You’ve heard of the Super Size Me documentary that came out a few years ago that detailed America’s obsession with excess and the cost of that excess. I know a great many people who were turned off of McDonald’s and more. But the idea behind the super size me consideration and obsession – there is another – far deeper problem and super sizing is just a symptom.
My Daughter’s School
When I went to elementary school, I remember that three days a week, we had physical education and two days a week, we had science. Sports received a greater emphasis over science classes in school and that fit with the attitudes of the time. Unsurprisingly, this attitude has shifted over the years to focus far more on academics because of the worries that the United States lags behind in this area.
At my daughter’s school, physical education takes place once every three school days. This can mean she gets P.E. twice per week or once per week. The physical education class lasts only 50 minutes per day that they meet for it. Unfortunately, that 50 minutes is hardly enough and it’s actually one of my daughter’s least favorite classes despite enjoying physical activities like dance, gymnastics and horseback riding.
Recently, when I was at her school, I heard two of her fellow students congratulating themselves on getting to avoid the running they hadn’t wanted to do during their physical education class. The teacher had been timing them on dashes and they let other kids cut in front of them repeatedly after their first dash across because they didn’t want to get hot and sweaty and they didn’t want to run over and over again.
The problem here isn’t just the super size me concerns of our society, but a deeper – more insidious problem – that problem is laziness. Why should we blame our children for this problem when so many of us have it as well? It’s easier to put off physical activity when we have so much work to do despite knowing that it’s benefits include more energy, less depression and better health.
Our children are guided by our own example. To that end – I want to issue a challenge to the parents out there – get involved in your schools and get involved in your school boards. Once change I want to see in my own school district is to see an hour added to the length of the school day – an hour that is solely devoted to physical education five days a week. I think the benefits will far outweigh the time investment. More physical education will help our children with their academics. It will improve their health and it will strengthen their generations to be better than the ones that came before.
Currently the school day in our district is only 7 hours long – with 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon for recess and another 30 minutes for lunch. Those breaks are important, but that leaves only about 5 hours and 50 minutes for instructional time – if they add an hour, making the school day eight hours in length – that would give 50 to 60 minutes to physical education once daily and add 2 more hours back into the school week that can be devoted to other areas of academics or the arts (art, music, library and more).
Would you be willing to fight for this change, including, potentially increasing your property taxes?
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