pe 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.

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.

Due to a variety of factors – from increased time in school to long hours of watching TV – many young people spend little time exercising. In addition, as budget cuts force schools to drop programs, PE is all too often the first to go. Although the recommended amount of exercise for children is reasonably small – under 30 minutes a day – most schools provide virtually no opportunity for physical activity. Providing even a short “exercise break” could help kids get in shape; according to Science Daily, “Research results show that 30 minutes of exercise hard enough to produce a sweat is enough to turn the tide on an unhealthy body mass index” (University of Copenhagen). Raising the physical education requirements in America schools gives kids an opportunity to exercise without having to set aside extra time in their day. Just as academic subjects like math, science, and reading are core components of education, so also can physical fitness be taught through PE programs. Raising healthy kids is certainly a primary goal of the school system, and requiring even a scant 30 minutes a day of physical activity in schools could be the key to cracking the problem of childhood

Almost all students in the United States have had that dreaded Physical education class. With all of the hard work done in a regular day for a student, they need to get out energy at some point. I propose that Hudson City Schools should keep the now standing PE program instead of forcing kids to do a sport every year in school because it improves test scores, promotes overall health, and because it includes many different sports instead of just one.

The first step to combating childhood obesity is that legislation must pass to provide funding for creating opportunities for physical activity. Evidence suggests that school-based physical education increases students’ level of physical activity and improves physical fitness (Zaza et al, 2005). The National Association and Physical Education (NASPE) and the American Heart Association (AHA) recommend that all elementary school students should participate in at least 150 minutes per week of physical education and all middle and high school students should participate in at least 225 minutes of physical education per week for the entire school year (NASPE & AHA, 2006). Currently many schools with weak budgets will cut from their physical education budget which either greatly diminishes the effectiveness of the programs or eliminates them completely. Thus, there should be federal money

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

Systematic reviews have suggested that those under the age of 18 years of age should have at least 60 minutes/day of physical activity in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle (Janssen & LeBlanc, 2010). As emphasized before, exercise should and may be incorporated whenever possible. Curriculums with physical education included may optimize what is already present, such as breaks between classes and programs that can be offered before or after school. Naperville, Illinois created an exercise model in which P.E. classes were scheduled before academic classes to give the children a boost and to create an enhanced state of attention (Ratey, 2009). These P.E. classes focused on the individual student’s fitness abilities and encouraged students to increase their heart rate by 80 to 90 percent, monitored by a heart monitor, at their own ideal pace. Exercising before the hardest classes allowed the students to relax and to clear their mind, so as to be able to focus on the next subject fully. Naperville’s model proved to be successful, and showed that a class of 230,000 eighth-grade students finished first in science in the world, and sixth in mathematics on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1999 (Ratey, 2009). Not only that, 3 percent of an entire sophomore

The purpose of this article is to describe the physical activity levels of children attending after-school programs, to examine physical activity levels in specific after-school sessions and activity contexts, and to evaluate after-school physical activity differences in groups defined by sex and weight status.. The authors summarized the study results indicating that boys exhibit higher levels of vigorous physical activity than girls, overweight or at-risk-of-overweight children participate less in vigorous physical activity , and children show higher levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during free-play activity

In the PBS video “A Physical Education in Naperville”, talks about the lack of physical education in are schools. What shocked me in this video is how low physical education is in are schools and how some schools don’t even have physical education as major priority. In the 1960’s President Kennedy made it a national priority, that physical education be part of every day school life. But in today’s world there “obesity rates today are for times higher than it used to be 1960s” (PBS).

Physical exercise is a necessity in schools because children and young adults need the physical exercise and the endorphin production. “Gym classes provide students with physical exercise on a consistent basis. It is particularly important for the physical well-being of children who do not engage in physical activities

Physical activity among young children has declined in schools and has been one of the main causes of childhood obesity. One study showed that among third and fourth graders, they spend an average of 22-24 hours a week watching television (James). Also, more studies have shown that moderate to very physical activities have dropped off among young adults (James). Children are now less likely to commit to participating in gym classes and or any physical activity outside of school, but instead they are most likely spending

More than 80 percent of adolescents do not get enough aerobic physical activity to meet the guidelines for youth (Physical Activity, 2014). When adolescents do not get the proper amount of physical activity needed to keep them healthy it puts them at risk for; a decrease in bone health, cardiorespiratory and muscle health, an increase in body fat, and possible depression. Obesity is a growing problem in America not only with adults but also with school aged children. The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period (Childhood Obesity Facts, 2015). Being physically active can also help youth improve their concentration, memory and classroom behavior. Elementary school girls who participated in more physical education had better math and reading test scores than girls who had less time in physical education (Youth Physical Activity: The Role of Schools, 2016).

Most people know that children need at least sixty minutes of physical activity each day, which is equal to seven hours every week. Unfortunately, only one in three children are physically active each day (“Facts and Statistics”). Twenty eight percent of Americans, which is over eighty million people, aged six and older are not physically active at all (“Facts and Statistics”). On the other hand, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommend that for good health, adults should get the equivalent of two and a half hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week (“Physical Activity”). Only one in three adults receive this amount of physical activity each week (“Facts and Statistics”). To many people’s surprise, less than five percent of adults participate in thirty minutes of physical activity every day (“Facts and Statistics”). These shocking numbers exemplify how physically inactive our country has become in recent years.

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