DECATUR - A windy day in Fairview Park and a silly game that includes everyone and requires no particular athletic skills is a winning combination.

Dennis School students watched as physical education teacher Scott Davidson demonstrated.

"You run out to the stick, or the baton or whatever you call it," he said, running a few feet. "Then you put your forehead on it and turn around three times. Then," he finished with a grin, "you get dizzy." After turning around and, it was hoped, without falling down from being dizzy, each child would run back to their team and tag the next person to go.

Once the youngsters started the relay, Davidson could relax for a few moments. No one kept score; it didn't matter who finished first. What mattered was that everyone participated. Davidson is a big believer in regular, organized PE classes for all kids, but also in teaching kids that being active is fun, so they'll develop the habit and continue being active into adulthood.

He's also involved with Walk Across Illinois. The program is a statewide initiative to encourage everyone to be more active and to walk the equivalent of 167 miles in a year - the distance from the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan.

In Decatur schools, a pilot program is under way to get kids involved. Every classroom and PE teacher received a binder full of ideas for activities to get kids moving and to drink more water, said Joan Leafman, who helped write the curriculum.

A recent report on the childhood wellness index found improvements in American children's mortality rate, declines in lead poisoning, fewer women smoking while pregnant and gains in math and science scores, but the one area that didn't show improvement was children's overall health.

Childhood obesity and low birth weight are four times as prevalent as they were in the 1960s and three times higher for children ages 2 to 5, said Rob Biscegli, national executive director of Action for Healthy Kids in Skokie.

Physical education teachers and other school personnel involved in school wellness programs attended the Illinois School Wellness from A to Z Conference at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel on Tuesday. Robert Pangrazi, a professor of exercise science and physical education at the University of Arizona, was the keynote speaker.

Pangrazi spent more than 40 years teaching physical education and told the participants that PE is not enough.

"For the last 50 years, the United States has emphasized fitness as a way to battle obesity," he said. "I'm not against fitness. I'm against using it as an outcome measure."

"Fitness," he said, is 70 percent dependent on genetics. Some people - kids included - will never be able to pass a fitness test, and preadolescent youth don't respond to training and don't improve fitness levels. Any improvement is due to the kids' growing older and stronger, not because of training.

Instead of emphasizing athletic skills, he said, schools should supplement PE classes by teaching habits that will make kids more active and improve their nutritional behavior and sun safety practices. Any activity is better than none, and even moderate activity can make a significant improvement in overall health.

"That is an outcome you can achieve," he said. "It doesn't have to hurt. 'No pain, no gain' is the worst saying we've ever come up with."

Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.