Physical Education in
public schools has been scrutinized as being unnecessary and has even been
under consideration for permanent removal from public schools all together. Why
is this? One theory is that PE has been given the label of just being “recess”
because of the numerous PE teachers who simply “roll out the ball.”
In order to change this
mindset, PE teachers must teach and educate by designing classes and lessons that get back to the basics of why exercise is so important. Currently, there is a battle
going on against obesity in the United States. According to Zavodny,“Not
only did rates of childhood overweight and obesity rise dramatically from the
mid-1970s to the mid-2000s, but the degree to which children are overweight
increased as well.” PE is a direct way to fight this battle.
A study conducted in
2010 states, “Numerous reports have highlighted the importance of
school-based physical education as a key in helping to reverse the obesity
epidemic in children.” If PE teachers can stress the importance of their
classes in a way that shows that they are making a difference in the fight
against childhood obesity, then the views toward PE may start to change in a
very positive manner.
Tune in next week for
another strategy that will help protect and preserve PE in our public schools.
Morrow Jr., J.R., Martin, S.B. & Jackson, A.W. (2010). Reliability and validity of the FITNESSGRAM®, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 81:sup3, S24-S30. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com
Zavodny,
M. (2013) Does weight affect children's test scores and teacher assessments
differently?, Economics of Education
Review, 34, 135-145. Retrieved
from http://www.sciencedirect.com
[JNL1]I
think you should have expanded more on this idea. Give them info on how to do this or links to
lesson plans with this type of content.
See if you can find an example lesson plan online to link to. Other than that – this is good.
I agree. Physical Education is a way to decrease the obesity level. The United States have stress about the concerns of not only our youth, but overall country in the fight against obesity. We must enhance the effort to disrupt the lulled process of overcoming obesity in our youth. Obesity rates have more than doubled in adults and children since the 1970’s, and cutting physical education is not a smart outlook. Even if in P.E. they just roll out a ball its helping making non-athletes active. Being seriously overweight can also affect a child’s health, now and in the future. Immediate health effects can include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, bone and joint problems, and sleep apnea. Young people who are obese are likely to be obese as adults and be more at risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.
ReplyDeletePhysical Education is so important in society today. With the talks about removing PE just blows my mind. We see that obesity is a big problem here in America but yet we do nothing about it. To many so called "coaches" think they are doing the right thing by rolling out the ball but all in all they are just hurting the kids because nothing is being taught. Coaches are more worried about receiving a paycheck then making the world a better place. Another problem that I have seen is that most coaches are obese themselves so how does that look when they are trying to so called teach these kids the right thing? It is are job as educators to continue to stress the importance of PE, no matter how me students we reach out to any little bit counts.
ReplyDeleteChildhood obesity, I believe is one of the biggest problems in today's society. Unfortunately, many school districts deem PE as expendable. The PE period in school is the only physical activity many children get during this age of technology. This is a problem leading to so many morbidly obese children; and in some very sad cases, the parent does lose their child. Something has got to be done for this generation that is said to die before their parents.
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