The Importance Of Physical Activity On Academic Performance

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.

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 a study conducted by Patricia M. Anderson and Kristen F Butcher who have written “Childhood Obesity: Trend and Potential Causes “has stated “based on Nielsen data, overall daily minutes of television watching has climbed over the decades. The statistics show that it has increase by 15% from 1990’s to 2000’. Children may be also substitute other forms of media, including videos, videos games and the internet, for television watching. According to a 1999 study, children spent 19.3 hours a week watching television, another 2.3 hours playing video games, and a 2.5 hours in front of the computer internet just over one day of “screen time” a week”. A policy statement from “The American Heart Association written by Deborah R. Young, PHD” stated that “regular physical activity is an important behavior for general health and to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, obesity and some forms of cancer”. She suggest that children should have at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily. The National Football League has also joined the forces by promoting “Play 60” which is a campaign to encourage kids to be active for 60 minutes a day in order to help reverse the trend of childhood

Healthy People implemented an extensive list of physical activity objectives targeting youth of all ages. The objectives are all aimed at promoting the health benefits of maintaining a physically active life-style. The following objective targets a major area of concern for the medical community and the increase of inactivity among today's youth; “PA-8.2.2; Increase the proportion of children and adolescents aged 6 to 14 years who view television, videos, or play video games for no more than 2 hours a

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..

The title of the article is Physical Education, school physical activity, school sports and academic performance written by Francois Trudeau and Roy J Shepard. The title of the article reflects the text as it discusses the relationship between academic performance at an elementary level and physically active activities that students can participate in such as physical education or school sports. The article also indicates that there are certain advantages in academic performance directly correlated with the time devoted to physical activity throughout the school day. The authors present a very clear and organized focus throughout the article providing a detailed explanation of the results of the conducted study. The article states that there has been an extensive discussion about the relationship of the elements in the article. Both elements, academic achievement and physical activity, are independent determinants of a child's health.

A growing number of children are demonstrating unhealthy eating habits and as a result are becoming obese due to lack of physical activity, nutrition and genetics. Children in today’s society are not motivated to exercise and participate in after school activities. If we were to go back in time 15 to 20 years ago, children were encouraged to explore the outdoors by engaging in activities such as camping, bicycling, walking, running and playing sports. Now, living in the 21st century, technology has taken a major toll on our children health; they are spending more time indoors watching television, playing video, games, surfing the internet and texting on their mobile phones.

Sports programs have been an integral part of all schools. They support the academics of the school and therefore foster success in life. These programs are educational and help produce productive citizenship. They help students experience and build skills that may help them in their future, like interpersonal and time management skills. Education may kindle the light of knowledge, but sports help to maintain the proper physique. Sports are also an important means of entertainment and a use for energy after long hours of study. Sports increase a student’s performance not only in the classroom but also in their life.

Children now spend more than seven and a half hours a day in front of a screen whether it be a television, computer, smartphone, or playing video games (cite). No I didn’t stutter, no I’m not exaggerating, seven and a half hours a day, can you believe that? As sad as it is, I’m unfortunately not surprised. Society continues to rapidly evolve as we continue to become consumed by technology and the latest iphone. I’m not going to lie, I do love my iphone and I fall guilty to spending more time than I would like on my phone, watching tv, or on my laptop. Obesity is a serious problem in the United States, more than 80% of adults do not meet the guidelines for both aerobic and muscle strengthening activities, and more than 80% of adolescents do not do enough aerobic physical activity to meet the guidelines for youth. (cite) This is an interesting piece of information. Most likely parents who do not exercise, do not motivate their children to exercise either. That’s why the percentages for adults and adolescents are so similar. Our youth need to be guided in the right direction, so we have a healthier world for future generations to come. Children are easily influenced so it is extremely important that we instill in their young minds the importance of exercise and being physically active. If children see their parents on their phones for hours on end, watching tv or

In today’s society, technology has played a big role in everyone’s lives and has taken over. Kids today stay inside and play on the computer, watch TV, play video games, or mess with tablets and smartphones. Several people find other, more entertaining things to do than play outside and be active. Some of the times, physical education in schools is the only physical activity students have on a daily basis (“Obesity”). Kids and teenagers would much rather be wrapped up in a social network than going for a job or going to the gym. Back in the day, playing outside was one of the few entertainments. Parents have no discipline and let their children do what they want to their bodies. Technology has caused people to be less active and not as self-controlled causing them to be obese or overweight later in life.

Sports and the general physical activities have been associated with a plethora of benefits. Not so much in correlation with education though. The debate on sports and academic performance relates as to whether sports affect academic performance positively or negatively. Mostly, academics, especially in high school and colleges, require an enormous time commitment. In the same way, sports demand time commitment. Apparently, academics and sports run linearly and either would consume the time of the other. Such would be the argument put forth by the claimants of the negative effects of sports on academic performance. The opponents to the positive correlation of sports and academic performance ground their arguments largely on the time commitment that the two require claiming that sports would consume a student’s time for study hence affecting their academic performance. Proponents of a positive correlation between sports and academic performance summon an extensive range of evidence showing that students who participate in sports perform well in academics. The proponents’ arguments are fetched from the proven benefits of exercise which improve a student’s overall well-being and motivate their academic performance. Opponents would, however, argue that the studies that find athletes and sports persons good at academics do not show how such correlations occur in that other factors could be the actual causes of the correlation and not sports in themselves. Regardless, opponents to the claim that sports affect academic performance positively cannot deny that sports affect the overall well being of any human being. As such, there is no denying that sports affect academic performance positively where a balance among the two is maintained.

The second article was tested with a whole middle school which tests all of the students. The problem was exact to the first article, that students in school were not receiving their full physical activity experience. Determining whether the sports can help will aid athletes in not having to think the sport is bringing their grade down. The method was a simple survey, asking the student how much physical activity they have in a normal day and was compared to what their grades were at the time of the study. The results in the study showed that the student’s athletic activity had little effect on the grades of the students, which disproves stereotypes. Limitations in the study are that ninety eight surveys were administered but only fifty eight were given back to the researchers. Further research may be that elementary, middle, and high school students can all be tested to see if the age of the student determines their success or failure with participating in physical activity.

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 today’s society children are increasingly becoming less active. Lack of physical activity in childhood leads to obesity, can increase one’s risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, arthritis, and poor health status. Physical inactivity also increases one’s risk for dying prematurely, dying of heart disease, and colon cancer. Technology and video games have become a major factor in this and have seemed to take over and control lives of many children. Less children are involved with sports and few play outside. The lack of physical activity as a child, can pay huge dividends in the child’s health, into his/her adulthood.