What has exercise got to do with it?

I just got back from working out, and my brain feels clearer than it has all day-- a day of staring at a computer screen and sitting in a cube-like office... Exercising freed my mind to think, to intuit, to wander...

Recently a friend let me borrow John Medina's book Brain Rules (a great read, by the way) and one thing that struck me was Medina's comment that during the period of the greatest evolution and adaptation of the brain, humans were walking 12 miles a day--- okay, guys, that is quite a hike. One of the hardest physical challenges I ever undertook was to hike about 12 miles down and up the Grand Canyon. And when I got back I had to lie prone on a bed sipping from a straw for about 2 hours. Twelve miles a day! And we wonder why kids have trouble concentrating! Their bodies are not doing (and can't do) what they were made to do, and their brains are wallowing in inactivity.

This winter at the National Title One Conference in Washington, D.C., I heard Disney's American teacher of the Year, Ron Clark, describe the vision and mission of his Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. Guess what? Key to everything they do is movement! They dance, sing, do hand motions, slide on slides and shimmy down ropes while they learn..... Yes, this is hard to "manage," no doubt. Kids may get hurt or become "too loud and boisterous" or oh my gosh, PLAY. (Wait, wasn't that one of Pink's conceptual senses that are most valued today? A sense of play, of activity, of creativity-- the mind and body working together?) But we have to stop viewing schools as places designed for adults and begin designing them for students. (And I think I know quite a few teachers who would enjoy the fun as well.)

So the "brain"school must have plenty of opportunity for physical play-- indoors and out-- and not just typical competive sports-- let's include slides, swings, ropes, treadmills... what if students walked on treadmills as they worked on the computer or discussed issues, as many creative people do as they work?

I just got a vision of  Jeremy Piven as "Ari Gold" on  HBO's Entourage, talking on his phone, making deals...WALKING or RIDING his stationary bike or on the treadmill... creative people MOVE.