There are 321 fifth-graders pouring into the Kaiser High School gym and Denise Darval-Chang is in her element. She always wanted to be a Physical Education teacher and dropped plans for an accounting major to get a phys ed degree instead. She has been teaching PE in different capacities for 32 years. Her son is studying to be a PE teacher. She loves this.

“If we taught our kids to take better care of themselves, how to handle stress, how to make smart choices …, ” she shrugs, but it’s not an “I don’t know” shrug. It’s an “isn’t it obvious” shrug. If we taught kids those skills, there may be fewer problems in the world.

For the past 14 years, Darval-Chang has been the Department of Education’s health and PE resource teacher for the Honolulu District. She provides equipment, curriculum, workshops and training for teachers and administrators in 55 schools on Oahu. Each fall, she administers a fitness test to fifth-graders in her district, assessing things like strength, endurance and flexibility. Then in the spring, she holds fitness meets like the one at Kaiser High School last week so students can measure their progress.

The gym is buzzing with activity, but it is not chaos. The students are excited but focused. About sixty volunteers help Darval-Chang get every child through each of the seven stations — things like standing long jump and pushups. The volunteers don’t just organize and supervise. They encourage and inspire.

At the “pacer,” where students run the width of the gym every time a bell sounds, volunteers from the Navy run alongside the fifth-graders. As more students drop out, more Navy sailors join in. Just their presence encourages the last few students to keep going, and several fifth-graders make it all the way to 75 laps.

“Sometimes, you see kids give up after 10 laps,” Darval-Chang says. “There’s just no resilience in them.”

Darval-Chang does four of these fitness meets throughout her district, bringing together fifth-graders from different schools. The results are meant for the students to understand where they perform relative to national standards of fitness, but they also paint a larger picture for someone like Darval-Chang, who is very passionate about a healthy community.

“Our schools in less affluent areas have lower scores,” she says, pointing to data on aerobic capacity, upper-body strength, flexibility. This bothers her. “In affluent areas, they’re playing club soccer, they have gymnastics lessons after school. We as a community have to step up and give schools more support for health and wellness.”

She gets irritated if asked if she teaches stuff like nutrition and sex ed. “Those are TOPICS,” she said. “Health ed is about SKILLS. It’s about decision-making, goal setting, good choices. We use skills to drive the topics. We teach the hard stuff. Teaching how to make good choices is hard, but kids need those tools in their pockets.”

She wants kids to have real recess where they run around and have fun, not be kept in as punishment. She wants kids to choose a banana over a doughnut. She wants them to know how to stand up for their own well-being. She wants as much effort and emphasis put on health and physical education as there is on academics. She wants the community to help.

As the event winds down and each group completes its last fitness station, the kids are sweaty but smiling. Darval-Chang points out how calm and happy the kids seem after running around. “We have to teach kids to take care of themselves and to advocate for their own health.”

The rain has let up, so Darval-Chang decides the students should go out to the new Kaiser track for a relay race. Get them outside before they have to go back to their desks.

“Healthy children make healthy learners,” she says. And then she’s off, a big group of kids following her into the sun.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.