American’s really love making excuses to cover up the severity of childhood obesity and health problems.  But just for a moment, let’s stop blaming childhood obesity on “slow metabolisms,” and our children being, “big boned,” and focus on the glaring issues sitting right in front of us, and I really do mean sitting.  That’s exactly what our children are doing for seven hours a day at school.  But we can’t forget about gym classes.  That one hour a week where kids get to run, or more likely walk, around a track or stand in the outfield during a riveting game of softball.  With programs like these it really is shocking that American youth have so many health problems.  By examining the inefficacy of modern physical education programs, it is clear that policy changes and adequate funding would provide benefits to students’ overall health and wellbeing.  As American health problems continue to rise and test scores in core subject areas continue to fall, reforms to physical education programs may be the solution that we as a nation have been ignoring for decades.

You don’t need to be a doctor to recognize that forcing our children to sit still for nearly seven hours a day while at school is detrimental to their health.  Guidelines across multiple platforms and organizations promote a minimum of sixty minutes of physical activity for children and adolescents. (“No Body Left Behind”).  Yet schools are so focused on “real” classes that they refuse to devote just one hour of the school day to physical education.  In fact, only nineteen states in America have any sort of policy or requirements regarding frequency or quality of physical education programs.  To make matters worse, only 27.7% to 46.8% of physical education time is spent in a state of moderate to vigorous physical activity meaning a majority of the time spent in gym classes is a complete waste of time (Potential and Reality).  

No wonder students hate gym classes so much.  Looking back on my many years spent in gym classes there were some glaring flaws in these programs.  Growing up in Illinois, which just so happens to be the only state in the entire country to require daily physical education in schools, I adored gym class. What kid doesn’t love getting to take a break from class and go run around for an hour?  Despite the fact that we had gym class every single day, I never once got bored.  My class learned gymnastics moves, how to walk on stilts, and how to juggle in preparation for a circus that we put on for all of our parents.  We also participated in an obstacle course where the students pretended to be blood cells carrying oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body to learn about the circulatory system.  When I was in fifth grade I moved to Massachusetts and that is where I experienced low quality physical education for the first time.  Gym classes were no longer fun, and the quality physical education programs I once took for granted were replaced by hours standing in the outfield during kickball games where I was lucky if I touched the ball once.  The worst part was, I had to endure these programs for five more years and the only thing I have to show for it is that I can shoot a basketball from the free-throw line, kind of.  My experience, along with millions of other children across the country, is a perfect example of the two major problems with physical education programs, the lack of consistency and poor quality.  

The most consistent aspect of physical education programs is that they are consistently a low priority in school systems. The few American states that do have policies in place regarding physical education fail to include guidelines regarding energy expenditure during classes and are often vague enough that schools can get away with mediocre gym classes while still adhering to the guidelines.  In schools such as Anatola Elementary School, the physical education program consists of 450 students being monitored by guidance counselors and art teachers during a once a week physical activity period. (NY Times).   While physical education curriculums vary from school to school, many of them are vague leading to low quality programs.  Common reasons that these programs such as this one fail to provide our children with quality physical education is their lack of space, faculty, equipment, and funds.  These types of issues are seen in schools across the country and are not just limited to schools facing economic hardship and these low quality programs are being seen as acceptable by school officials because nobody is putting forth an effort to change them.

Let’s stop being stubborn and insisting that this is the way that physical education has always been and always will be because it is clear that modern programs are not working in the way that physical education is meant to.  Realistically, reforming physical education programs won’t be the cure to childhood obesity or other lingering health problems, but the promotion of physical activity spans far beyond the numbers on the scale.  One program being actively promoted by health researchers is the Health at Every Size movement.   By eliminating weight bias and focusing on health, which includes physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being, the Health at Every Size initiative would yield greater overall benefits than the current approach to health in schools.  A major focus of the Health at Every Size movement is making healthy eating and physical activity more appealing to kids (Duke Forum for Law and Social Change).  Walk into any third grade classroom and it’s easy to see that the students are bursting with energy and they crave physical activity so making gym classes appealing to them shouldn’t be difficult.  The difficulty with younger children is their lack of focus and inability to do a single activity for an extended period of time.  In order to avoid the dreaded, “I’m bored,” whines gym classes need to be high energy, inclusive, and most importantly they need to be fun.  By decreasing class sizes, especially in elementary schools, students can remain actively engaged in activities and receive the necessary assistance and attention from their gym teachers.

Inspiring adolescents to be physically active proves to be more difficult.  Reflecting again on my experience in middle and high school physical education programs I vividly recall doing as little physical activity as possible during my gym classes and I had a list of reasons why which did not include a dislike of exercise.  I didn’t want to get sweaty because then my hair would be greasy for the rest of the school day.  I was terrible at sports and did not want to embarrass myself especially in front of the cute boys in my gym class.  Speaking of the boys, attempting to play flag football against senior boys as a freshman girl was quite intimidating.  Looking back now I still validate all of these reasons for sitting on the sideline.  One solution to the fear of embarrassment experienced by myself and many other students is the division of gym classes based on ability level (Duke).  By allowing students to self-report their physical ability schools could strategically place the students into gym classes where they no longer feel pressured to compare their skills with those of other students.  Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of this reform is the fact that it allows students to focus on their personal growth and it allows educators to teach lessons in a way that is most effective for students of a specific ability.      

The real shame is that high school is the time where students are more aware of their health and their bodies than ever before and it is the perfect time to learn about maintaining physical health through exercise.  Adolescents want to be healthy and fit.  Many of them want these things for superficial reasons, however, their desire to be skinny or “get ripped” can be used to educate them on the other benefits of overall health.  By using heart rate monitors to grade students based on effort rather than standard fitness assessments, not only can physical education instructors fairly grade students, but they can also teach students about aspects of fitness that are rarely covered in current physical education curriculum (Ted Talk).  Physical education is an ideal opportunity to teach teenagers about cardiorespiratory endurance and strength training but schools are so hesitant to stray from the sports based programs that have plagued gym classes for decades.  One school that made the shift away from a sports based program was Naperville Central High School.  These efforts were led by Paul Zientarski, a gym teacher who recognized the glaring issues in his school’s physical education program, and saw that by changing from a sports based program to a fitness based program his students not only improved their fitness levels, but they also had increased academic performance and behavior.

Despite the obvious benefits of quality physical education, schools are continuing to cut programs based on budgeting.  But if we as Americans are so concerned about saving money, why not cut down on health care costs, that are three times higher for obese children, by actively preventing childhood obesity and all of the health problems that accompany it (Infographic).    Physical education programs are cut from school budgets because they are deemed inferior to other aspects of education such as standardized test preparation.  School officials across the country recognize the poor quality of modern physical education programs and, instead of making efforts to improve them, they use that as an excuse to eliminate them completely.  What school officials are failing to recognize, however, is the potential benefits that adequate gym classes would have on academics.  Another change that Naperville Central High School adapted during their physical education reform was the use of Leaning Readiness Physical Education in which they placed students in physical education classes directly before classes that the student was struggling in.  The results were indisputable with students who were part of these classes testing 52-56% higher in reading and 93% higher in mathematics than students who were not a part of the Learning Readiness Physical Education program (Ted Talk).  Schools are not going to gain improved academic performance by cutting gym classes.  However, they are would improve their academic performance by building brain cells through quality, strategically placed physical education programs.

We as Americans have been failing our youth by allowing treatment to take priority over prevention in regards to youth health problems. Childhood obesity rates have risen by 500% since 1970 and reforms are still not being made to curve these trends (infographic).  Currently schools rely on inadequate physical education standards to promote physical activity.  But as Zientarski demonstrated, schools don’t have to wait for policy reforms and updated guidelines.  Local change inspires communities, laws do not.  Dedicated school officials and staff members motivate children, written policies do not.  Promoting overall health and wellness leads to a change in attitudes towards physical education, sports based programs do not.  Our youth is unable to change the policies currently in place.  If that was possible they would have decades ago because children’s bodies crave physical activity.  The habits that children learn throughout their schooling will be carried with them for the rest of their lives and proper education about health and wellness will prove to be far more beneficial than strategies for taking standardized tests.  