Physical Education Requirements: Lakeland College

College Physical Education Requirements

Intro.

Many Americans live an inactive life-style. We typical spend all day at work or school, and then when we return home, all we want to do is eat and sit down in front of the television, or some sort of electronic device. These bad habitats have been forming in adults lives, since their early adulthood stage, ages 18 -25. When, people enter inti the real world and actual jobs, we are bombarded with stress and time crunches, which lead to these unhealthy habitats.

Problem Statement

Health is a growing concern for the entire nation with about one third of Americans being considered obese. In particular, 31.2 percent of adults in Wisconsin are considered obese, and the trends show that this percentage

will continue to grow (Obesity Rates & Trends). This obesity trend should not be increasing in Wisconsin because the majority of Wisconsin’s population has the basic knowledge of how to stay healthy and prevent weight gain or unhealthily lifestyles: eat right and be active. The adults should have this knowledge because the state requires all school K through 12 schools to have Physical education classes, meaning that the majority of the adults have learned about controlling weight gain, being active, and all the basics of leading a healthy lifestyle (National Association).
However, as we become adults, wellness tends to become side-tracked. Why is it that as we become adults that being active and health conscious is no longer the required or is a main focus? The main cause is that adults lead busy lifestyles: balancing a job, school, and family; that there is no time to focus on bettering their health by being active. However, in recent years, there has been change in focus because people have been becoming more health conscious. People are becoming informed about the growing statics of obesity and its dangers, such as, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. This has led to companies and organizations to start implementing wellness programs. Some examples are within IBM, Google, and American Express (Corporate Wellness Programs)
The trend of implementing wellness programs can also be seen in my community on Lakeland College campus with the Wellness Champion Team. The main goals of the Wellness Team is to get students to understand and support the vision of wellness at Lakeland College, to improve awareness of wellness programs, to educate others about wellness resources, and to participate in wellness initiatives (Wellness Champions). Lakeland College’s Wellness Champion Team’s approach accomplishes creating an overall awareness of healthy lifestyles, but it does not contain a way to push and motivate students to actually get active and create a healthy lifestyle.
Early adulthood, ages 18-25, is the stage that would benefit most from being active and exercising because there are a variety of elements in their lives that can cause result in obesity that are found in their environment: stress, lack of time, and bad habits. The environment surrounding any community will have an impact on the lives of the people living there. This can be seen in any community; especially in small, close-knit communities, like a college campus. A college campus is the perfect atmosphere to start building and active environment because about 65.2 percent of Americans enroll in college after high school (Noris). This is the perfect opportunity to teach and promote a healthy lifestyle that young adults can bring with them throughout the rest of their life.
Innovative Solution
Through my years at Lakeland College, I have seen that wellness tends to get side-tracked.

It is a new world transitioning from high school to college, and it is very easy for bad habits to form or worsen. Students are over whelmed with a new environment, assignments, studying, meetings, and planning for their future careers. This leaves for no time to focus on healthy habits and leading a healthy life. How do we motivate college students to be active, without taking away their focus and time for class work? Lakeland College’s campus needs to start changing its environment to start promoting an active lifestyle. Yes, Lakeland College has a fitness centers and offers open-gym times for students to do recreational activities, but those facilities are often daunting for first-year, international, and low-fitness or skill-level students. This is way Lakeland College’s exercise facilities are often utilized by the healthier and athletic population of the student body. The key is to start targeting the entire student body, and, in particular, the inactive ones. The campus has started to make a healthier change by implementing their Wellness Champion program, but their needs to be more, in order to motivate students. The best way to incentivize and teach unexperienced students to be active is by giving college students what they need: credits. This way, while students are working out, they will not feel guilty spending valuable time away from their school work. They will actually be productive because they would be receiving the credits for their sweat and hard work. The wellness classes credits could be applied to general credits or as an elective

course.
The idea of earning credits for classes that focus on being active and teaching healthy lifestyles is a completely new topic for Lakeland College; however, there are other universities that already have a wellness program implemented. Currently, there is about 39 percent of Universities that require a physical education class. Shockingly, this percentage is at an all-time low. In the 1900’s, the majority of four year universities required physical education classes with a record high in 1920 of 92 percent of universities have required physical education courses. (*need to find more in formation) It is concerning that when obesity rates are growing that the push for healthier requirements are shrinking.
A great example of a university that stands by their required physical education courses is Oregon State University. Bard Cardinal, a professor of exercise and sport science at Oregon State University, says that physical education classes are just as essential as reading, writing and math classes because it allows students to learn how important being active and healthy is. Cardinal believes that by requiring one or two exercise or physical education classes, it can start a student to think about a healthy lifestyle as part of their overall college experience and in their later lives (Sorensen). This is the same type of attitude that Lakeland should absorb in order to start influencing the lives of it students and create a healthy lifestyle initiative that the students can carry with them for the rest of their lives.