Childhood obesity is a serious problem in this country, but I am focusing solely on California. I feel there is a lack of quality physical education programs in California elementary schools and in order to help the rising child obesity rates, these programs should be improved.
My goal to address this problem is to improve PE programs by advocating that California schools
- be required to implement the recommended 60 minutes a day of physical activity for children
- hire certified Physical Education teachers that are not only aware of the growing problem but have the skills to implement the current physical activity recommendations appropriately in order to make a change. For example:
- PE instructors should follow nationally set guidelines (such as the ACSM guidelines) for children and be able to teach children how to be physically active, how to perform different physical skills, and the importance of physical activity.
- Schools should be required to have a PE class for every grade.
- Schools should be required to hire certified physical education instructors.
- National guidelines must be met within these PE programs and fitness tests should be given at least 1-2 times a year.
Nutrition obviously plays a huge role in keeping children healthy and managing weight, however; my focus is primarily on the physical activity side of the problem. Increased knowledge and education on the importance of physical activity on health starting at a early age can ultimately lead to children engaging in daily physical as well as growing up with that PE knowledge and staying physically active as they get older.
Increased physical activity increases cardiorespiratory health, promotes a healthy weight management, improves overall well being, releases stress, increases muscular strength and endurance, improves flexibility, and can be quite enjoyable as well if it is made fun. Currently, not all schools have certified PE teachers on staff and not all national guidelines are met. It seems that physical education has been put on the back-burner and is no longer highly prioritized. Children’s health should always be a priority and physical health is a huge part in their overall health, and programs to ensure that their physical health needs are being met need to be implemented everywhere.
Sources:
http://www.childhealthdata.org/docs/nsch-docs/california-pdf.pdf
http://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ca/pe/physeducfaqs.asp
http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/pestandards.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/physicalactivity/pdf/quality_pe.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html
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