Be Active and Achieve: A Research Essay on Physical Education and Movement in an Elementary Level Classroom

Schools are the foundation of a child’s development years. (Bluearth, 2017) Most children and adolescents on average spend approximately 6 hours of 175 days over 12 years. This makes school the ideal setting for not only providing and promoting physical activity, but also for increasing and sustaining it at the population level. Engaging in regular physical activity gives children and younger people the opportunity to develop self-efficacy, respect for both themselves and others, and the opportunity to learn and push personal boundaries outside the classroom environment. Children who participate in sport and are physically active at a young age are more likely to become physically active adults.

Physical activity has not only physical benefits. It also has a very big impact on social-emotional and cognitive aspects of child’s live. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “The development of a physically active lifestyle is a goal for all children. Traditional team and competitive sports may promote healthy activity for selected youth. Individual sports, noncompetitive sports, lifetime sports, and recreational activities expand the opportunity for activity to everyone. The opportunity to be active on a regular basis, as well as the enjoyment and competence gained from activity, may increase the chances that a physically active lifestyle will be adopted.”

In school, children get the opportunity to take part in physical activities. Physical activities are generally classified as indoor activity and outdoor activity. A few types of physical activities children get to take part in includes aerobic exercise in which it is the most common one where children play soccer or walk from place to place and bone strengthening in which children run, jump and skip. It is said that physical activities do have a positive impact on the children’s academics as well as cognitive development.

This will impact on a child or young person’s intellectual development as they will be more alert and ready to learn, physical activity is also likely to encourage social and emotional development as schools will provide sports clubs and after school activities, giving children and young people the opportunity to socialise and progress in self-esteem.

Across the country schools have been cutting out gym or recess from their daily schedules. Teachers and school districts desire better test scores from their students. Therefore, they want to have their students study and practice more. But in fact, studies suggest that adding a physical activity program or increasing the amount of time students have physical activity may be more beneficial to students and their test scores. There have been thousands of studies on this topic. Some involve recess, others gym, and new studies are centered around taking breaks in class. All this research has shown that activity can help kids with their test scores. In most studies, more than 50% of students’ test scores were positively impacted by increasing the amount of activity during the school day (“Association” 6).

Physical activity also has benefits for children's social and emotional development and cognitive development. These benefits include being part of a team and making friends through group sports, which have a major impact on social and emotional development. The effect of obesity on children is closely linked to many bad health habits such as diet, smoking and drug use which in turn can affect a child's academic performance (Goran et al., 1999). Physical activity, if encouraged at a young age, can reduce the likelihood of children developing these behaviours and focus on their academic performance and cognitive development. As children in this age range are in their fundamental development stage, it is important that educators and parents alike, teach children about the importance of physical activity at a young age in order to prevent health and social well-being problems in their adult years.

Many children in America do not receive the needed amount of physical activity needed to maintain a healthy weight. Approximately17% of children are obese (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2016) and one in three children are overweight or obese (American Heart Association, 2016). This is a local and national emergency that needs to be addressed to keep children healthy, prevent morbidities, and control the costs that are associated with being overweight or obese. Pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension in children is at an all time high. However, research indicates that only 3.8 percent of American elementary schools provide daily physical education (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2007). This paper will discuss the importance of daily physical education in our schools.

Research has found that when kids get enough exercise, their learning skills, attitude and behavior at school improve. The same is true when they have access to healthy food choices. By helping kids be more physically active and eat well, we help them succeed academically, better preparing them for lifelong success.

America's children are not getting enough exercise, and the health risks due to obesity are becoming epidemic in nature. Even First Lady Michelle Obama is supporting an initiative to help children become more active and to provide for exercise (at least 30-60 minutes per day) in all schools. Even limited amounts of exercise can have great health benefits. When humans exercise, the brain produces chemicals that help enhance mood, limit cravings for sugars, and contribute to healthier joints, muscles, the heart, and kidneys. In turn, this translates into more productive work time, the ability to sleep better, increase memory, and reduce dependence on medications. Children are so vulnerable to this health risk that if it continues, over 60% of graduating seniors will be clinically obese. Written by a medical journalist, the book is designed for the lay reader but has a number of documented scholarly sources.

Similarly, the National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC) stressed the importance of physical activity in cognitive development, refining motor skills and socialization among young children. While, research highlighted the importance of physical activity and education it has been inconsistent in establishing a direct link between physical activity and academic performance. This analysis will investigate whether children who participate in physical activity are more likely to succeed academically. I hypothesize that children who participate in physical activity, on average, will perform better academically.

First, children need to continue physical education because of the growing rates of childhood obesity. Due to the shortened school hours most schools are shutting their P.E. programs down. Nutritionists, pediatricians, and American Heart Association are opposing a bill, stating that taking away physical education is dangerous because obesity affects around 30% of the nation’s children (Carollo, 2011). Taking away physical education at a young age could potentially result in a high risk of bad habits and an even higher risk of obesity (Carollo, 2011). Research

It is clear that childhood obesity is a rising epidemic in the United States, and one without a cure. The focus on this topic needs to be shifted to preventative measures in order to halt the increasing numbers. There are significant health consequences that come along with being overweight or obese, most of which do not show up until later in life, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, sleep apnea, and type II diabetes. On top of the risk of health conditions, carrying excess weight has also been linked to negatively impacting a child’s life psychologically and socially (Cawley, 2013). An extensive number of children are not getting any physical activity outside of school, advocating that physical education programs in schools across the nation need to be implemented to get young children moving. In order to impact the increasing numbers of childhood obesity, physical education classes need to be structured so that moderate to vigorous physical activity is attained for the majority of the class and that children are compliant with the activities in physical education classes. However, a staggering amount of research proves that participation in physical education classes will contribute to lower levels of obesity in children- when conducted at the recommended dosage- by getting children active, by teaching children knowledge of necessary health

So, if schools give children at least one hour of physical exercising they may help them enjoy and refresh their mind from studying all day. The biggest sport that American children like is playing soccer. Children can play soccer everywhere and at any time. Swimming is an enjoyable sport for boys and girls. Swimming can be at the beach or in indoor pools. These activities are good for children who have a weight problem. Soccer and swimming build muscles and make the body full of energy. Soccer is the most sport popular in all the world. It’s good for children to work as a group. Soccer has many physical movements that make the children run behind the ball and use their legs to control the ball. Most children like to play soccer because it’s an easy game and they can spend the time playing while they burn fat. Most children like to swim at the beach or in a swimming pool. Swimming is a great exercise because it’s makes all the muscles move like arms and legs and makes your breath longer. And at the same time children will enjoy swimming in the pool. If schools give their students this one hour they may find skills in some students that they don’t know about. And this makes schools support the students who have skills and gives them the self-confidence. Also, it makes them work hard to improve their skill because children who are overweight have less confident. Also because

It is believed that infants who are earlier active tend to be proactive later in life. Many studies have suggested that it is acceptable for infants who are stimulated earlier in life to remain stimulus in early childhood, late childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It is also understood that perceived competence of physical activity within early childhood determine whether or not a child will remain physically active in their adolescence years. Within the Adolescence, it is common to see boys and girls stop participating in sports. It is believe that the discontinuation may be caused by the body going through changes, lost of interest in sports, unable to compete at the same level as their friends, peer-pressure and many other facts. When a child continues to be physically active in their late childhood and into adolescence, it is concluded that they would live an active adult life.

In the modern schools, too many elementary schools are so centered academics and don’t focus on the well-being of the students. The school systems also don’t realize that physical activity can help students perform better in the classrooms. In the recent years, there has been a worldwide tendency to reduce school-based physical education in favor of academic subjects. Given the beneficial effects of exercise and the disadvantages of a sedentary lifestyle, cutbacks in physical education lessons are not near as productive as people think. Systematic reviews provide clear