Physical Education Should Be Mandatory for High School
Did you know that more people in the world are dying due to obesity than of starvation? (Kita, Joe) The rate of obesity has been an issue for the past few decades, where we find that more and more people are gaining too much weight!
There are multiple reasons why this may be happening, eating too many unhealthy foods, genetics, or they aren’t acquiring enough exercise. Many youth in this day and age care more about spending time on the computer or watching television than going outside and getting exercise. This is where the government and school board should step in and encourage teens to take physical education throughout their high school career.
According to the WHO, about 18 million children aged 0-5 are overweight worldwide (Kita, Joe). If these children continue to live on their lives without getting the proper exercise they need, they will soon become obese. Obesity is a common issue youth finds themselves facing. It can be traumatizing for teens to find themselves face pressure from the media to be skinny, or made fun of for being overweight. Obesity is one cause that attributes to suicide rates. Now, if schools would reinforce taking physical education, fewer children would be obese and may lower suicide rates as well as bring up children’s general self esteem.
I, for one may be a living example of why physical education should be mandatory throughout high school. No, I am not obese however I am far from being fit. I myself have decided not to take physical education after the mandatory ninth grade year because I simply did not have any space on my timetable for it. If physical education were to be mandatory, I would have to make space for it and therefore result in me being much fitter than I am today.
Many may argue that making physical education a mandatory course through high school would be a violation of human rights, and how it would force some people to do things they wouldn’t want to do. However, the same can be said about
There are multiple reasons why this may be happening, eating too many unhealthy foods, genetics, or they aren’t acquiring enough exercise. Many youth in this day and age care more about spending time on the computer or watching television than going outside and getting exercise. This is where the government and school board should step in and encourage teens to take physical education throughout their high school career.
According to the WHO, about 18 million children aged 0-5 are overweight worldwide (Kita, Joe). If these children continue to live on their lives without getting the proper exercise they need, they will soon become obese. Obesity is a common issue youth finds themselves facing. It can be traumatizing for teens to find themselves face pressure from the media to be skinny, or made fun of for being overweight. Obesity is one cause that attributes to suicide rates. Now, if schools would reinforce taking physical education, fewer children would be obese and may lower suicide rates as well as bring up children’s general self esteem.
I, for one may be a living example of why physical education should be mandatory throughout high school. No, I am not obese however I am far from being fit. I myself have decided not to take physical education after the mandatory ninth grade year because I simply did not have any space on my timetable for it. If physical education were to be mandatory, I would have to make space for it and therefore result in me being much fitter than I am today.
Many may argue that making physical education a mandatory course through high school would be a violation of human rights, and how it would force some people to do things they wouldn’t want to do. However, the same can be said about
Cited: Kita, Joe. "The Weight of the World." Reader 's DigestFeb. 2010: 40 - 51. Print.