Fight Childhood Obesity by Bringing Back Recess
A sedentary lifestyle should not start in our schools
Childhood obesity is becoming a crisis in America. A child's opportunity to exercise in our society is dwindling and has been all but erased from their daily life, particularly from their school days. Something we're noticing among American children is the amount of time they can maintain moderate activity levels is substantially lower than our generation.
PLAY IS WIDELY recognized as an important aspect of child development. During periods of unstructured play, children increase their imagination and creativity, organize their own games, develop their own rules, learn problem-solving skills, and practice leadership. A report from the American Academy of Pediatrics states that free unstructured play is healthy and is essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones, as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient.
Children need free play at home and at school. The time assigned for free play at school is known as recess. Recess is defined as a break during the school day that allows children the time for active free play. A key component of recess is that it is unstructured and undirected.
So when you combine the elimination of physical education and recess you get the statistics we're now seeing which are mind numbing:
? 20 percent of American children can currently be defined as obese, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. That's about four times what the rate was in the 1970s.
? Between 1971 and 2006, the number of 6-to-11-year-olds considered overweight more than quadrupled -- from 4 percent to 17 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
? There's a 70-80 percent chance that an obese child will become an obese adult.
? $14 billion is spent annually on child obesity-related health care costs, American Heart Association president Dr. Tim Gardner said during a recent press conference. Overall, annual obesity-related costs total $117 billion.
A recent examination of the Department of Education?s Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS-K) found that a one-hour increase in physical education per week resulted in a 0.31 point drop (approximately 1.8%) in body mass index among overweight and at-risk first grade girls. There was a smaller decrease for boys. The study concluded that expanding physical education in kindergarten to at least five hours per week could reduce the percentage of girls classified as overweight from 9.8 to 5.6 percent. But as a nation we aren't giving children a chance to participate in P.E. programs during their school day.
? Only 3.8 percent of elementary schools, 7.9 percent of middle schools and 2.1 percent of high schools provide daily P.E., according to a CDC survey. A study published in the 2007 issue of Health Economics stated that daily P.E. for high school students declined from 41.6 percent in 1991 to 28.4 percent in 2003.
? 22 percent of schools don't require kids
PLAY IS WIDELY recognized as an important aspect of child development. During periods of unstructured play, children increase their imagination and creativity, organize their own games, develop their own rules, learn problem-solving skills, and practice leadership. A report from the American Academy of Pediatrics states that free unstructured play is healthy and is essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones, as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient.
Children need free play at home and at school. The time assigned for free play at school is known as recess. Recess is defined as a break during the school day that allows children the time for active free play. A key component of recess is that it is unstructured and undirected.
So when you combine the elimination of physical education and recess you get the statistics we're now seeing which are mind numbing:
? 20 percent of American children can currently be defined as obese, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. That's about four times what the rate was in the 1970s.
? Between 1971 and 2006, the number of 6-to-11-year-olds considered overweight more than quadrupled -- from 4 percent to 17 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
? There's a 70-80 percent chance that an obese child will become an obese adult.
? $14 billion is spent annually on child obesity-related health care costs, American Heart Association president Dr. Tim Gardner said during a recent press conference. Overall, annual obesity-related costs total $117 billion.
A recent examination of the Department of Education?s Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS-K) found that a one-hour increase in physical education per week resulted in a 0.31 point drop (approximately 1.8%) in body mass index among overweight and at-risk first grade girls. There was a smaller decrease for boys. The study concluded that expanding physical education in kindergarten to at least five hours per week could reduce the percentage of girls classified as overweight from 9.8 to 5.6 percent. But as a nation we aren't giving children a chance to participate in P.E. programs during their school day.
? Only 3.8 percent of elementary schools, 7.9 percent of middle schools and 2.1 percent of high schools provide daily P.E., according to a CDC survey. A study published in the 2007 issue of Health Economics stated that daily P.E. for high school students declined from 41.6 percent in 1991 to 28.4 percent in 2003.
? 22 percent of schools don't require kids
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