Benefits of Physical Education in Elementary and Early Childhood Settings
Tracy Linwood
PED 212: Foundation of Movement & Motor Activities
Instructor Carly Davenport
June 6, 2012
Benefits of Physical Education in Elementary and Early Childhood Settings
The need for quality physical education in elementary schools is an important needed foundation for young children to maintain a future healthy lifestyle. The benefits of having physical education in elementary schools are endless. For example, physical education helps fight childhood obesity, lower the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and promote active children to be active adults. However, the rhetoric surrounding physical education in these schools are
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However, they noted that schools without the funds to hire properly trained physical education teachers will have to rely on current staff members to cover the new physical education classes (Borland, 2011). Unfortunately, this becomes a problem in most schools, because teachers feel like there is not enough time to focus on physical education because they are burden by producing test scores also. However, it is not a lost cause. Teachers can implement physical education in their classroom in simple methods of the lesson they are teaching. For example, in math, teachers can have students count their jumps, while they jump up and down, or do jump in jacks when spelling out words. Schools are evaluated on test scores for core curriculums like math, writing, and reading, not body and fitness. Understandably, those subjects are very important as well as physical education.
Research has shown that there are ways to alleviate the budget constraints for physical education. There are four grants in particular to help. One is the Carol M. White Physical Education Program, the main program by the federal government for elementary schools. The grant is given to community organizations that distribute funds to assist schools with their physical education and after school programs. The funds are given to Local Education Agencies, or LEAs, that then distribute money to schools in
First of all, students do not have much knowledge about the different fitness components; they do not understand the relation between the fitness components and health. If students acquire the background knowledge about fitness, it could improve the class engagement and motivation, and increase the independent drive to exercise. Second barrier to students’ achievement is the lack of motivation to be active, and even more difficult, to specific fitness activities, such as sit-ups and push-ups. In today’s society, students spend more time sitting in front a screen and less time moving. Parent and school today have more responsibility making sure the children get enough physical activity. According to the New York Times (2016), “early school physical education (PE) programs can make a significant difference, and the earlier these routines are learned the more likely they will be carried forth into a healthy adulthood”. Another barrier that prevents students’ success is the loss of instructional time due to discipline problems. The classes are too big, with many diverse students with individual problems, which are difficult to address when these issues are from very different backgrounds. Finally, there is not enough support from home affecting not only physical education, but
As an elective class, I have from gifted to LEP students; from native English speakers to ELLs (Beginning and Intermediate levels). Physical Education plays a critical role in educating the whole student. Like other academic courses, physical education is based upon rigorous national standards that define what students should know and be able to do as a result of participation. Physical education is unique to the school curriculum as it is the only program that provides students with opportunities to learn motor skills, develop fitness, and gain understanding about the importance of physical activity. My students are provided with an individualized, developmentally appropriate, and personally challenging instructional program that increases their knowledge, confidence, skills, and
A large amount of schools physical activities are provoking economic complications. According to an article by Amanda Ripley, “New bleachers would cost half a million dollars” (11). A school in Premont, Texas cut off their science lab which was infested in mold; yet, maintained their their after school sports (Ripley, 11). This supports the idea that schools are spending an excessive amount of money on their physical education that should be spent for educational purposes. This evidence proves that districts are spending truckloads of money on their after school physical education.
S. Surgeon General has declared childhood obesity to be an “epidemic” with significant adverse health consequences, including vascular disease and Type 2 diabetes that significantly raise health care costs for youth.” (The Impact of Physical Education 3) “The U.S. Surgeon General attributes the rise in childhood obesity, in part to, school cutbacks in Physical Education (PE), and urges all school systems to mandate daily PE that last at least one hundred and fifty minutes per week for elementary schoolchildren.” (The Impact of Physical Education 3) Research shows exercise aids children in maintaining a healthy body weight, strong and healthy muscles, strong bones and joints, improves sleep, school attendance is improved, self-esteem is better, and they are less likely to develop anxiety and depression. Those are just a few benefits of physical activity. Schools require subjects such as Math, Science, English, and Social Studies in order for children to graduate. Therefore, physical education should be a required course. Not only will adding physical education requirements help children physically but also, studies show that exercise helps with brain stimulation, which will help with test score and understanding in the classroom. Physical education will not only help with obesity but also improve some other problems schools deal with because of obese
Finding a way to get students more active is a major concern for the American population. Elementary children in the United States are becoming less and less active each year. Since 1980, the childhood obesity rates, ranging from the ages of pre-k to pre-teenage have tripled in number— Six to eleven-year-old obese rates have more than doubled, going from an acute seven percent to outstanding seventeen percent. The rates
The Margaret Eaton School (MES) played an important role in Canadian physical education during a period of time known as the “golden age” for women’s sport in Canada. This essay will discuss how Margaret Eaton School came to be and why it is considered one of the leading schools in the development of women’s physical education in Canada in 1901, with the help of Emma Scott Raff and Margaret Eaton. The school started out as “The School of Expression” focusing on theatre and physical culture, and later (1925) shifted its views to focus solely on physical education. I plan to argue that from 1901 to 1942, the Margaret Eaton School played an innovative role in Canada in the development of physical education by offering women a comprehensive
Over the last 30-40 years, the amount and intensity of exercise has gradually declined. Few children in the United States have actually met the recommended “sixty minutes of vigorous exercise” per day (Institute of Medicine, 2013). Although most states and districts have policies pertaining to physical education, these programs lack reinforcement and are often considered weak. Physical education has slowly declined throughout the years, and the the purpose of encouraging students to make physical activity part of their daily lifestyle has been lost. Recent research from Cornell University has found that the average high school gym class consists of students being active for an average of only sixteen minutes! This is nowhere near the recommended sixty minutes of physical exercise. Physical education has been pushed to the side while academics have been prioritised. P.E. classes have become overlooked by society as a whole. Students simply see it as a courses used only for socializing, or to avoid academic courses such as Algebra, Biology, and History. While teachers no longer encourage students to be active, this should not be the path in which we take physical education. The importance of exercise and physical activity goes beyond the classroom with is proven benefits in memory, cognition and attention which are skills that can be used for daily life activities. In recent times, many programs are popping up across the country to emphasize the importance of being active!
Physical education is important because it is beneficial for a person’s overall health. There are many problems that could potentially arise from non-physical activity such as increase in chronic disease, poor bone development, and obesity. These problems could be combated if physical education was part of the required curriculum. According to Lee (2007), physical activity can lower the risk of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes in adults. It is important that children learn the importance of their health at an
II. In order to improve the physical education system in high schools, the California Department
During childhood our body and mind changes very fast. I believe that nowadays parents focus more on the brain developement of their children than their physical activity. When I was a little girl - over 20 years ago - we spent most of our time outside playing, running and enjoying fresh air and being in movement. Physical activity of children can secure them health and well being in their adulthood as well as teach them a lot of very importants aspects like social relations and behaviors in different situations.
“Physical education hopes to accomplish, to engage all students, not just the athlete elite, in fun activities that will instill a lifelong commitment to fitness.” (Johnson, 264). Physical education in the classroom can be a vital steeping stone to the way that teenagers think about fitness. Lifelong fitness is something that everyone should be guaranteed, it mainly depends on the experience that a teenager has. Like many other subjects in school, the
Obesity is the condition of being seriously overweight. It is now considered a global health epidemic by the World Health Organization (2000) (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2010). Physical activity is important to children in the middle childhood age group because a staggering amount of children have become overweight in the last few decades and teachers play a role in preventing obesity by becoming a positive role model,
There is nothing more important than health, especially in this day and age. It’s concerning that only 29 percent of high school students surveyed by the CDC (2011) had participated in at least 60 minutes of physical activity on all seven days before the survey. The CDC also noted that only 31 percent of these high school students attended physical education class daily. Only 8 percent of elementary schools, 6.4 percent of middle schools, and 5.8 percent of high schools provide daily physical education to all of its students (SHPPS, 2000). The government is missing the fact that physical education can actually improve test scores, not the opposite.
From prehistoric times, stamina and strength were key to man's ability to find food and survive. As time went on, other ancient civilizations such as China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome adopted this practice known as phsycal education.
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