The Benefits Of Sedentary Living In Public Education

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

promote physical activity, there is still a very clear problem. Children are being given all these opportunities yet still failing to be active. This is due to technology. “On average, Canadian children spend about six hours every weekday and seven hours daily on weekends watching TV, chatting online or engaging in virtual games” (Pichard, 2012). For children, this is far too much time in front of a screen. If we eliminated screen time, and personal devices, 73% of children would be less sedentary (Participaction, 2016). The fact that PE is not an everyday class is also a problem, the more. Physical Education should not be looked at as just a “free” class. Yes, it can be fun but it was also important to get a child moving throughout the day. Gym not only benefits a child’s health, but also the social aspect (Mooney, 2014). PE class is one of the only times children can laugh, talk and play without breaking a school

“Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading; I will rather say more necessary, because health is worth more than learning,” by Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. The importance of exercising is critical, especially for the youth. Without the proper amount of exercising, kids are at risk with for serious health problems like heart disease, and cancer.

It is recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that children receive at a minimum of 60-minutes of cumulative physical activity per day. Many children do not get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity per day. Regular physical activity during adolescence has many beneficial factors including, healthy bones, weight control, and prevention of many chronic diseases (CDC, 2013). Physical activity can be playing a simple game of tag, or advanced as an organized sport, as long as it gets the child up, off the couch, and active. Despite this recommendation, many children fail to receive adequate physical activity. In 2006, only 27.1% of students in the United States had fulfilled the recommended amount of physical activity (CDC, 2013). In 2012, 56.3% of eighth grade students in Multnomah County “watched TV, or played video games, or used the Internet for 3 or more hours daily”(OHA, 2012). With an eight hour school day, three hours of video games, and at least an hour of homework adds up to 12 hours of the day, that with family time, meals, and “leisure” time, doesn’t allocate much time for physical activity. The lack of physical activity, combined with extremely long periods of sedentary behavior, coupled with junk food and sugary

Most believe that having exercising facilities in the community would keep people healthy, but research has proved that wrong. Kids today are not exercising and people are not taking advantage of the exercising facilities the community offers. Researchers studies were on, “A boy that lived near an exercising facility as supposed to lose weight, but instead did the opposite,” (Problems for Kid). Kids are not as active as they

It is important for people to recognize the causes of childhood obesity. Physical inactivity is one of the major contributors to obesity in children. Therefore, physical inactivity is the primary cause of childhood obesity. “The CDC reports that high school students’ daily participation in physical education has declined 30% in the past decade. For example, in 2005, only 45% of ninth grade and 22% of twelfth grade students attended daily physical education classes” (“Cause and Effect in Childhood Obesity: Solutions for a Natural Epidemic”). Such constrained physical action during school and afterwards contribute to weight gain. Children should not avoid their physical health and should participate in daily physical activity to prevent obesity. In addition to physical education in schools, children’s attitude towards physical activity must change in order to reduce the percentages of childhood obesity. Research has shown that physical training classes would not be

As a child in elementary school, I always looked forward to one class and the was physical education. Being a little child, full of energy, I always wanted to run around and play a game of some sort. School districts are starting to cut these classes to make more time for the core classes, which are English, social studies, and math. One-third of students under the age of 17 are overweight, and 1/6 of the students, that are overweight are obese (Costanza par. 6). Cutting physical education classes are a big reason to blame for this. Many kid are not getting their recommended 60 minutes of physical activity in a day. Most kids get most of their recommended time of physical activity through physical education classes at school. So if physical

Despite this popular belief, the class of physical education truly is beneficial for students at the elementary level. Most kids like to run around and have a good time, which is exactly what physical education is for. As shown in the graph from “Percentage of Youth Who Were Physically Active, By Number of Days Per Week and Sex,” only about twenty percent of adolescents were active five days per week. By keeping the physical education program, students will participate in five days of physical activity per week, which is a healthy amount. If students play on sports teams instead of physical education, they may only have two or three days of physical activity per week. Additionally, the five days of activity per week could help lower obesity rates which was shown to be nearly twenty percent in adolescents ages twelve to nineteen in the graph “Prevalence of Obesity Among Children and Adolescents Aged 2-19, by Sex and Age: United

Nearly everyone is aware of the physical benefits of exercising daily, but not many young adults actually exercise regularly. If a student participated in sports during his adolescent years, they are eight times more likely to remain physically active ("Facts: Sports Activity and Children."). For adolescents sports

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

Schools are considered child’s second home and in the past, the schools used to provide good amount of time for physical activities. Nowadays, schools are cutting hours from PE classes and recesses time and diverting this time for study related in-class sedentary activities which in turn result in children not getting the needed physical activities (daily, more than or at least 60 minutes of moderate level physical activity) recommended for their age group.

In chapter 16, Beyond Physical Education: School-Based Physical Activity Programming, Joe Barrett thoroughly elucidated the importance and declines in spontaneous and self directed child and youth physical activity. In today’s society, children and youth are living shorter lives than their parents due to the lack of physical activity. The observation of this matter triggered many organizations to produce physical activity guidelines for children. The CSEP and PHAC issued guidelines stating that children (5-11 years) and youth (12-17 years) regardless of their status should participate in as a minimum sixty minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. Additionally,

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).

The controversial topic in the realm of physical education is if physical education should remain in schools. Higher up’s are complaining about test scores and suggesting that cutting physical education programs would lead to better test scores. Technically, this would lead to more time spent sitting in a desk and listening to lectures in class, which is supposed to improve test scores. So, the solution to increase test scores is to take the small chance of physical activity that children receive during the school day and keep them almost completely sedentary for six-plus hours. When physical activity is restricted during school hours, children do not regain the lost physical activity after school, resulting in children who remain

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