full-school model, ASI is now in the developmental phase of applying this model to a larger school setting.

The Arete School of Sport Culture and Wellness

Based on its work in educational transformation since 1989, the American Sports Institute is now in the process of creating a school in Marin County that addresses the needs of the whole child and can become a model for transforming America’s public-school system—The Arete School of Sport Culture and Wellness.

Arete (‘ar-uh-tay) is a Greek word that is defined as: a continuous striving for virtue and excellence in a balanced and integrated physical, mental, spiritual way.  This perspective was prevalent 2,500 years ago at the height of the Athenian era in ancient Greece, and is still valued in Greek society today.

Just as the ancient Greeks valued the physical domain equally with the mental and spiritual domains, and advocated living and learning in balanced and integrated, body-brain ways, the foundation of The Arete School will be the physical and mental principles and practices that work in sport culture, physical education, and wellness. All learning, all coaching/teaching, all social/emotional conditions, all extensions into the community will be based upon these principles and practices.

Curriculum Focus

Given the successes of the PASS program and the overwhelming research that validates a full integration of the physical domain in a balanced and integrated, body-brain approach to learning, The Arete School’s curriculum will focus on three major themes—sport culture, physical education, and wellness, including personal, social, and environmental wellness.

These three thematic areas will be studied in a balanced and integrated manner through the arts, humanities, and sciences. In other words, sport culture, physical education, and the three dimensions of wellness will be studied through a balanced and integrated approach by using the disciplines of math, language arts, the physical sciences, the social sciences, the arts, and international language.

In addition, The Arete School students will not only learn the established ABC’s, they will also learn about and be held responsible for the ABC’s that few, if any, students in America get. On an ongoing basis, The Arete School students, in appropriate ways for each developmental level, will work on and be held responsible for their: A-erobic capacity; B-lood pressure, B-lood sugar, and B-ody composition levels; and C-holesterol levels.

All students will be taught in both English and Spanish.

Curriculum Context

As with the curriculum focus, the context or foundation for learning that informs the curriculum are also the body-brain elements of sport culture, physical education, and wellness. The goal is to have The Arete School curriculum be as engaging, relevant, and challenging as sport culture, physical education, and wellness are.

The following is a partial list of the aspects of this learning context. After each listing, a brief explanation of how the aspect is used in a learning context is presented:

• Self-Paced Learning — All students learn at their own pace. Therefore, the pace at which each student completes his/her assignments will be honored.
• Mastery-Based Learning — Students do not move to the next assignment or grade level without first mastering the skills at the current level, no matter how many times they must work and rework the current assignment.
• Relevance — As with adults, students need to understand the importance of why they are learning something before the learning actually begins.  Otherwise, they just go through the motions. In this context, with the guidance of their mastery coach, each student is involved in the development of her/his curriculum.
• Engagement — Students are actively engaged in the learning process through a variety of activities, not just sitting at their desks.
• Coaching Instruction — Students receive ongoing feedback until an assignment is mastered.
• Demonstration Learning — Students regularly make presentations of their schoolwork to classmates, parents, teachers, and the community.
• Team-Oriented Learning — Every student is responsible for the performance of their peers as well as for themselves.
• Character Development — Student character is emphasized and studied as an integral part of the curriculum.

Why This Approach Has Worked.  Why This Approach Will Work.

The reason why the full integration of the physical domain in a body-brain, balanced and integrated approach to learning has been successful through the PASS program and will be successful at The Arete School is because this is the human model for everything, from learning to wellness to evolution.

In fact, the answers to the problems in America’s troubled public-school system have not, do not, nor will not come from education.  Rather, they are found in neuroscience, medicine, and evolution.

Current and emerging research in neuroscience is showing us that over millions of years of evolution, human beings have been genetically programmed to engage in sustained, high levels of physical activity.  Without this high level of physical activity, not only do our bodies degenerate, but so do our brains.

One aspect of this research is quite alarming—people who sit for more than four hours a day are much more likely to develop and even die from heart disease and cancer than those who spend most of their day on their feet.  This holds true even if people exercise regularly but otherwise remain seated for much of the day.

We’ve known for some time that physical activity benefits our bodies, but now we know that it does the same for our brains.  This is why the irrefutable, overwhelming body of research is showing us that not only does physical activity help prevent diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other chronic diseases, it also helps prevent dementia, insomnia, depression, and anxiety, and serves as an effective measure for reducing the symptoms of attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Furthermore, because of the way in which it stimulates the brain, physical activity not only promotes learning in children and adults, it also grows new brain cells for everyone, including seniors.

As was stated earlier, the ancient Greeks valued the physical domain equally with the mental, and advocated and practiced this physical-mental, integrated way of life.  They knew of its importance instinctively.  In fact, it was Herophilos from 300 B.C., the father of anatomy, who said, “(If) health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, strength cannot be exerted, wealth becomes useless, and reason is powerless.”

In addition to the ancient Greeks, great figures throughout history have instinctively sensed the connection between physical activity and the brain, despite not having the research to validate their perceptions:

It seems when my legs begin walking, my mind begins working . . . any writing I do sitting down is wooden.  —Henry David Thoreau

I have walked myself into my best thoughts.  —Soren Kierkegaard

Nature has not adapted the young animal to the narrow desk, the crowded curriculum, the silent absorption of complicated facts.  —John Dewey

Never trust a thought you came upon sitting down.  The muscles must be in celebration with the mind.  —Friedrich Nietzsche

To keep the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom, and keep our mind strong and clear.  —Buddha

It is slavery to live in the mind unless it has become part of the body.  —Kahlil Gibran

I hold that true education of the intellect can only come through a proper exercise and training of the bodily organs.  —Gandhi

My primary process of perceiving is muscular and visual.  —Albert Einstein

Our athletic life is the most conspicuous and promising rebellion against this industrial tyranny.  —George Santayana

By too much sitting still, the body becomes unhealthy, and soon the mind.  —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

All of this can be summed up in a June, 2010, TIME magazine statement by Professor Philip Holmes, a neuroscientist at the University of Georgia:  “It occurs to us that exercise is the more normal or natural condition, and that being sedentary is really the abnormal situation.”

In validation of the ancient Greeks; the great figures throughout history; the evidence from neuroscience, medicine, and evolution; and Professor Holmes’ conclusion, the positive impact of the physical domain being fully integrated in a body-brain learning context can also be seen in research results and related data on The Good News page.

In particular, this impact is demonstrated in items #9 and #10 of the Good News. These items relate to a national study conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago.  Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Sloan Study of Youth and Social Development included the following two findings:

• When comparing levels of engagement in six location areas—at home, in public, at work, in academic classes, in non-academic classes, and being on school grounds—students are most engaged in their non-academic classes, including those that feature physical activity.
• When comparing levels of engagement in six types of activity—school work, paid work, passive leisure, active leisure, maintenance, and other—except for maintenance and other which are incidental activities such as brushing your teeth or taking out the trash, students are most engaged in their active-leisure activities.

School Outcomes and Mission

With The Arete School’s three major themes of sport culture, physical education, and wellness being studied through the arts, humanities, and sciences in a balanced and physical activity-based, body-brain integrated learning methodology, it is important to articulate what the final outcomes will be for all students.

On a day-to-day and year-to-year basis, the mastery coaches/teachers will be fully responsible for the self-paced, mastery-based learning of their students. Specific objectives will be established as benchmarks for determining mastery at each phase and level of every student’s development. Finally, upon graduating from The Arete School, all students will have demonstrated mastery in and/or a high affinity for their ability to:

• Be healthy and fit;
• Live in an environmentally sustainable way;
• Communicate through reading, writing, and public speaking in both English and Spanish;
• Compute mathematically;
• Problem solve and think critically by evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing;
• Plan, prioritize, and manage their time;
• Play in both structured and unstructured settings;
• Move about freely, gracefully, and in a coordinated manner;
• Play a musical instrument, sing, dance, act, and create with their hands;
• Imagine and be creative;
• Sense, feel, and intuit;
• Be patient, persevere, and stay positive, even when conditions are difficult or stressful;
• Be self-disciplined, self-assertive, courageous, honorable, just, loyal, responsible, gracious, respectful, compassionate, kind, empathetic, accepting, discerning, humorous, contrite, humble, loving, joyful, sad, and happy;
• Concentrate and be balanced, relaxed, powerful, rhythmic, flexible, and instinctual;
• Be self-reliant and ask for assistance;
• Work independently and cooperatively with others;
• Lead and follow;
• Take risks and adapt;
• Learn and grow from their failures as well as their successes;
• Respect their own and others’ personal, social, and natural environments;
• Experience a sense of place and belonging locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally;
• Be informed and participate civically as a responsible citizen of their community, region, state, nation, and world;
• Respect authority and challenge it;
• Administer first aid;
• Manage their personal finances;
• Use technology efficiently and appropriately;
• Be curious; and
• Love learning.

In the end, it is the unwavering goal of The Arete School that all graduates realize its mission:

To send forth into the world intrinsically-motivated,
self-actualized citizens who care for other beings and their
surroundings as much as they do themselves.

School Structure

The Arete School will be comprised of an ethnically diverse group of PK-12 students and families. The School will start with 50 kindergarten students the first year and add 50 additional kindergarten students each year thereafter until it is a fully functioning PK-12 school. Beginning with the first year, approximately half of all students will be from low-income, minority families, most of which will be Latino.

Based in Marin County, California, the School will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. This will enable parents to drop off their children before they go to work and not have to pick up their children until they get off from work. Transportation will be provided for those students needing it.

Besides being on a full-day schedule, the School will be on a year-round schedule. Students will attend school for three intervals of 14, 12, and 12 weeks, with breaks of six, six, and two weeks vacation in between. During these breaks, if they wish, students will be able to come to The Arete School to continue working on projects, to just hang out in a safe environment, or to do volunteer work for the School.

Parental and Community Involvement

With research showing that parental and community involvement increase the potential for high student achievement, these two elements will be integral to The Arete School. Parents will be required to meet with School officials on a regular basis regarding their child’s progress. In addition, there will be an open-invitation policy to visit the School whenever a parent wishes. Also, parents will be required to volunteer at the School in a variety of ways.

The requirements of the parents will be reciprocated by the School. The School will offer in the evening low-cost, community-education courses for the parents and community members to help meet their needs. Child care will be provided for the very young so the parents can take these courses. As with the students, transportation will be provided to those who need it for all School functions.

Another community involvement dimension of the School will be the School-to-Career program in which students will have internships and/or jobs with organizations and businesses in the local communities. And, as a part of the curriculum, all students will be involved in projects that enhance the environment of the local communities.

School Context and the Big Picture

The Arete School will operate as if it were a public school. As was stated earlier, this means it will be a private school but tuition-free and open to all students in the surrounding communities.

In this way, The Arete School will be free of federal, state, district, and union regulations that would otherwise compromise its chances of being successful. If The Arete School is to hold itself responsible for the growth and development of its students, it must be free to apply the principles and implement the practices it believes are necessary to best meet the needs of the whole child.

With the latest preliminary research already validating The Arete School’s principles and practices, the School will be engaged continuously in research studies. The Arete School will continuously monitor itself to validate that which is working and change that which is not, and outside researchers from respected institutions will conduct studies on the School’s effectiveness.

To create awareness about what it does and impact the public-school system, The Arete School will use the internal and external research studies as resources to conduct workshops, seminars, presentations, conferences, symposia, etc., for current and prospective educators as well as those from other institutions and the general public. As has been done in the past, this will include presentations to members of the California Legislature as well as state and local education officials. Eventually, The Arete School will become a public-school, teacher-training institution.

Steps and Timeline

In order to open the doors to The Arete School, eight major steps must be reached. The steps include the following:

1. Create and articulate the vision of and plan for the School;
2. Secure the funding;
3. Secure the School site;
4. Recruit personnel in two phases. Phase One includes the personnel needed immediately to begin the logistical process of putting the School together, and Phase Two includes more of the School’s staff;
5. Finalize the curriculum, along with School policies and procedures, that focuses on the whole child in a self-paced, mastery-based context that uses a balanced and integrated, body-brain approach to learning;
6. Recruit students and forge relationships with organizations that will work with the School by going into the surrounding communities to meet with parents and local officials;
7. Secure equipment, furniture, and supplies; and
8. Open and operate the School.

The Arete School will begin operations in August 2025, in Northern California.

Summary

While we label so many of the concerns in our schools today as problems, in reality, they are not problems, but rather, symptoms of a problem.  Specifically, the real problem is that, as in all of Western civilization, America’s public-school system has not and does not value and apply the physical domain fully in the learning experience of our schoolchildren.

The symptoms we see in America’s troubled public schools and in so many of our other institutions are also a calling. Through these symptoms, the evolutionary destiny of the human species is calling out to us, telling us we need to change direction.

These symptoms of our evolutionary misdirection are calling out to us through the high rate of dropouts and the high rates of boredom, disengagement, and related sitting time in our public schools.  They are calling out to us through the high rates of overweight and obesity among our children and adults.  They are calling out to us through diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, hypertension, dementia, depression, ADD and ADHD, anxiety, insomnia, and other diseases and disorders.

What our schools are confirming with their symptoms is that the degree to which an institution or society values the mind over the body, is the degree to which that institution or society is in a state of dis-ease.

These symptoms are calling out to us, trying to tell us that to realize our full human potential now and to pursue our evolutionary destiny, we need to do what we have been genetically programmed to do over millions of years of evolution: First and foremost, we are physically active beings.

In the big picture, the reason school-reform efforts over the past half century have failed and continue to do so is because they fly in the face of the human model.  The very essence of our humanity is telling us one thing, and our well-intentioned but misdirected schools, with their lack of respect for the physical domain in the learning process, are dictating another.

This means that in America’s public-school system, there is a great divide between its educational models and the human model.  To the contrary, and as the research shows, the reason The Arete School of Sport Culture and Wellness will work is because its model is the human model.

The American Sports Institute has proven this.  The ancient Greeks advocated and practiced this.  Great figures throughout history have known this.  Studies over the last 35-40 years have confirmed this.  And current and emerging research is validating this and explaining in detail how it happens.

Conclusion

Given that kids are natural learners, if they are allowed to pursue endeavors they love and that fulfill the very essence of their humanity, their most basic human needs, they will not only find joy and fulfillment in the learning process, but their performance will be at a high level. And, if the whole-child environment in which all this takes place is supportive, challenging, engaging, and includes physical, mental, emotional, social, and environmental wellness, then positive results are almost guaranteed.

The Arete School is being created with the love of learning and the whole child as its focus, including the full integration of the physical domain in all aspects of the learning process. In this way, a true and lasting model of educational transformation will be established. This transformational model will be applicable to any school or school system if its educators so desire it.

At one time in Western civilization, at the height of the Athenian era in ancient Greece, sport was considered to be a part of the arts, humanities, and sciences, and the physical domain was valued equally with the mental.

At the American Sports Institute, we envision a time when sport will return to its rightful place of honor in the arts, humanities, and sciences, and when physical education and wellness will assume more integral and respected positions in the educational enterprise.  For it may well be that sport, physical education, and wellness, in the proper context, just may provide the best possible path to personal enlightenment and social transformation in this age, including the transformation of America’s cherished public-school system—the beacon of our democracy, the citadel of our freedom, the champion of our equality.

Welcome to The Arete School of Sport Culture and Wellness.