The Benefits Of Physical Activity In Schools

For years, Americans have been told that exercising and staying active is imperative to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In general, this fact holds true for all generations and age groups, including the youth of today. Children simply need to exercise and participate in more physical activities in order to maintain a high level of health. The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools suggests that, “one of the leading causes of this epidemic (childhood obesity) is a marked decline in physical activity and athletic participation” (“Athletics in Schools”). Childhood fascinations with watching television, playing video games, and browsing the internet are just a few of the sedentary hobbies taking over children’s free time to be active. Therefore, mandating physical activities in schools across the country will effectively reduce the frequency of this major, obesity health crisis in young students. Understandably, a plethora of factors cause and influence children to become overweight and obese, but working to fix each evident problem will, in the end, contribute to finally ending the developing childhood health crisis.

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

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.

Think of it, kids only go to Physical Education or “gym” class every other day of the week. So that is about two or three times a week. Gym class only lasts about an hour of the day, and for some students, this is the only physical exercise that they have. When kids come home from school, they usually just sit down on the couch and watch TV until dinner time, study, and then play video games late at night, and then go to bed. The way we can get kids to develop a habit of more physical exercise is having gym class every day instead of just two to three. Also, instead of kids playing games that involve little to no activity, Schools should have kids focus on things like getting your body moving like running, yoga or sports games like baseball, football or volleyball. Things like this that kids can look forward to doing everyday may potentially lead to a child more encouraged to play with a ball afterschool and find a new hobby instead of sitting at home on the

A. What was studied? (theoretical framework) The time allocation for physical education school-based physical activity is often replaced with other classes in an effort to increase children’s academic performance. However, a growing body of literature suggests that physical activity either had no effect on academic performance or that it enhanced it..

Not only do schools offer unhealthy foods for children, but most do not offer the required amount of physical activity. Most adolescents fall short of the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommendation of at least one hour of aerobic activity every day. Only 18% of students in high school met that recommendation in 2007. All schools need to require some sort of a physical activity class. In 2009 only 33% took daily physical education classes. (CDC 2) Needless to say, schools play a very crucial role in the problem of childhood obesity. Physical Activity in schools could be a huge key in helping fix this problem.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) note that when children participate in the recommended level of physical activity of at least 60 minutes per day multiple health benefits ensue. Nevertheless, since the creation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) increasing focus has been dedicated to bridging the achievement gap among students and less emphasis has been placed on non-academic curriculum such as physical education. Research has shown that approximately 3.8% of elementary schools provide formal physical education with this percentage steadily declining as children continue onto middle and high school. This decrease in physical activity is in line with reports from the CDC which estimate that one third of children in the United States are overweight and, within those cases, the CDC has documented that children who are overweight have higher absentee rates, have poorer health and experience early signs of mental illness all of which have an impact on academic performance.

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

It is very important to develop the younger population, such as elementary kids, physically and mentally. Studies have shown students who were more in shape tended to perform better on math and reading tests than the less active students (Pfaff, 2015). Studies also suggest that kids having recess or a physical education class during school hours is very powerful for

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!

First, physical activity in school would help students to improve their rate of academic learning. Children who are physically active would perform, retain, absorb and pay attention better at school and home, than students who are out of shape. ‘A study, conducted by Bryan Mc Cullick, a kinesiology professor at the University of Georgia, examined all 50 of the United States and found six states where elementary schools followed recommended physical education at the middle school level, and no states had strong enough regulations at the high school level.” This

In 2008, 30.2% of youth ages 6 to 12 were active to a healthy level through sports(“Facts”). This shows that some kids are getting the minimum amount of physical activity. To raise this level, all kids should include sports in their daily life. All kids should be engaged in sports. Regular activity is required for good health and high school athletes are more likely to attend college.

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.

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