Gym class—the sharp sound of sneakers squeaking against a newly waxed gymnasium floor, the slowness with which time passes during schoolyard drafts, the musky scent of discarded sneakers and sweaty shirts in an old, tiled locker room—is, for many American K-12 students, a normal part of life. Yet the institution of gym class is precariously suspended in a heated debate about whether schools should require physical education (PE) programs.
Some argue that requiring children to partake in physical activity in school produces countless benefits, extending even beyond physical health, and that compulsory PE programs are therefore justified. Increasingly, however, a growing and diverse group of dissidents contend that compulsory PE programs should be scrapped altogether. For a few, the question centers around the fat rights movement and the charge that mandatory PE programs undermine the self-esteem of American children already submerged in a culture dictating that beauty is only skin-deep; for others, different considerations loom most prominently. But for most people against compulsory PE in schools, the objection stems from a perceived inadequacy of these programs to produce the desired effects, especially considering the U.S.’s high obesity rates and other evidence of chronically unhealthy habits. But does past failure really doom mandatory physical education programs to future failure?
Running into Problems
Last year, news broke that the United States is no longer the most obese country in the world; Mexico had surpassed the U.S.’s 31.8 percent obesity rate by a mere percentage point. Though the U.S. no longer holds its old title of the world’s most obese country, there exists little cause for celebration: about 17 percent of American children between the ages of two and 18 are not just overweight (weighing 10 to 20 percent more than average weight) but obese. In other words, 12.5 million children across the country weigh 20 percent or more than the designated healthy weight. Individual differences in characteristics like muscularity and body frame may render the pinpointing of a healthy weight challenging, but the error among healthy weight estimations cannot possibly be large enough to mitigate this evidence of chronic unhealthiness. Childhood and adolescent obesity rates have nearly tripled since 1980.
Other measures of unhealthiness in American children prove equally damning. The average American child spends seven hours per day on computers, televisions, and phones, though the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends only two hours daily. Naturally, time spent in front of a screen cannot also be spent actively. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children spend at least one hour every day on physical activity; a 2009 study found that 42 percent of children ages six to 11 and eight percent of adolescents 12 to 19 meet this recommendation. American children do not devote enough time to physical activity to prevent obesity and associated health problems, and for some, gym class is their only opportunity; Dr. Melinda Sothern, who has studied childhood obesity at length, told the HPR, “Due to some of the poor social conditions that can exist with the home environment, the school environment offers an alternative safe place for children to engage in physical activity.”
At the same time, gym class programs have recently undergone intense budget-cutting. As of 2012, 44 states did not adhere to the national recommendation that elementary schools require two and a half hours per week of PE. Concern has arisen regarding two coinciding trends: that of reduced PE since the 1990s, and that of rapidly rising obesity rates. As any statistician will testify, however, the correlation of these trends does not ensure causation. The debate over the value of compulsory PE programs begs the question of their efficacy.
A Better Fit
Logically, PE programs in schools should improve children’s health at least to some extent. Personal trainer Alex Carras reiterated to the HPR that gym class “really gives you a chance to be moving around, and that promotes a healthy lifestyle.” This approach finds support in scientific research, too. A recent Cornell study revealed that increasing the number of hours of physical education in schools reduces the probability of obesity; in the study, an additional hour per week of PE translated into a roughly five percent decrease in the likelihood of obesity. This study is among the first of its kind, but given the evidence that scientists have found, PE appears to be at least partially effective.
Still, PE programs could help more. After all, a third of America’s children are obese; given the plethora of problems such as low income living that contribute to poor health, gym class is not the only solution, but it is a start. Though the scientific literature on PE remains underdeveloped, what PE needs is not cancellation but reforms to heighten its efficacy in teaching students healthy habits and facilitating exercise.
The same Cornell study that defends compulsory PE by suggesting that increasing gym class hours decreases the probability of obesity indicates that the effects of gym class in preventing obesity are significantly stronger in boys than in girls. If gym classes were split into all-male and all-female groups, then girls would likely feel more comfortable and participate more. Lorraine Moylan, a gym teacher at a New York public high school, said in an interview with the HPR, “I think it does help to separate [by gender], because I think that when the girls are separate, they tend to participate more. They’re less self-conscious.”
Yet forming gender-divided gym classes will not entirely eliminate the shortage of enthusiasm and consequent lack of participation that plague gym classes across the U.S. Students’ engagement with PE activities could be elevated if students were allowed a greater variety of choices. Moylan proposes making gym class “more like an elective,” in the sense that students could select their activities from among several options. By implementing this change, PE programs could capitalize on the increased willingness to participate that tends to accompany freedom of choice.
Additionally, the typical gym class could use restructuring. A 2006 study found that the average gym class consists of only 16 minutes of actual movement. In other words, significant amounts of time are wasted changing into or out of gym clothes, taking attendance, and simply idling around during less-than-physical activities. Switching to activities demanding greater exertion would increase movement and calorie-burning, and accelerating changing and attendance would allocate more time to the active portion of class.
Unfortunately, as author and fitness speaker Steve Ettinger told the HPR, “PE varies so much across the board. I travel around the country speaking in schools and there’s such a huge difference among schools. The more money you have available, the better it is.” Some reforms could be accomplished more easily than others, and much depends upon a school’s resources. With school budgets stretched thin lately, it can appear difficult to justify maintaining PE instead of preserving as much funding as possible for academics.
This vision of PE as conflicting with or detracting from academics during school is unfounded, though. Ettinger clarified that, “There’s a lot of great research that shows that higher functioning of the brain and greater happiness come with exercise.” Similarly, Dr. Sothern pointed to evidence in various studies that physical activity enhances children’s academic performance, from standardized test scores to grades in class. “There’s a point of diminishing return in academic pursuit such that when someone is on task too long, there is no additional benefit to being seated and reading and focusing on the assignment. There’s a point at which being physically active will enhance mental function and actually promote better performance in school, and there’s really great data backing this up.” Moreover, Dr. Sothern also stated that, “If children do not learn the skills to perform in a wide variety of activities, they are less likely to exercise as adults”; thus, the cycle of reduced mental productivity without exercise compounds itself beyond the childhood years.
Still, reforming American physical education alone could not even come close to eradicating unhealthy habits in American children; too many other factors, from technology to poverty, contribute to this epidemic. However, PE reform could provide the first step toward physical health for children across the country, and America needs to take the first step before it can start to run.
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