The Importance Of PE

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girlhulaFrom Your Health Journal…..”Tampa Bay Online did a wonderful job expressing the importance of physical education in the schools. Please visit their web site to read the complete article, but I just wanted to promote it here. PE is not the same as it was 25 years ago, where balls were just thrown out and kids play unsupervised. PE is preparing children for lifelong health, educating on the importance of healthy lifestyle, helping to build and form habits that carry into adulthood. Fitness and health skills are taught on a regular basis, and strong curriculum’s/foundations are carefully developed and followed by each educator. Sadly, there is not enough PE in the schools to help combat the obesity epidemic facing the youth of the world. Please support your local PE programs, and visit the TBO web site (link provided below) to read the complete article.”

From the article…..

For decades now, our country has been at war over the battle of the bulge. Healthy eating and physical activity have become less of a priority and more of a chore. Our busy day-to-day lifestyles have left us fat, lazy and unmotivated. Individuals such as myself are very irritated with the growing rate of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic diseases associated with our diet and exercise regimen.

Thankfully, we have evidence-based research that shows increasing physical activity in our schools can improve the health of our young.

Currently in Hillsborough County, elementary children are required to do at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week, in blocks of no less than 30 minutes a day. Because of budget cuts, physical education teachers are becoming a rare species. Regular classroom teachers are left with the burden of trying to come up with creative ideas to teach physical education.

Some schools think PE is standing up from your desk and stretching for 10 minutes. What is the definition of physical education? According to the American Heritage Dictionary, physical education is the education in the care and development of the human body, stressing athletics and including hygiene. Because of the declining numbers in PE teachers, classroom teachers are often left to fill PE requirements.

Physical education in our schools has become less of a priority because of academic standards in other subjects. We must not forget the importance of physical education.

Physical education has been proven time and time again to lower childhood obesity and diabetes. One in five children is overweight or obese by the age of 6! Does that not scare you? Here is something else that is alarming: Type 2 diabetes, normally found in adults, is now being found in our children. This is a grim milestone for a disease that used to be rare in children and is now increasing because of childhood obesity. Diabetes and obesity can cause heart attacks, blindness, stroke, amputations and kidney failure. All of this can be avoided with simple diet and exercise.

To read the complete article…..Click here