A new program is bringing bike-riding lessons to Boston kindergartners

This week’s Joy Beat is celebrating the introduction of All Kids Bike into Boston Public Schools. The national nonprofit teaches kids to ride bikes by bringing equipment into physical education classes.

BPS Regional Superintendent Kristen Weeks joined GBH’s All Things Considered guest host Saraya Wintersmith to talk about implementing the program this year at West Roxbury’s Beethoven Elementary School and her hopes for the continued expansion of the program. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.

Saraya Wintersmith: So, you’re someone that’s been enchanted with exercise and body movement for years. You’ve got a bachelor’s in sports medicine and a master’s in kinesiology. Is that what motivated you to bring All Kids Bike to Beethoven Elementary School this year, or is there anything else you were hoping to solve besides just getting kids moving?

Kristen Weeks: I think it’s all of the above. I think that physical activity is a true motivator of how we get kids to engage in the classroom more deeply. Allowing exercise and movement into our schools allows students to refocus their energy when needed.

With a background in sports medicine, kinesiology and physical education, I believe that as we teach our children to go out into the world, we need to be preparing them as lifelong learners, and that includes their health side of their wellbeing.

Wintersmith: And tell us about how the program works? And, why kindergarten?

Weeks: So, the program with All Kids Bike is an application process. They have funders that look for opportunities to bring these programs into schools. All 12 schools within my region have applications in.

The kindergarten is because they use the Strider bikes, which are the bikes that have no [pedals]. So they start as balance bikes, and then, as the curriculum progresses, they add the pedals onto the bike to teach the children how to ride.

Starting as early as kindergarten is an opportunity to gain those skills at a really early age, so hopefully they can use it in the community. They can stay active outside of school.

Wintersmith: And tell me, what does it feel like for you watching a kid learn to ride for the first time?

Weeks: What we create is pure joy. That day at the Beethoven, when that curtain opened — I was the one that was pulling the curtain — was just a place of excitement and opportunity. For kids to have a safe place to learn responsible use of a bike, as well as how to navigate the city on a bike, I think is really important.

There are kids who may not have a bike at home. And so if we could teach them a skill that they can learn in school that translates outside of the classroom, that opportunity is fulfilling as an educator, as a mother, to giving back to the community.

Wintersmith: Superintendent Weeks, what can you tell me about plans to expand the program within the other communities that you have? I think you said that you put applications in for all 12 schools within your region — Region 5 — in Boston Public Schools.

Weeks: I’m hoping to have this region-wide. And when I say region-wide, I think about my schools, especially in more diverse communities, and this opportunity for this skill, this lifelong skill, to be embedded in our region. 

We have another school, we just found out, [that] was funded by another funder. That reveal will be in September, I’m super excited about that.

The applications are in. It’s only a $9,000 commitment and it’s a 10-year guarantee of programming. So the bikes have a warranty of 10 years, the program itself — for the 24 bikes, the helmet, the teaching curriculum and the teaching bike — is $9,000. And I think this is a doable thing and a doable ask for partnerships to invest in a skill that’s going to have an impact on so many children.

Wintersmith: And the program just launched in January in Boston, so it might be too early for data. But I wonder whether any teachers so far have told you that they see a change in the kids, anybody behaving differently since the program launched.

Weeks: It’s so funny that you say that because the Beethoven physical education teacher was saying that the second graders and the third graders — they all want to use the bikes! But the program is for the K-0 to K-2 programming. I think it’s created an excitement, now that it’s getting nice out, they’re moving outside as the curriculum progresses. I’m excited!

I will say: The best email I got, we had — over April break — there was a family that traveled outside of Massachusetts and they went to a grandparents’ house and the kid ran into the garage and grabbed the bike and just started riding it. And the mother wrote an email to us, and was like, “I had no idea he learned how to ride a bike in school, and I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity.”

So, creating more experiences like that for children is something that I am hopeful that we can do. And that alone is a piece of data that just makes my heart filled with joy.

Wintersmith: Superintendent Weeks, what has this program taught you about joy?

Weeks: Joy is a thing that we can create on a daily basis, and joy is a place that we can bring to our schools. Schools should be a joyful place, schools should a safe space, and school is a place where — whatever the skill is, from riding a bike to tying the shoe, to learning how to cross in a crosswalk — we need to provide those opportunities for our students. To create lifelong learners that are independent as they move on through our system and through our community to be productive residents of the city of Boston and community partners.

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