Proposed cure for childhood obesity
I remember reading a study which pointed out the relationship between years in school and fitness level. I spent some time and tracked it down this morning.
This study was done in New Hampshire in 2004. It has some notable results.
This study also measured fitness levels and found that 88% of children can meet the minimum fitness level upon entering school. Only 47% of children in their second year of school achieve the minimum fitness levels for the same fitness tests. At the age of ten, when an aerobic capacity and recovery test is also administered, only 22% of the children in NH can achieve the minimum fitness levels, and as the students age, the percentage of children achieving these minimum levels continues to fall.
This study clearly demonstrates that for every year a child spends in school, their overall fitness level drops dramatically. If parents are the problem, then why do so many children begin school fit?
Increasing PE is a start, but as long as school takes up so much time that children have no free time to be active, obesity will continue to be a problem.
As a personal observation, I don't see many fat kids at homeschool park day. Most homeschool children that I come in contact with are physically fit and in the normal weight range.
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Related Tags: homeschool, public school, PE, taxes, longer school day
5 comments:
Wow.
Have you read Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv? It is not particularly in support of (nor against; it's just not mentioned) homeschooling, but it is highly supportive of the idea that more *play*, especially more outside, unstructured play, is critical to the development of kids. It also argues that the current public school trend of focusing on standardized tests, and neglecting recess and PE totally neglects the truth that kids' mind-development is very closely tied to their body-development. IOW, strong bodies = strong minds, especially in kids.
Thanks for your post; I feel better than ever for homeschooling my kids and encouraging them to PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!
Recently I noticed that none of the homeschooled kids I know are overweight, mine included. My kids seem to be in constant motion even while "doing school." It is really discouraging to see a proposal to lengthen the school day to fight obesity - I believe the real reason is to keep kids away from their parents and under control of the state longer - obesity is just the excuse. I guess if I were a real conspiracy theorist, I'd wonder if the school purposely worked to make kids fat so they could come up with the solution...
I think it is the law of unintended consequences. People who think they are going to save the world by making laws invariable don't think far enough ahead to see the great harm they will cause in the guise of doing a little good.
Thank you for bringing such nice posts. Your blog is always fascinating to read.
Thank you for the comments.
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