A well-rounded student’s education is important in creating a solid foundation upon which a student may develop and grow successfully. One area however has been neglected from a student’s education for years and has just recently started gaining awareness once again: physical education. Though many people feel that physical education is prevalent in schools it is mostly limited to elementary and middle school students while the high school students are “left off the hook.” This has spun the country into total disarray as the kids of today are in the “digital age” of computers, smart phones, and constant connectivity to the Internet. In the fifties and sixties, many kids were outdoors camping, fishing, playing various sports, and hanging around outdoors. Nowadays, due to the digital age, we have become sedimentary and sluggish, most of the time not wanting to get off the computer for a few hours to smell the fresh air. This has led to a skyrocket in obesity rates and has led the United States to become the country with the most overweight kids in the world. This has also led to various illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and higher chances of heart attack and stroke among the youth in the United States. To encourage healthier lifestyles, we need to make physical education compulsory. By making it mandatory, this will spiral the developmental mindset of kids into a healthier one and thus a successful one. In this paper, I will be detailing the reasons why physical education should become a mandatory course especially in high school. Physical education is a mandatory course only for elementary and middle school students and can be taken for the first two years of high school. However, after those two years, schools rarely push to continue physical education, as they want the student to focus more on academics than P.E. In a survey conducted in 2000 that asked, “what should be taught to students prior to graduation?” the results were surprising due to the results stating that adults were more concerned about children learning healthy habits than academics. It then goes on to state “most schools devote minimal curriculum time to teaching students how to lead healthy lives,” (Lambert, 2000). Another study shown from the American Heart Association also stated that, “95% of parents believe physical education should be part of a school curriculum for all students in grades K-12,” (childhood obesity, n.d.). This has been coupled with the rising concern about the epidemic of childhood obesity. Participating in physical education classes have been steadily declining for high school students. In a recent poll conducted in 2010, the percentage of high school students participating in P.E. was 42.1% in ninth grade all the way down to 20.1% in twelfth grade (Coe et. al. 2006). This goes to show that physical education is not being as big of a focus even though adults deem it to be one of the most important subjects to be fully covered in the high school curriculum. This is one of the problems that physical education faces within high school curriculum: unawareness by parents who deem it necessary. As high school students transition to college, life becomes even more sedimentary as kids start to party, “game”, and get the dreaded “Freshman 15.” A study conducted by the American College of Sports reported that, “college students who regularly engage in vigorous exercise get better grades,” (Parker-Pope, 2010). Since high school students, especially seniors, are on the verge of being college freshman, there should be a rising need and importance of implementing physical educational classes during this time so as to impart the framework of a “healthy lifestyle” within the older schooled community. During their high school years too, they will “establish habits and attitudes about the role physical activity will play in their lifetime. This is [also] the time for students to explore their preferences related to physical activity and perhaps specialize based on abilities and interests,” (“physical education”, 2007). This shows us that kids majorly lay out/develop how their lives will be led in their high school years. Many kids make life-long friends, learn valuable life-skills, and set them on track for college and eventually the real world in high school. Thus, I feel that it is strictly necessary that physical education class be implemented as a mandatory requisite into the high school curriculum. Only by doing this, I believe, will high school students be, at the least, a bit more aware of their food, drug, and lifestyle choices which will prepare them for life’s challenges. In a study done that was presented by Lambert where she cited the CDC, she stated that, “each year, physical inactivity contributes to nearly 260,000 deaths in the United States. Unhealthy behaviors take many years to present themselves clinically, but there is a compelling reason to believe that helping students learn to be active early in their lives will provide an important foundation for lifetime physical activity,” (Lambert, 2000). As evidenced again by this study from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), although students may believe that learning about physical education is pointless in their high school years, in actuality, by creating their physical health foundation at this time and really thinking about it seriously, not only will they live a healthy lifestyle from when they are young, but they will also continue that lifestyle and have less medical problems and worries. They will also feel better about themselves, make better choices, and ultimately be a better-prepared well-rounded individual. While being a well-rounded individual is important, students need to also take into consideration their physical health. A big problem that started to appear during the 1980s was childhood obesity in the United States. In 1980 “adolescents aged 12-19 years had tripled from 5% in 1980 to 15% in 2000. Inactivity among adolescents is a contributing factor to the increasing trends in overweightness. Regular physical activity has additional health benefits, including…higher levels of self-esteem and self-concept and lower levels of anxiety and stress,” (“participating in high school, 2004). This study provided by the CDC helped foretell the future in adolescent exercise routines in high schools. The number of inactive adolescents has been on the rise due to the increase in technological breakthroughs which has mostly allowed them to enjoy themselves indoors rather than go running outdoors, go to gym, etc. The CDC however gives light onto how exercise can benefit adolescents (students) during this time as showing that it helps with “self-esteem and self-concept.” These are important things that students consider while in school because during this tumultuous time, mostly everything is about image for students: how they look to their peers, how they look respectable to their teachers, by looking a certain way it may help get a girlfriend/boyfriend, etc. Perception is a big key in high school and thus by doing exercise, not only will they feel good about themselves physically, they will have a better attitude and perspective going into school mentally as well. It also has been shown to help their cognitive thinking skills (i.e. problem solving), academics, and outlook on schooling that in turn will help their school performance improve overall as well (“physical education”, 2007). Through physical education, students will be able to become active and thus increase their overall lifestyle. It has been said that movement promotes an active brain (Shaar, 2009). There have been studies that two psychological “neurotransmitters”, serotonin and dopamine, help achieve a sharper and stronger mind and clearer focus throughout our tasks: “These chemical messengers make us feel good and increase our energy and motivation. The link between feeling good and doing well was already clear from an abundance of previous positive psychology research…new research published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience has shown that people can problem-solve with more insight and creativity when in a positive mood, because insight is generated in the same brain region as positive emotions,” (Shaar, 2009). Later on in the article, Shaar also states that cortisol, a stress hormone is also reduced and that a single session of exercise can reduce immediate feelings of anxiety (Shaar, 2009). She then goes on to add that physical exercise in general stimulates and de-stresses your body:

“If a single exercise session is impactful, regular workouts compound the benefits. Aerobic activity improves the central nervous system’s resistance to depletion under stress, which leads to improved performance in challenging tasks and enhanced learning abilities. Regular physical activity simultaneously boosts your physical and psychological health, both of which certainly enhance the ability to be effective and productive…[Loehr and Schwartz, who researched exercise on work performance found that] through increased energy, physical fitness produces higher engagement and better work results (Shaar, 2009).

This picture was borrowed from http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/pe-infographic.jpg Through the stimulation of the brain through activity, a person is able to become more alert and focused and also able to enjoy themselves more. During high school years there are many pressures and stresses put upon each student such as learning to drive, relationships, getting into the right college, etc. The list could go on, but with all of these pressures, they must also perform well enough in school to graduate. With exercise, at least an hour a day, students may be able to focus for longer periods of time when doing their homework and may also complete it in a more efficient and suitable fashion (i.e. write an excellent report with exercise rather than writing a decent report without exercise). Another phenomena that occurs due to physical exercise is the creation of new neurons. Through the exercise, the BDNF gene (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) helps generate new genes and also helps with the stability of “synaptic plasticity” which is the “basis of learning and memory” (McGovern, 2005). Physical education helps stimulate your mind even more and helps you retain information longer and clearer. Thus, by using physical education, students may be able to concentrate on a test study sheet while doing aerobic exercise or may be able have a stronger and more fixed concentration point upon one topic thus enabling that person to perform well during tests. Along with this another study conducted by researchers from Michigan State University also cited a study done by Shepard and Lavallee in which it showed that “students who received an hour of physical education per day in addition to the standard physical education class showed better academic performance compared with control subjects who only had the standard physical education class,” and also stated that, “…decreasing time spent in academic programs did not adversely affect the academic performance of the students,” (Coe et al., 2006). This study also shows that even though schools think that students will be better equipped to perform better because of the reduction or deletion of physical education classes in high school, in actuality, it has little to no direct effect on the students whatsoever and will not prompt a massively dynamic change from a low-performing student to a high achiever. However, overexertion of oneself through exercise is not necessarily a good thing. A study done by Rhodes and his colleagues that was included in McGovern’s dissertation stated that, “…[over exercising] actually showed an inability to learn. A possible cause for this inability is the disruption of cognitive function by a preoccupation with exercise,” (McGovern, 2005). Cutting physical education classes doesn’t benefit anyone. By doing this, it may conversely stress or bore the students out even more due to them having an extra class or longer class periods. This picture was borrowed from http://drbrianparr.wordpress.com Along with furthering one’s physical and academic lifestyle, the mental aspect of life also comes into play when talking about physical education. High school students being able to take “responsibility for themselves” and become more independent and self-aware of their surroundings. Through this, a child’s “kinesthetic intelligence” is grown. (“physical education”, 2007). During their high school years too, they will “establish habits and attitudes about the role physical activity will play in their lifetime. This is [also] the time for students to explore their preferences related to physical activity and perhaps specialize based on abilities and interests,” (“physical education”, 2007). School life can become daunting for students as the work piles up and they are faced with seemingly endless deadlines that come right after another. This can put a hamper on a student’s social life and therefore make the student stressed out, unhappy, and as a result, less productive when doing their work. However it has been shown that exercise helps as a “mood-enhancer” and that it helps people recover from their unhappiness quicker than if they were to do nothing about it (McGovern, 2005). There has also been concern that exercise, although it may help us relieve our stress, is painful and struggling. It can also be said that exercise requires too much attention to detail (needing to put on the right clothes, deciding what you will be doing for how long, etc.) and that because of that fact, exercise wastes too much time in the daily life of a normal student. However, “exercise stimulates the release of endorphins, the chemicals released…in response to stress or pain. The endorphins tend to minimize the discomfort of exercise and are even associated with a feeling of euphoria,” (McGovern, 2005). With this fact, we can see that although exercising is painful and most of the times stressful, in actuality it is only the slight beginning pain that we are feeling and not the “high” that we would like to experience. By having students exercise at school at least one hour per day, they will be able to bypass the stage of pain and move into the stage of “euphoria” within that timeframe and thus be more productive due to a sense of happiness. One reason that children did not like going to physical education is because the kids didn’t like doing physical education classes because “they didn’t like getting dressed, getting sweaty during the day, and [that] their classes were over-capacitated. If they were going to do physical education, they wanted to do something fun,” (Sealey, n.d.). This way of thinking has shown that doing the same physical educational program throughout the country may be the reason why students feel that they are doing monotony in P.E. class. P.E. classes of today resemble closely to those of old, mundane, activities. The way on how to prepare a modern P.E. class is to be able to “develop knowledge about, and skills in, several forms of activity.” By making students learn through physical education (i.e. doing bodily functional learning exercises through dribbling the ball, team-building, etc.) students will feel refreshed through exercise and also be able to further their learning and education also (Lambert, 2000). Physical education needs to be implemented as a mandatory course in high schools. It clearly has no bad effects and can only help the student rather than hurt them. Thus, for students, parents, and teachers, having an “exercise” class once a day may just be the key to curb the obesity rates and grades of the youth of tomorrow. This picture was borrowed from http://elearninginfographics.com/what-works-to-get-kids-active-infographic/

For your convenience, the references listed below have URL links in which you may read if you are further interested:

References

ABC News.com. Health. Just Do It? Many Schools Cutting Gym Class. ABC News. ABC, n.d. Web. 6 May 2014. http://www.ihpra.org/ABCNEWS_com%20%20No%20Sweat%20When%20Gym%20Class%20Cut.htm

Carlson, Susan A., Janet E. Fulton, Sarah M. Lee, L. Michelle Maynard, David R. Brown, Harold W. Kohl, III, and William H. Dietz. Physical Education and Academic Achievement in Elementary School: Data From the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. The National Center for Biotechnology Information. American Journal of Public Health, Apr. 2008. Web. 6 May 2014. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2377002/

Centers for Disease Control. “Participation in High School Physical Education — United States, 1991–2003.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 Sept. 2004. Web. 06 May 2014. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5336a5.htm#tab

Coe, Dawn Podulka, James M. Pivarnik, Christopher J. Womack, Matthew J. Reeves, and Robert M. Malina. Effect of Physical Education and Activity Levels on Academic Achievement in Children. Tech. East Lansing & Texas: American College of Sports Medicine, 2006. Web. http://www.wafapower.com/scienceresearch/pe_academic_achievement.pdf

Facts – Learning For Life: Physical Education in Public Schools. Digital image. Heart.org. American Heart Association, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. http://www.heart.org/idc/groups/heart-public/@wcm/@adv/documents/downloadable/ucm_304865.pdf

Lambert, Leslie T. “The New Physical Education.” Healthy Bodies, Minds, and Buildings 57.6 (2000): 34-38. ACSD. Web. 6 May 2014. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar00/vol57/num06/The-New-Physical-Education.aspx McGovern, MK. “The Effects of Exercise on the Brain.” The Effects of Exercise on the Brain. Serendip, 2005. Web. 6 May 2014. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro05/web2/mmcgovern.html

Parker-Pope, Tara. “Vigorous Exercise Linked With Better Grades.” The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 3 June 2010. Web. 06 May 2014. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/vigorous-exercise-linked-with-better-grades/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

“Physical Education Is Critical to a Complete Education.” Education.com. National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 26 July 2007. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Physical_Education/

“Physical Education Programs In School Not Enough To Combat Obesity In Most States: Study.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc., 09 July 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/09/study-school-based-physic_n_1659579.html

“Poll Finds Lack of Physical Education in Public Schools a Concern of Parents.” Harvard School of Public Health. Harvard College, 2 Dec. 2013. Web. 6 May 2014. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/lack-of-physical-education-in-schools-concerns-parents/

Shaar, Marie-Josee S. “How Physical Activity Enhances Productivity.” Mature Resources. On Track Marketing, 2009. Web. 06 May 2014. http://www.matureresources.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=306:how-physical-activity-enhances-productivity&catid=93:marie-josee-salvas-shaar-positive-psychology-fitness-a-nutrition&Itemid=113

Wright, David, and Hanna Siegel. “Bikes, Balls in Class: How Phys Ed Transformed One School.” ABC News. ABC News Network, 14 Apr. 2010. Web. 06 May 2014. http://abcnews.go.com/WN/exercise-school-leads-learning/story?id=10371315

Here is one video that I borrowed from YouTube that I believe really captures the success of meshing together physical education and academics.