The Importance of Compulsory Physical Education Classes

The secret to a long life is being physically active. Young adolescents in our schools, benefit the most from physical activities because it positively affects their health, helps relieve stress, anxiety, and it improves their social assimilation. Physical education classes should be compulsory throughout a student’s career to provide a healthier lifestyle.

Since 1996, childhood obesity has increased to such a dangerous level which demonstrates more than 9 million children are now overweight. Children spend the majority of their time in school. Therefore, students must receive adequate physical education classes to help them have a healthier lifestyle and maintain it as a lifelong hobby. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education gave the states and the federal government a failing grade on physical education in the American school system. Meaning that there is a lot more physical education classes can do for the students of America if performed correctly. According to the American Heart Association, Nearly 1 in 3 kids or teens in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Having to carry extra weight as a kid can pose significant health risk during adulthood and childhood. “CDC officials cite research showing most overweight children become obese adults” (Alison Kepner). Being overweight as a child steers you to a life full of diseases. Such health risks include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and sleep apnea. Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in one’s blood. With high cholesterol one is likely to develop fatty deposits in one’s blood vessels. Eventually the deposits grow preventing blood to flow to your arteries causing a heart attack or a stroke. Which both can be very dangerous and deadly. High blood pressure, also known as The Silent Killer, can also develop with lack of physical activity and overweight. High blood pressure occurs when one’s blood is constantly pushing against the blood vessels leading to heart disease and strokes. A person could have high blood pressure for years and sense no symptoms. Moreover, individuals with high blood pressure can even die in their sleep if it goes undetected. Sleep apnea causes ones breathing to stop during sleep. This leads to a greater risk of sudden cardiac arrest. An estimated 12 million American adults have obstructive sleep apnea, and many of them are undiagnosed (NHLBI). These are just some of the diseases that will harm children that are not physically active as they attend school. With moderate exercise in schools, America can give their students a better lifestyle and healthier future. With physical education classes, children can prevent to grow into a life full of heart diseases.

The idea of Physical Education classes is to provide students with knowledge that can help them maintain a healthy lifestyle. For instance at Brandywine High, ninth-graders spend their class time playing traditional team sports. Moreover, students are also learning how fast a heartbeat should be when performing vigorous and moderate exercise. This not only allows them to exercise their body, but it also allows them to know if they are performing it correctly. They learn new information that will definitely help them in the real world. By providing them a physical education class, they will also be exposed to coping mechanism to stress and anxiety. Depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety often are present when someone is obese. Scientists have found that regular participation in aerobic exercise has been shown to decrease overall levels of tension, elevate and stabilize mood, improve sleep, and improve self-esteem. Even five minutes can stimulate anti-anxiety effects. Homework, assignments, projects, and tests from different classes can be overwhelming for students. A physical education class can provide students with a mental break. Allowing them to cope with stress and responsibilities they have in school and home. By coping with their stress and anxiety you minimize the chances for the children to fall into depression and other mental illnesses.

Socialization is the process a person takes to learn values of one's culture and behaviors. One study conducted by the University of Michigan suggested that children who participated in team sports learned to be more empathetic towards others. By having students socialize with others during a physical education class you keep them away from drug consumption, allow for the child to improve self-esteem, inspire leadership skills, and empathetic behavior. Children that are provided with daily physical activity will treat themselves better and adopt healthy lifelong habits. A physical education class will not only help them stabilize a healthy life and body, it will also allow them to practice their social skills which is considered a life skill that is needed in the real world.

Bullying, injuries, and children with special needs will be some of the reasons of why physical education classes should not be mandatory. The stronger and more athletic students will at times pick on the weak for not being good enough. This could lead to the other students less motivated to participate and diminish their self-esteem. Another risk factor of physical education are injuries. When involved in a physical activity students will be prone to an injury. Such injuries include coconscious. In surveyed gym classes, concussion rates were 4.7 per 100 students (Lindsey Wahowiak). Moreover, those students that are injured or have a disability cannot participate. For that reason, coaches will ask for them to stand on the sideline while others participate. As this takes place the child could get picked on by other students, or they could feel less as they see other students running and participating why they are standing on the sideline. However, the same way there are bad students there are also good students that will help their fellow classmates. In a physical education class, children will have an opportunity to find those friends that will help them go through their struggles. They will be surrounded by dozens of children that can relate to the emotions and thoughts they feel. Physical education is the class that will allow students to live and continue a healthy life as they grow. Yes, there are probabilities of injuries, bullying, and other downfalls of physical education classes. However, those are probabilities meaning they could or could not happen. A life full of health complications that can lead to death due to the lack of physical activity is indeed certain.