Studies show that children who spend two or more hours a day watching television, get less than sixty minutes of physical activity daily, and do not sleep the recommended hours per night are eight times more likely to suffer from obesity (Laurson, Lee, Gentile, Walsh, & Eisenmann, 2014). This shows correlation between physical inactivity and childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is such a growing problem because of the health consequences that follow this disease. Children who suffer from obesity have a greater chance of suffering from Type 2 Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes use to be thought of as a condition that occurs in adulthood because it was only seen in adults until recently; however, with the growing number of children suffering from obesity, Type 2 Diabetes is seen in children as young as five years old (Sahoo et al., 2015).
Having a steady amount of physical activity each day will do wonders for kids down the road. The benefits are tremendous and can lower risk of diabetes, lower blood pressure, and lower chance of obesity. In schools across the United States, physical education has been substantially reduced and in some cases completely eliminated in response to budget concerns and pressures to improve academic test scores. Yet the available evidence shows that children who are physically active and fit tend to perform better in the classroom, and that daily physical education does not adversely affect academic performance. Schools can provide outstanding learning environments while improving children’s health through physical education.
Several studies have shown that fitter children do better in school compared to their not as fit peers. In a study done by “Frontiers in Human Neuroscience” they found that children that participate in regular physical activity do better in school. The study states, “Aerobic fitness plays an important role in brain health of children...Such that highly-fit children have been shown to outperform their lower-fit peers…” Recess helps students have a scheduled time to partake in physical activities. It could make all the students do better in school if they all are relatively fit. Also, it is proven that there is a link between fitness and academic achievement said by the “Systematic Review to Inform Physical Activity Guidelines for Children and Young Adults”.
For instance, as part of an Amazing Race activity, children are required to do a series of physical activities such as sit-ups, leg raises etc. before they are handed their next clue. This helps to promote a general athletic development. With a resistance training program that is more general in nature, it reduces the risk of burnout in children. When children grow into adolescents, their patterns of physical activity change (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008).
If we look at the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement the main aim of physical education should be to positively impact the children’s lifetime exercise patterns. (CAPS 2012) Therefore, we see that physical education is an important part of any child’s school experience many of the skills gained are important building blocks for not only school success, whether academic or physical, but also lifelong success in many
Lack of adequate physical activity amongst youth, more specifically in school, threatens their health status in the current day and in the future. A child’s lifestyle, in regard to physical inactivity, is one of the root causes of health differences as determined by the disparities experienced in terms of health status from one individual to the next. Additionally, a poor choice of diet coupled with physical inactivity can potentially lead to the development of long-term chronic diseases such as stroke, diabetes, and heart diseases when the individual becomes an adult. Moreover, such physical inactivity has the potential to lead to the development of diseases such as diabetes and obesity at a young age. Besides individual repercussions, these
The way PE classes to this in explained in the article, Physical Education is a Necessary Developmental Tool by stating, “...instill in students the importance of physical health and bodily awareness in their development...includes information about nutrition and healthy food choices...can avoid these costs by giving young people the tools to avoid and overcome obesity and other eating disorders…” It’s important that children learn how to maintain proper health. PE gives this information such as how much/what kind of exercise to be doing and what foods to be eating or avoiding. How students learn healthy behaviors is interpreted in, Using PE to Teach Vital Skills by saying, “...children are to fully engage with sport and physical activity and develop a lifelong love of exercise...Building a passion and love for a sport is critical in sustaining a prolonged involvement in it…” Some students may not realize that they actually do have an interest in some type of physical activity. If involved in a PE class, they may find a sport that they’re hooked on. Playing this sport may allow them to stay or become physically fit.
The idea that healthy children learn better is empirically supported and well accepted. Another widely accepted and acknowledged fact is that health benefits are associated with physical activity. Because all children spend a great deal of their time in school, the school is an important arena for promoting physical activities and a healthy lifestyles. In nowadays, the physical education programs are offered widely in different school systems, but the much debated question is that should these physical education classes be compulsory or optional. The trends in the last decade have been that several schools have changed the physical education to the curriculum as a compulsory subject.
Blair, Yiling Cheng and J. Scott Holder, the majority of studies concerning the benefits of physical activity found an inverse relation between physical activity and negative health results (S394). Since physical activity may prevent negative health results and exercise during childhood improves activity rates, establishing regular exercise patterns during childhood is vital to long term health. Many of the studies that were included in the studies showed that the benefits of physical activity alone has some sort of limit (Blair Cheng and Holder, S394). Since the benefits of physical activity are limited, establishing exercise patterns during youth will provide more benefits than exercise during adulthood due to the increase of physical
Certainly, it was hard for the lecturer to apply sport to the students of English Education in order to increase their physical fitness. Besides, most of the students didn’t like sport because of their incapacity to do hard movement. In that case, it is a must to apply light sport but gives significant impact to physical fitness. The program plan of exercise must be systematical and measureable in order to enhance students’ physical fitness. The enhancement of physical fitness can be conducted in many ways for example in mahatma breathing and