I thought that title might get your attention. As parents, we want to do everything we can to give our children the best opportunities for success. Among the opportunities we want to give our children include:
- Access to good teachers
- Access to positive experiences
- Access to quality time with us
We measure their response and their success by not only their actions and behavior, but also by the grades they receive in school. Personally speaking, I do not think grades are a measure of intelligence, only of aptitude and actual grasping of skills and the application of them.
So What Does This Have to Do With Exercise?
Researchers in Michigan at both Michigan State University and Grand Valley State University explored how exercise affected 200 sixth-graders in one academic year at one middle school. All the students were in a physical education class and they found that there was no change in their performance.
That being said, they also discovered that students who engaged in more vigorous activity such as organized sports, skateboarding or other extracurricular activities did 10 percent better than other students in their academic scores. While the article indicated that researchers did not know what actually caused the difference, they do hope that the study can help persuade school districts and parents to give more attention to what their kids are doing and their levels of physical activity.
So, while PE is good for students it’s not the key influence in improving their grades, we need to make sure they get vigorous activity as well in other ways. My personal hope is that the study will engage both schools and parents in the way the researchers hope, but that they do not eliminate P.E. from their daily activities.
My daughter’s school gives students two days a week in P.E. So that’s not always enough, in the meanwhile, she’s also got her dance classes, gymnastics and horse back riding. Yes, it does get expensive – but I also believe the price is hardly comparable to the potential rewards in experience, activity level and positive influence.
To get more information on this study, check out the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports Exercise this month. Does your child get a good dose of vigorous activity in their life?