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How to reduce childhood obesity in schools
How to reduce childhood obesity in schools
How to reduce childhood obesity in schools
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For the first time in years, schools are considering imposing an extra mandatory class on students with the hopes of solving a deadly problem; however, it could be causing more problems rather than diminishing it. A statistic recently released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, has stated that in America, 31.3% of 10-17 year olds are either obese or overweight. To combat this issue, The President’s Council on Physical Fitness has introduced a proposal that would require every high school in the United States to have a daily and mandatory physical education class in order to promote healthy lifestyle choices. Very few states require P.E. daily for high school students; however, many states are considering adopting the proposal. Doing so seemed like a great way to combat the growing problem until I thoroughly researched the topic and found that the negatives outweighed the possible positives. Calvin Christian adopting the proposal created by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness regarding mandatory daily P.E. classes would be a huge mistake due to the negative effect on student’s physical and emotional health, the likelihood of an increased budget, and the possible cut of valued classes.
School is meant to be a safe and secure learning center for students physically and emotionally; however, mandatory P.E. might take away some of that safety. By making P.E. mandatory, students will be forced to put their lives in possible danger daily. It is often thought that P.E. is a positive way to promote healthy lifestyles; however, that is not the case in today’s average P.E. class. According to WebMD, “the number of P.E. injuries has risen 150% from 1997 to 2007. During that time period, it is estimated that 405,305 injuries caused by ph...
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...festyle habits. Another solution would be to offer more healthful lunch foods. Healthy living doesn’t only involve exercising, it also involves eating right. Finally, schools should give students the option to take a daily P.E. class all school year round. That way, students who feel the need to exercise can take the class and those who would rather take another class can do so. We can also work together to make P.E. more effective by spending more time on exercises rather than certain sports and activities that require little activity. By putting these ideas into play, it will give unhealthy students the opportunity to turn their lives around in a positive way that won’t majorly impact the school budget, negatively impact student’s health and emotions, or cause classes to be cut. Let’s work together to end this serious problem in a way that will benefit everybody.
Who doesn’t want to have to do exercise? Everybody needs exercise to be in good health, but some people don’t like to exercise. They just want to stay inside and do nothing in life. Even though people don’t want to exercise all the time they could have a treadmill or a bike to exercise on instead of going outside and running or play basketball with friends just to lose weight. Sometimes students get lazy after work or school and don’t want to go outside and enjoy the nice weather. Although for students they have to exercise because they have to stay in shape for sports, but if the school is trying to take away interscholastic
"Physical Education." NASBE Center for Safe and Healthy Schools. National Association of State Boards of Education, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Obesity is a growing trend that is affecting individuals significantly in the U.S. and throughout the world. “As of 2013, Kentucky ranks 42 in the U.S. for obesity and over the past year the rate of obesity has risen from 30.4 percent to 31.3 percent among its population.”1 Many factors contribute to the rate of obesity in Kentucky, but, in my opinion, the most significant contributing factor to this trend is physical inactivity. I am a resident of a very rural and underdeveloped community in Eastern Kentucky, where a significant portion of the population lives with a triage of comorbidities (diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, and hypertension). I feel that these disease states that plague individuals could be improved significantly with a life style intervention of increasing physical activity. Several barriers that decrease physical activity for our community must be overcome to improve the health of our community, among the most significant of these barriers includes the built environment due to lack of infrastructure, poverty from lack of jobs, and a negative cultural perception on exercise. I would like to lobby to school board members of Johnson Central High School to allow public access of local community members to use school facilities during non-school hours to increase physical activity to improve the health of its community.
other hand, obesity accounts for about 13 percent of children in the United States, which is why physical education programs should be one of the last things to go. They also help students release the stress they have built up through out the day and teach them the ...
This paper examines the issues associated to the disengagement of students in the health and physical education domain. Typically traditional curriculums have shown to foster anxiety and create undesirable competition amongst students through fitness testing. It is critical to understand the reasons behind the issues of why students are disengaging in the participation of physical education, as the sedentary behavior is becoming a major factor in the obesity epidemic.
Walk onto any college campus or any other type of school campus and you will see many students that are either obese or close to being obese. Many cafeterias serve healthy foods and non-healthy foods. Schools came up with the rule that you can’t check out lunch without a fruit or vegetable. The only problem is that most students end up taking them and end up wasting them by throwing them away. Considering I am a college student, I understand the challenge of eating unhealthy when I am trying to eat healthier. Overall, I know that if I don 't start eating healthier soon I could end up gaining a lot of weight and become obese. For this research project, I decided to ask, what can be done about the problem of obesity in our country? This question
...on: Creating School Environments And Policies To Promote Healthy Eating And Physical Activity." Milbank Quarterly 87.1 (2009): 71-100. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Feb. 2014
Schools serve as an amazing venue to provide students with everyday physical movement, and to instruct the essentialness of general physical action for wellbeing. Shockingly, most individuals' get little to no general physical activity while in school. Budgetary obligations and the pressure to increase test scores have brought on school authorities to address the worth of PE and other physical activity programs. This has prompted a significant lessening in the time accessible for PE, and in a few cases, school-based physical action projects have been totally eliminated.
...hool students participating in daily gym had dropped from 42% to 33%. Therefore, it is also the parents responsibility to make sure their child is participating in class (Kotz). Programs like CATCH (Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health) have been proven to be successful. “Aimed at preventing heart disease rather than obesity,” CATCH has shown that “improvements in the lunchroom, gym class and health instruction” can leave lasting impressions on students (Wallis). By educating the youth about diet and fitness, they can put an end to the rising statistics about obesity.
From this EDCP320 course, I have learned a much more comprehensive perspective of what it means to be a good Physical and Health Education (PHE) educator. Aside from the foremost importance of physical safety, proper supervision, space and equipment (Robinson & Randall, 2014), a good PHE educator comprises of four main characteristics: 1) Being encouraging and supportive, 2) Having the ability to incorporate inclusion into the lesson plan for children with disabilities, 3) Being physical and health literate, 4) Being able to provide a safe, respectful, and welcoming environment for diverse students (race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status/SES, religion, and gender identity).
P. E. teachers teach skills that I know are necessary to mold healthy children for a healthy future. In order to achieve such skills it is also important that children have a safe environment in which to exercise motor skills. As children grow, they become more interested in the world around them through the use of motor skills .
Cairney admits, “Many student athletes do not play sports year round which do not expose them to a variety of other activities such as aquatics, dance, and noncompetitive activities.” Whether it is through P.E. or through sports, students need to be active year round. Physical education class is not provided just for the exercise, it also creates learning opportunities and teaches children how to understand their bodies and become more in control. If students think of P.E. as a graded period they may not understand that the point of the class is to help them learn how to live a better, healthier life. The more of a variety offered for students, the more parents and staff can start to understand one another and get along for the benefit of the
Educational institutions have the potential to, first and foremost, educate and assist the young people of today with making the positive, healthful choices necessary to maintain good health. Over 4,500 students have been followed in recent research studies and these “thousands of sixth graders who participated in a school-based health program were less obese by eighth grade than a group of similar children who did not, according to a new study done for the National Institutes of Health” (Rabin). Schools need to create health programs focused on assisting all children suffering from being overweight or obese. Policies such as fitness programs, nutrition classes, and healthful meals can even impact every student by creating a strong foundation and awareness of the negative, long term effects associated with practicing unhealthy habits. Although the financial expenses would be necessary, the adaption of scho...
My discussion of high school students taking a fitness test is, in fact, addressing the larger matter such as an increase in obesity. Some people believe that high school students shouldn’t be required to take a fitness test. Many high schools recommend that high school students take a fitness test yearly. Why wouldn’t schools want to help students stay healthy rather than increase the risks of heart diseases, obesity, or other heart problems? Schools should use the fitness test to help the motivate the students to stay healthy, so it doesn’t interfere with the student’s future expectations.
There is no doubt that society needs to change from being unhealthy and overweight to being physically active and healthy, but many changes need to be done in society to do so, and making adjustments to physical education must be done. Physical education exists in schools to help students perform physical activity in schools and promote healthy lifestyles. It is extremely important that physical education teachers promote physical activity and healthy diets to young students because they are the ones who will be at risk of developing health issues such as obesity. Physical educators need to teach the younger generation the proper way to stay healthy so that they will continue to be physically active outside of physical education classes and so that they remain physically active throughout their lives.... ...