FOXNews.com: Missouri children move to make jumping jacks official exercise

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Missouri children move to make jumping jacks official exercise Mar 31st 2012, 17:44 One-two-three, one-two-four … . A group of western Missouri elementary-schoolers are helping move a bill through the state legislature that would make jumping jacks the official state exercise. The Missouri House has already passed the legislation sponsored by Democratic Rep. Pat Conway, and it is now being considered by the Senate. The effort by students at Pershing Elementary School began four years ago with a letter-writing campaign that captured the attention of Conway and has continue through the often painstaking legislative process with four-hour pilgrimages to the state capital to talk with state lawmakers and watch them debates. "This is great idea, and I'm happy to help the children," Conway told Fox News late Friday night. Pershing principal Tara Wells said students came upon the jumping jacks idea while visiting the Pershing Memorial Museum and Leadership Achieves, the halfway point between their homes in St. Joseph and the state capital in Jefferson City. While at the museum, they learned the general had in fact invented the ever-popular, albeit old-school exercise. "Not only does learning about the legislative process teach them problem solving, it also teaches them that getting something you really want often takes time," Wells said. Though students couldn't travel to the statehouse Wednesday to watch House lawmakers pass the bill, they listened intently to a tape of the floor debate, Wells added. Missouri would become only the second state to name an official exercise, following Maryland, which chose walking in 2008. Conway said the students are learning about government and the legislative process, in addition to championing a health idea. "They learn about lawmaking," he told a local NPR affiliate. "They learn how the process works, they learn you can't just put a piece of legislation out there, that you have to sponsor that legislation, and you have to lobby that legislation." The bill would honor native Missourian John J. Pershing, the Army general credited with inventing the jumping jack as a training exercise for cadets at West Point in the late 1800s.

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