News from the Land of the Fat and the Home of the Lame
The following are quotes from he 2006 Shape of the Nation -- jointly conducted by the American Heart Association and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated.
"The percentage of students who attend a daily physical education class has dropped from 42 percent in 1991 to 28 percent in 2003, the report says."
"The number of kids considered overweight has more than tripled since 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Among those between ages 6 to 19, over 9 million kids -- 16 percent -- are considered overweight."
"Modern life has also made Americans more sedentary. "Technology has created many time and labor saving products. Some examples include cars, elevators, computers, dishwashers, and televisions. Cars are used to run short distance errands instead of people walking or riding a bicycle," the CDC says."
Critics contend that the very legislation meant to bolster national academic standards -- the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 -- may be a culprit in the diminishing P.E. curriculum, unintentionally sapping schools of time and resources for exercise as educators focus more and more on test scores and rigorous academic coursework.
The NCLB Act is President Bush's centerpiece education law that, among other things, requires virtually all students to test at their grade level for math and reading. Schools that do not measure up to the standards two years in a row have to provide more tutoring or let students transfer to better schools.
A national study by the Center on Public Education published earlier this year on the implementation of the No Child Left Behind law found that 71 percent of the districts surveyed had elementary schools that cut back on instructional time for a subject (i.e Physical Education) to make room for more reading and math -- the primary focus of the law.
So what does this all mean? Kids are growing up with weight related health problems. Is the potential benefit of kids that read and do math more worth the health risk? In my opinion, no. It's ridiculous in our country that car manufactures are now making cars to accomodate fatter people, as well as airlines and other modes of transportation having to contend with this. Cars are becoming wheelchairs for the masses.
"The percentage of students who attend a daily physical education class has dropped from 42 percent in 1991 to 28 percent in 2003, the report says."
"The number of kids considered overweight has more than tripled since 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Among those between ages 6 to 19, over 9 million kids -- 16 percent -- are considered overweight."
"Modern life has also made Americans more sedentary. "Technology has created many time and labor saving products. Some examples include cars, elevators, computers, dishwashers, and televisions. Cars are used to run short distance errands instead of people walking or riding a bicycle," the CDC says."
Critics contend that the very legislation meant to bolster national academic standards -- the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 -- may be a culprit in the diminishing P.E. curriculum, unintentionally sapping schools of time and resources for exercise as educators focus more and more on test scores and rigorous academic coursework.
The NCLB Act is President Bush's centerpiece education law that, among other things, requires virtually all students to test at their grade level for math and reading. Schools that do not measure up to the standards two years in a row have to provide more tutoring or let students transfer to better schools.
A national study by the Center on Public Education published earlier this year on the implementation of the No Child Left Behind law found that 71 percent of the districts surveyed had elementary schools that cut back on instructional time for a subject (i.e Physical Education) to make room for more reading and math -- the primary focus of the law.
So what does this all mean? Kids are growing up with weight related health problems. Is the potential benefit of kids that read and do math more worth the health risk? In my opinion, no. It's ridiculous in our country that car manufactures are now making cars to accomodate fatter people, as well as airlines and other modes of transportation having to contend with this. Cars are becoming wheelchairs for the masses.
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