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Sarah Gormley

Dr. Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

May 2 2018

The Future is Up to You: What Removing Physical Education Programs Can Do to Future

Generations

Over the past decades our culture has changed dramatically. Our nation was once a

physically active nation. Yet now it seems that society discourages physical activity. The

human race has been dependent on automobiles, discouraging people to walk or bike,

increasing the chance of a poor life-style. Yet there are many factors that affect the

achievement and maintenance of a healthy life. Young people are growing into a diverse

society, which is characterized by rapid change, inactive work and leisure activities that

influence unhealthy behaviors. From North Carolina and Virginia to Oregon and California,

districts are cutting positions from arts and PE programs as a way to make up for budget

shortfalls, but by removing these programs schools are seeing a lot of increased issues in

many students. Kindergarten through fifth grade students are showing lower academic

performances in the classroom, more and more behavioral issues, they are lacking major

social skills, and obesity rates are rising dramatically, along with all of this kids just aren’t

having fun in school anymore. In the United States alone the obesity rate in children has

nearly tripled since the 1970’s. These kids are our future, what will we do to save them? Will
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we sit around and watch them fail, or will we step up and fight not only for our futures, but

their futures as well.

State-mandated standardized testing has had the unintended consequence of reducing

opportunities for children to be physically active during the school day and beyond. In

addition to shifting of time in school away from physical education to allow for more time on

academic subjects, some children are withheld from physical education classes or recess to

participate in remedial or enriched learning experiences designed to increase academic

performance. Yet little evidence supports the notion that more time allocated to academics

will translate into better test scores. In 2010, the CDC- the Center for Disease Control,

conducted a comprehensive review of the research literature exploring the association among

participation in school-based physical activity programs, academic behaviors, and academic

performance. The researchers concluded, based on their review of 50 separate studies, that

“school physical activity was positively associated with academic performance and cognitive

functioning, or at least had no detrimental effect. The study findings support the conclusion

that maintaining or increasing time children spend engaging in school physical activity does

not detract from student achievement, and it may contribute to children’s academic

success” (Safe Supportive Learning, 2015). In today’s society we put so much stress on

students to make straight A’s and to get into the best college they can, yet we don’t provide

them the programs to be successful, as good as enriched learning experiences, and tutoring,

and all of that sounds students need more than just education, they will burn out, and often

times they will end up dropping out of school.

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Asking an elementary aged student to sit all day long in a desk with very few breaks

is like asking a professor to let his/ her class do whatever they want for the year. It’s painful,

and almost nearly impossible. Just like the professor will start to get frustrated when their

class doesn’t do anything they ask, elementary aged students also get frustrated when they

are not given the chance to be active, and take breaks throughout the day, and so they will

begin to act out to express their feeling of frustration. They will begin to do things like call

out in class, disturb other classmates, and get off task from what they are supposed to be

working on. So now not only is the whole class off task, the teacher is frustrated, and the

children's academic performance is decreasing because they are not putting in their best

work. Studies show that the required amount of exercise kids should get a day is at least 60

minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity, but students in elementary schools today are

lucky if they get 15 minutes of recess. What many people don’t realize is that PE teachers

will be of the first to notice any delays, or problems in children. So when we take away these

programs now the student and the teacher struggles, because not only is the student not

getting the proper help they need, but the teacher, has to deal with daily behavior issues from

the whole classroom. All in all it is a very unhealthy and unproductive situation for everyone

around.

Recess promotes natural social-emotional learning and development for children

by giving them a time to interact with peers, allowing them to practice and role play

important social skills. Allowing socialization, under adult supervision, adds to the learning

environment, stretching it outside of the classroom. Elementary school teachers report that it

is hard to teach children who are not interested in learning, lack confidence in their own
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abilities, and have trouble cooperating and controlling themselves. While playing at recess,

children learn useful communication skills, such as negotiation, cooperation, sharing, and

problem solving. They also learn coping skills, such as determination and self-control. These

skills are necessary and can last a lifetime. Recess also offers children a necessary, socially

structured means for managing stress by allowing for needed breaks, fun games, exercise,

and time with friends. Many forms of physical activity can be helpful for children looking to

meet new people. If their preferred physical activity is organized sports, the team aspect may

bring children many new friends. Yet, even if kids are participating in an individual activity,

such as rollerblading or hiking, there may be other kids out there to share the experience

with. The National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) credits the friendships made through

sports as being some of the most unique and meaningful. Children thrive off of interaction

with other kids throughout the day, so why not give it to them. We will let kids participate in

group projects, yet when it comes to being physically active with a group that is where we

draw the line.

More than a half-century ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower formed the

President’s Council on Youth Fitness, which educates, engages, and encourages Americans to

adopt a healthy lifestyle, and good nutrition, and today Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and

Michelle Obama are among those making childhood obesity a public cause. But even as

almost every state has undertaken significant school reforms, many American students are

being granted little or no time in the gym. Too many kids weigh too much, but too few states

and schools require recess or follow recommended guidelines for physical education. One in

three U.S. kids is overweight or obese, but only six states — Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi,
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North Carolina, Illinois and Iowa — adhere to standards from the National Association of

Sports and Physical Education that schoolchildren participate in 150 minutes a week of

physical education. And just three states — Delaware, Virginia and Nebraska — have 20

minutes of mandatory elementary-school recess a day. At Anatola Elementary School in Van

Nuys, California, not only are there no gym teachers, but there is also no gym. The principal,

Miriam King, has relied on $15-an-hour aides to oversee once-weekly exercise regimens for

her 450 students at an outside playground. “Sometimes, when it is raining, we just cancel,”

Ms. King said (Al Baker, 2012). Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago analyzed

results of a survey sent to every state except Hawaii, Alaska and Wyoming, in which

administrators in 1,761 schools and 690 school districts were asked questions about physical

education policies and practices and nutrition at their schools. Their responses were

compared with information collected about state laws and school district policies related to

P.E. and recess. Those states and school districts that followed the guidelines were

categorized as “strong”; those that recommended but didn’t enforce the suggestions were

classified as “weak.” Most schools fell into neither category because they have no

regulations whatsoever, according the research, which was published in the Archives of

Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Perhaps it’s not surprising that so few schools are

embracing the exercise guidelines. There are only so many hours in the school day, and

budget cuts and increased testing pressure means most schools decide that physical activity

isn’t critical. So now we are facing unhealthy children, who are at a risk for more than just

obesity. In all of this, the obvious deduction is that less physical activity equals more

unhealthy children. The CDC reports that 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2-19
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are obese. Thats twelve and a half million children that are obese in Americaalmost a fifth of

our future. This figure has tripled since 1980. Almost 34 percent of adults are obese.

Overweight and obese children are at high risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood

pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, low self-esteem, joint, bone, and muscle problems, and

more. We must work together to advocate for our nation’s greatest resource — our youth.

Let’s get these kids up and active and healthy again.

When I was little, in elementary school I could not wait to go to school, I did not

enjoy the learning part of it, but I knew that I got to see my friends, and we could all play

together at recess, and in gym class we could socialize while being active and having fun.

What are your memories of playing as a child? Some of us will remember hide and seek,

house, tag, and red rover red rover. Others may recall arguing about rules in kickball or stick

ball or taking turns at jump rope, or creating imaginary worlds with our dolls, building forts,

putting on plays, or dressing-up. From long summer days to a few precious after-school

hours, kid-organized play may have filled much of your free time. But what about your

children? Are their opportunities for play the same as yours were? Most likely not. Play time

is in short supply for children these days and the lifelong consequences for developing

children can be more serious than many people realize. When children are asked about the

activities that bring them happiness, they say they are happier when playing with friends than

in any other situation. Perhaps you felt this way when remembering your own childhood play

experiences. Many people see the loss of play time as a double whammy: we have not only

taken away the joys of free play, we have replaced them with emotionally stressful activities.

"[A]s a society, we have come to the conclusion that to protect children from danger and to
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educate them, we must deprive them of the very activity that makes them happiest and place

them for ever more hours in settings where they are more or less continually directed and

evaluated by adults, setting almost designed to produce anxiety and depression” ( Entin,

2011). Let kids be kids, they only have a short amount of time to do this and we are taking it

from them.

When we remove physical education programs we are really punishing ourselves.

Students are facing lower and lower academic scores and performances, there are increased

behavior outbursts in the classroom, children are showing less and less social skills and the

obesity rate is rising rapidly, plus we are ripping away the one chance children have to be

kids and have fun. Tell me how any of those things sound like we are preparing our kids for a

successful future? When we look at our future do we see doctors, lawyers, teachers, law

enforcement officers, etc. No we see high school dropouts looking for a way to succeed. The

only way that can happen is by starting with us, we need to provide our future generations

with the programs necessary to succeed, we need to fight for their sake. We need to give

them a chance at life. Forget budget cuts, and forget straight A students. These kids are in

need desperately of a little time to themselves, time to be social, time to be active, time to

have fun. The school work will get done, teachers have an entire year with the kids, I

promise the work will get done. But maybe next time instead of assigning that book report,

why don’t we assign them an activity log to be active everyday, or a scavenger hunt in

nature. Let’s get these kids up exploring all the outdoors have to offer. Sitting at desks all day

is not cutting it, the research is here, the proof is right in front of you. Children and their

families need to be taught the proper ways of how to be healthy in physical education classes
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to maintain their health across their lifespan. By incorporating in more lifelong knowledge

about health into our physical education systems, obesity rates will drop and students will do

much better in school. Those Ivy League colleges we never thought our student would get

into, those student we never thought we would see become famous someday, well now they

have a shot. They have a shot to become successful leaders who someday in the near future

will be the ones to run our country, or the ones to save peoples lives, or educate the next

generation to come, but it all starts with us. When parents and teachers realize the major role

that free play can take in the development of emotionally healthy children and adults, they

may wish to reassess the priorities ruling their children's lives. The competing needs for

childcare, academic and athletic success, and children's safety are compelling. But perhaps

parents can begin to identify small changes -- such as openings in the schedule, backing off

from quite so many supervised activities, and possibly slightly less hovering on the

playground that would start the pendulum returning to the direction of free, imaginative, kid-

directed play. As we sit back and reflect about how much fun we had as kids, how many

memories we made with each other on the playground and in gym class we all can’t help but

smile. The sad thing is, is that as we are sitting here reminiscing on the great times we had

our children, our future teachers, doctors, lawyers, presidents, etc. are currently crammed in a

small desk wondering when the next time is they will get to play outside between school, and

the amount of homework they must complete when they get home. These memories we all

made as kids are memories that our kids should be making, and there kids, and so on. Its time

to step up, it’s time to better the future for not just our generation, but generations to come

after us.
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References

American Academy of Pediatrics Explains Why Recess is Crucial for Children and Shouldn't be

Withheld. (2017, November 28). Retrieved May 2, 2018, from http://

www.educationandbehavior.com/american-academy-pediatrics-explains-recess-crucial-

children-shouldnt-withheld/

Entin, E. (2011, October 12). All Work and No Play: Why Your Kids Are More Anxious,

Depressed. Retrieved April 25, 2018, from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/

2011/10/all-work-and-no-play-why-your-kids-are-more-anxious-depressed/246422/

Katz, David L., Daniel Cushman, Jesse Reynolds, Valentine Njike, Judith A. Treu, Catherine

Katz, Jennifer Walker, and Erica Smith. "Putting Physical Activity Where It Fits in the

School Day: Preliminary Results of the ABC (Activity Bursts in the Classroom) for

Fitness Program." Preventing Chronic Disease. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, 15 July 2010. Web. 04 Mar. 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

20550840

Long, Cindy . "When Physical Education Is Cut, Who Picks Up the Slack?" NEA Today. N.p., 28

Mar. 2017. Web. 04 Mar. 2018. http://neatoday.org/2017/03/28/cuts-to-physical-

education/

Westervelt, Eric. "Learning To Move, Moving To Learn: The Benefits Of PE." NPR. NPR, 25

Mar. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2018. https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/03/25/394346747/

learning-to-move-and-moving-to-learn
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