More Students Opting Out of Phys Ed Classes Despite Obesity Epidemic
Dec. 14, 2010— -- Once a mainstay of the school day, physical education classes have fallen by the wayside for many American students, despite a massive push by doctors, nutritionists and even the first lady to get children more active.
The message has come fast and furious -- childhood obesity is a national epidemic.
But physical education advocates say more and more students are being allowed to opt out of gym class in favor of activities like marching band, ROTC, even an extra art class.
Students in some school districts are even allowed to complete their physical education requirements online ; They promise to exercise on their own time and just click their way through to course completion.
"This is a serious issue," said Keith Ayoob, director of the nutrition clinic at the Rose F. Kennedy Center in the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "If they don't get anything in school they're probably not going to get it."
Being obese and overweight is the No. 1 health problem in children, Ayoob said. And a study this year in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that obese children were twice as likely to die of disease by age 55.
According to the "Shape of the Nation" report, released in June by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 22 states -- 43 percent -- allow required physical education credits to be completed online.
And only five states -- Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Vermont -- require p.e. at every grade level.
"We've seen over time that children and students are becoming more sedentary and not just in school," said NASPE president Lynn Couturier. ""Even after school, if they're going home a lot of them are choosing activities that are not physically active."
Schools, Couturier said, are making cuts to recess and intramural sports, leaving interscholastic sports, where only skilled athletes make the team. That cycle, she said, denies opportunities for exercise to those who need it most.
NASPE, along with the American Heart Association, recommend that students get 30 minutes per day of physical education instruction for elementary school children and 45 minutes per day for middle and high school children.
But only one state -- Alabama -- follows the guidelines at each school level, the NASPE reported.
"In my experience kids should be getting physical activity every single day and they don't," Ayoob said.
