Healthy habits & good choices

MANILA, Philippines - When school opens in June, students of Diliman Preparatory School (DPS) along Commonwealth in Quezon City may find themselves hopping through a line of old tires from the school gate to their classrooms.

These tires are parts of an obstacle course that will be set up inside the campus to get the pupils into physical activity habits.

“We’ll have nice obstacle courses where kids can choose to hop, skip and jump before they get into their classrooms,” says DPS president and chief executive officer Anna Dominique “Nikki” Coseteng, but points out that they would not do away with regular pathways.

Coseteng does not see a problem if no one passes through the obstacle course. “In the beginning, maybe only 10 kids will pass there, that’s okay. Even if nobody would want to pass there, that’s okay.”

She believes that modifying a lifestyle does not come overnight. What is important is that the children will have a choice of which path to take – literally.

Known for promoting a healthy lifestyle, DPS has been tapped by the Department of Health (DOH) as the pilot school for its Philippine Health Promotion Program through Healthy Places (PHPP).

Health-promoting school is defined by the World Health Organization as “a place where all members of the school community work together to provide students with integrated and positive learning experiences, which promote and protect their health, which includes formal and informal health curricula, safe and healthy school environment, promotion and maintenance of adequate health services and involvement of the family and community.”

DPS fits this description, with a strong education program that includes sports and arts and its advocacy for a healthy lifestyle. The school was founded by Coseteng’s mother, the late Alicia Coseteng, together with then University Philippines International School principal Felisa Generoso and Irma Apelo.

“The DOH recognized us when Sec. Enrique Ona visited one of our swimming competitions in Rizal Memorial. He saw how the kids were doing so well,” shares Coseteng, adding that DPS has already produced champion swimmers. The school also excels in taekwondo, with Japoy Lizardo winning a bronze medal in the Asian Games.

Coseteng finds it alarming that today, majority of children do not engage in outdoor sports because of computers and video games. They also have a diet that is high in salt, sugar and cholesterol because of fast food and junk food. The former senator is worried that we are producing a generation of Filipinos who are suffering from obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and other lifestyle illnesses.

Coseteng says she believes that aside from educating the students academically, the school should also take part in introducing good health practices among them. “What’s the use of students who are good in Science and Mathematics but who are sick, who are at risk of developing serious illnesses later in life?”

Since many habits are acquired during childhood, DPS wants to inculcate the importance of a healthy diet and regular exercise among their pupils. But Coseteng believes that a healthy lifestyle cannot be imposed.

“So what we do is to start making the kids make the decisions themselves,” she says. “It won’t work if you remove the soft drinks or the junk food from the school if the students could easily find them at home or at the grocery.”

For Coseteng, it is much more effective if the children would know the ill-effects of a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet and, therefore, they could decide for themselves how they should live their lives.

“It will become more successful if the child will tell the parents, ‘I prefer to eat mango and you don’t have to cut it for me. I can either slice the mango or peel it myself’,” she says. The goal of the DPS is to equip students with knowledge, habits and skills that could sustain them wherever they go in the future.

According to Jennifer Valdez, student development coordinator at DPS, the school would be strengthening its programs “for a healthier DPS.”

This will be done by integrating healthy lifestyle in the curriculum through Science, English, physical education, civics, culture and home economics and livelihood education subjects.

“For example, in the cooking class, the kids would prepare salad on their own. And then in the classroom, the teachers would say that they have to eat fruits,” Valdez relates. DPS also has activities where parents are involved.

Coseteng boasts that DPS has had a “cafeteria make over” wherein all concessionaires are required to sell nutritious meals and to make the daily meal balanced. The school also observes “meatless” Mondays and Fridays.

School facilities are adorned with visuals reminding the students to observe healthy lifestyle. It also has a “junk food alert” program wherein everyone in the DPS community is encouraged to avoid food like “salty chips, very sweet candies, noodles with MSG, preserved food and canned meat with high sodium content.”

Visuals around campus encourage students not to smoke and to limit their time watching television and using computers.

The school has a gymnasium for athletic training and competitions in sports like basketball, futsal, volleyball and taekwondo. It is also equipped with three swimming pools.

Coseteng says DPS believes that once-a-week physical education is not enough to instill the importance of sports and other physical activities in the minds of the children. Because of this, DPS students have a 10-minute daily routine that includes warm-up exercises.

DPS, she claims, has always been “excellent” in swimming and taekwondo. “We have students that go overseas for international taekwondo championships. And recently our basketball team has been energized.”

“We cannot really insist to box in people... The best way to teach our children is to let them know what is good and bad for them. It’s not only about being good in class but we also have to make sure that they grow up as good and healthy persons,” she adds.