Pe In Schools

On Tuesday we started a debate over if we are for recess and if we aren’t. I was on the pro side of the debate. With doing this debate we found out a lot of reasons why maybe recess isn’t such a good idea and why it is a good idea. For the pro side we found that recess provides an unstructured break that gives children discretionary time to engage in physical activity. We also learned that recess can be held anywhere. Recess plays an important role in a comprehensive school physical activity program and can provide a portion of the activity that a child needs every day to maintain health. We also told the con group that children learn through play. Free play allows children the opportunity to be themselves and use their imaginations. The con

The general argument made by Steve Rushin in his work “Give the Kids a Break,” is that shortening or taking away recess all together for young children is hurting their well overall well being deeply. More specifically, he argues that recess which he refers to as “a universal human need” is being taken away in order to prevent bullying and lawsuits. He writes that taking away recess to prevent bullying is “like scalping in an effort to end dandruff.” He also writes of his own time in elementary school saying that all of his recesses would end “like round 8 of a prize fight.” He goes on to tell his own tales of the many injuries and torture from older kids that he endured reminding us that despite the harshness of the playground he turned out

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.”

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.

Teachers and parents say that recess is just a nuisance and an excuse to be crazy and fight, and it also takes up a lot of time. Some adults also believe that it is unnecessary to older students because adults think that middle schoolers and high schoolers should focus only on schoolwork and grades.

PE is a course that you take in many schools. In most schools PE is required, in other schools it isn’t. PE helps you get some exercise throughout the day, weather if it's yoga, lifting weights, or even playing soccer. PE class should be required course for all students, every year of highschool.

Studies have shown that even though recess is non-instructional time, it serves many important roles in the development of healthy and engaged students. Recess promotes physical activity, problem solving, social interactions, and imagination (Simon

The foundation subjects in the national curriculum comprise of history, geography, modern foreign languages, physical education (PE), religious education, art and design, citizenship, computing, design and technology and music (DFE 2013, p7).

Recess helps create social and other developments. For example according to the American Heart Association they say, “Recess time has been championed as a way to help combat the notions childhood obesity problem. Studies also have shown that the free-play that comes with recess is crucial to a child’s cognitive, social and emotional development” (American Heart Association). This evidence proves

Growing up, it was among the most common of punishments to be told to stay inside during recess. It is still being used in the school where I do my observations. I remember when recess had to be cancelled due to inclimate weather. The rest of the day would drag on. It was hard to focus on school work as I kept glancing out the classroom window at the playground. An article published in the 2011 journal Economics of Education Review cited the findings of Olga Jarrett and her colleagues, who determined that recess increased the amount of work completed in the classroom and it reduced the amount of fidgeting and listlessness in students, promoting behavior management. It’s worth noting that the American Pediatric Association referenced a series of studies that determined the brain was able to process at optimal levels once it had the chance for a break following learning. Then there are the physical benefits of recess to consider. Between tablets, smartphones, laptops, and advanced gaming systems; a majority of the attention grabbing activities for students involve staying inside and being sedentary. Recess offers students an opportunity to get out and be active which they might not be motivated to do after school at home. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education recognize recess as an essential component to helping students participate in physical activity and recommend that students be allowed at least 20 minutes of recess per school day.

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

In the text it says, “When kids get breaks, they are more able to learn.” ( McCarthy,1) Even though not having recess would give schools more time to teach their kids, the kids will not learn as much because they will not be focused on learning because their brains are tired. To add on , the article also says, “Though play at recess, kids learn communication skills such as negotiation, cooperation, sharing and problem solving” (McCarthy,1) By learning skills that you do on the playground, it helps you make better decisions in class which can also help you learn more. Finally, the text states, “Play also gives kids opportunities to practice coping ski, such as perseverance and self control.” (McCarthy, 1) If kids get to have recess, they will learn important skills that let them learn how to push themselves to do better which can help them learn and/or do good on

Are you willing to take four years of PE when you are in high school? Because of the increasing obesity rate in America, it has been proposed that all high schools should require students to earn four PE credits to graduate. According to statistics, 60.1% of adults in Alaska are reported exercising three or more days a week for at least 30 minutes and one of three children are physically active every day.1 High school students should be required to take PE of their own will and not have to take four years.

Another unfortunate hindrance to physical activity in schools is the notion that physical activity takes away from time that could be used for academic studies. This is unjustified however, because children of this age group are unable to sit and concentrate for long periods of time without being able to get up and move (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2010).

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