By: Patrick Whalen, Founder and CEO, Iliad Athletics

Each team of exhausted high schoolers had to carry a log through a 600m long wooded course. The first team to finish had their pick of which log to carry for round two. The training logs are about ten feet long, and while we try to keep them roughly the same size, one of them was clearly larger than the rest.

Log drills were a key part of that morning’s workout with Iliad Athletics, which provides physical education (PE) curricula, training, and consulting to schools, homeschool co-ops, and other educational organizations. Because the logs have rough trunks, no handholds, and require team coordination to manipulate, log drills are always uncomfortable. But the discomfort is the point: the friction reveals character and challenges students to grow.

Something important clicked for those students that morning. When the winning team completed round one, they glanced at each other before their leader said to me, “we’ll take the big one on this round.”

It’s tough to cultivate this kind of character in school—the kind that willingly embraces the challenge, or what Teddy Roosevelt might call the “strenuous life.” Most educators aspire to more for their students than narrow technical proficiency on testable metrics. Metrics are a good way to assess skill development and content mastery—so they rightly engage much of our educational attention. But most of us also hope that our students will grow into fine young people capable of steering their lives virtuously and living with dignity and happiness. In short, we hope they will become men and women of high character.

The reward for cultivating high character in our students might not appear on any standardized test, but it shows up over the course of those students’ lives. And while there’s no easy way to test for character, there are ways to teach and encourage it that are already in place in most schools. The foremost way to test character? PE.

Just as a laboratory provides science students the opportunity to practice concepts they have learned in the classroom, the gymnasium and playing field are laboratories for character. In PE, we don’t simply attach abstract definitions to virtues like courage, grit, and humility. We practice them in innumerable scenarios through well-constructed workouts, games, and challenges.

Of course, every teacher can and should help students develop character, but physical educators simply have more tools at their disposal for educating the whole student than many of their colleagues in the classroom. Most notable among these tools is the body itself: we all have one, it’s concrete and tangible, and it offers real-time feedback. The research is clear that a well-exercised body that has spent enough time outdoors is the best home for an attentive mind.

Excellent PE is a prominent educational force-multiplier, not an after-thought. It should present students with a clear definition of fitness, not a participation trophy or a vague exhortation to “be active.” PE must challenge students to grow and give them the tools to do so. It must teach fundamental movements, run challenging workouts, and benchmark regularly. It must incorporate cognitive challenges, deliberately train for character, and be outdoors as much as possible.

When serving in the Marine Corps, I would learn about Marines new to my command by asking which teacher had the biggest influence on them. It probably won’t surprise you to know that a common response was “my gym teacher,” or “my wrestling coach.”

Yes, graduates attracted to service in the Marines are likely to enjoy physical activity more than most. But I suspect this is not the only reason for their answer. Those coaches and teachers had a lasting influence because they had a natural advantage over other teachers: they trained the whole student—body and mind—which shaped the character. And it was the character development those young Marines remembered.

The word character is derived from the Greek word charassein, meaning to sharpen or engrave.  An excellent PE program led by well-trained and committed teachers offers an opportunity elsewhere absent. It sets the conditions necessary for students to sharpen their sense of what is virtuous and engrave lasting lessons that prepare them to lead honorable lives that contribute to society.  We aspire to no less for every student.

American education is on the verge of a renaissance. Unlocking education freedom and renewing a nationwide drive toward better outcomes will position our next generation of students to succeed in ways that make their parents and predecessors proud. As part of this renaissance, we must raise the bar for PE—and challenge our students to excellence that extends beyond the classroom, a physical excellence they can feel in themselves from head to toe.

Patrick Whalen is Founder and CEO of Iliad Athletics, a provider of physical education curriculum, training, and professional development.