Physical Education

“Take care of our children and show them the way.”

We live in a culture of sedentary living and overeating. Our children are watching, listening and learning about life and how to live from us adults, their leaders. They are not interested in what we have to say. They are carefully watching how we live.

Schools, parents and local, state and federal governments all have a leadership role when it comes to educating our children and keeping them physically fit. What kind of message are they sending our kids?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), twenty percent of our children ages 6-17 are overweight. In 1980, only 6 percent of our children were overweight. Our children are now being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes was once considered a disease for adults.

In a local newspaper, I read a dismal report. Physical education, music and art are being eliminated from our schools because there is no money to pay for them. The budgets have been slashed and teachers are being let go. This trend has been going on sometime now. Funding for our education system is not expected to increase.

Are we really talking about money and jobs? The primary mission of our school system is to educate our children. Physical education, art and music are just as essential for growth and development of our children as reading, writing and math.

The CDC has determined there is a causal connection between academic performance and school-based physical activity, according to the report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, April 2010, The Association Between School-Based Physical Activity, Including Physical Education, and Academic Performance. These findings combined with the state of health of our children make it imperative to find a way to – with or without additional funding or teaching jobs – to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day back into our schools. We will apply the lead-by-example approach and show our kids how important physical activity is.

If the schools do not have the funds to hire additional teachers to implement physical activity of 60 minutes per day, a volunteer corps of certified personal trainers needs to be established to institute the physical activity program. No child should be left behind when it comes to health and academic performance.

Today more than ever we are all very busy with the day to day tasks of our lives. We have so many things to do with our jobs and our families it is a miracle that we don’t all go crazy.

And now this type of lifestyle is starting to effect our children in negative ways. Today children are increasingly becoming more like adults. Most adults don’t get proper exercise or nutrition. Our children learn from us and out society. Today they spend many hours in school and in after school activities that take up a large majority of their time.

That is why it is so vital that kids get physical education in public and private schools today. The physical activity is a much needed change of pace. From sitting in the class room all day at some desk or going home after school and sitting in front of a computer screen playing video games.

Today more than any other time in history children in the United States are overweight. And some are seriously overweight and considered obese. This can lead to all sorts of problems such as diabetes, hormone imbalances and other negative physical outcomes.

So this is why I believe that it is vital to have good physical education programs which require our kids to get active. That way they can get some exercise that is so vitally needed by them. Another reason too, is because not only are our children not getting enough exercise they are not getting proper nutrition. They are eating the wrong things that promote weight gain and health problems.

So, make sure your child is enrolled in a good physical education class to ensure that he or she gets some much needed physical activity. The benefits can be monumental and your children may one day thank you for it.

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