Thoughts on Physical Education in Schools

The state of Missouri is thinking about doing away with mandated physical education classes in grades kindergarten through 5th grade, and I was asked what my viewpoint was on this topic.  Well, I thought that I would blog about it, and see what your opinions on the matter were as well!

I believe that this would be a large setback in the health of our society.  The obesity epidemic in this country is already a hot and heated debate.  I do believe by not instilling our children with the necessity of exercise, and making it enjoyable will only cause the epidemic to spiral out of control. In today's world an average child's form of exercise on any given day is bowling or playing a round of tennis on the Wii or Xbox Kinnect.  In this technology age children would rather be sitting indoors playing on their ds, gameboy, psp, game consoles, or any other given electronic than to be outside.  When I was growing up, we would play hide and seek, catch fireflies, play tag, kickball, or ride our bikes for fun.  Seeing the shift in the idea of extra cirricular activities greatly negates the need for P.E. in our school systems.  Our country is trying to reform healthcare by making it more afforable and readily available for all people; however, by not instilling exercise in our children at a young age and as they are growing up, we are going to see a drastic increase in health issues and problems; from juvenile diabetes, high cholesterol, cardiac problems, breathing problems, and many other health scares that obesity is a cause of.  What will this rise in healthcare issues cause?  Higher premiums on health insurance, higher costs of prescription medicines due to a higher volume of consumers, and most importantly the mortality age to decline.  Our children are our future, and by enabling them to continue to carry out the epidemic that our fast food nation has invented is appalling.  Yes, we as parents should enforce our children to participate in forms of exercise, and produce a healthy diet for them to consume; however, there are parents out there that have fallen victim to obesity themselves or just aren't knowledgable in a healthy lifestyle, as well as parents who just dont care.  Personally, I despised going to gym class after 6th grade, but now that I look back on it, I wish that it was mandatory all the way through school (including all 4 years of high school).  I do think that they could update the class, into a more generation appropriate form, just make it fun and the kids will approve.  As for high school students gear it more towards fitness class and strength training, perhaps rotate classes per quarter, for example 1-zumba and pilates 2-jazzercise and yoga 3-strength training and step aerobics 4-sports quarter i.e. kickball, softball, flag football, etc.  I personally would have LOVED this type of  P.E. class in high school lol. 

Anyways, I believe that you guys get my view on this, I personally think that it is a poor decision, while they may think that these children are "too young" to be greatly affected by this decision, they aren't.  If the form of exercise isn't instilled at a young age, children will not adhere to it at an older age. 

So, what are YOUR thoughts and opinions on this topic?