A 1994 CDC study revealed that while an overwhelming majority of gym teachers devote multiple class periods to traditional sports such as basketball and baseball, they are far less likely to encourage lifetime fitness activities such as jogging, aerobic dance and swimming. A new study of middle school students in California revealed that daily physical education classes provided the students with a total of only 25 minutes of vigorous activity per week. Hundreds of miles separate communities, many heavily impacted by alcoholism. Unemployment often exceeds 50 percent. Only half of the homes have telephones.
Computers are even more scarce.
Only 9 percent of Indian homes have PCs compared to 47 percent for whites, according to the American Indian College fund. 8 percent of Indians have Internet access. Because of poverty and inaccessibility, the digital revolution threatens to bypass the 2.4 million in 558 tribes. Two Illinois teachers and their middle school students expect hundreds of thousands of visitors to their virtual museum on CTCWeb. The museum is alive through virtual reality movies of individual pieces of art as well as classrooms full of mummies.