Combat Against Childhood Obesity

The Combat against Childhood and
Adolescent Obesity through Physical Education Pedro Arias Concordia College Spring 2016

The Combat against Childhood and
Adolescent Obesity through Physical Education

Obesity is a growing issue within the United States. It has become an epidemic. An issue so big our first lady Michelle Obama has taken interest and now advocates for it. As time goes by the issue of obesity does not get better but instead worsens as we fail to solve the problem or find a solution. Our nation as a whole has one of the highest rate of overweight kids and adults. We must ask ourselves as a nation what can we do to fix this problem and where should it start. The issues of obesity are greater
Studies done have shown the significant impact that daily exercise has, it’s been proven countless times. James Reid from Grambling State University and Yvette Bolen from Athens State University suggest this in there article “The Prevalence of Obesity: The Need For Quality School Physical Education” and give the following numbers based off of their work done to prove such points. The survey done by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation showed the percent of adults that were overweight in 1990 compared to 2013 within the same states. In 1990 the average for overweight adults was 11.12 percent for 44 different states including Washington DC. By 2013 the numbers had raised over double that number to 28.65 percent. Some states like Oklahoma had their numbers tripled. Oklahoma saw its numbers go from 10.3 percent to 32.5 percent. What happened in those 13 years? The numbers are alarming and this trend needs to come to an end. For the sake of our nation and our children we need to take more concern and there needs to be more done to prevent this issue. The problem with obesity in children is that once they reach such weights it is more than likely that as they become adults they will still be overweight and
Yes, many states do have basic PE requirements for schools but it is not enough. Both Bott and Murray (2015) support my statement when they say” There is an obvious need for quality physical education in schools to help abate increasing sedentary behaviors and rates of obesity.” What is quality physical education? Well quality PE does not just focus on tuning skills within the students. But better yet a good quality physical educational plan starts when we decide to develop student’s motor skills because then they can take full advantage of the any skill they might learn along the way. Both Bott and Murray (2015) state that “The motor skills mastered in elementary school physical education have been linked to increased activity levels and improved fitness.” That is what is needed in our physical education programs, increased activity levels and improved fitness. The youth and adolescent world need to be more active to avoid becoming a problem that has already plagued this nation. Quality teaching of physical education is so important because it will allow students to prevent themselves from becoming overweight or lose the weight they might have gotten. Of course it’s not to say that state or local standards of PE are not a good place to go off of. “ Developing or locating goals tied to the national (SHAPE America, 2014), state or even district standards is an excellent place to