Longer school day, leaner kids
That's right, boys and girls. The key to preventing childhood obesity is a a longer school day.
Koutoujian is too ambitious, at least for now, when he proposes requiring youngsters to get 120 hours of physical education or active recess a year. Senator Thomas McGee of Lynn has filed a similar bill. Koutoujian and McGee can't deny that the state is responsible for the reduction in physical education over the past decade or so. Lawmakers quite rightly required more classroom instruction as part of the Education Reform Act in 1993. But with the six-hour, 180-day school schedule enshrined in tradition, something had to give, and that was exercise. If the legislators want schools to provide more physical education, they need to provide money so that the schools can offer a longer day.
However, I think this is their real intent:
It's impossible to keep children from eating chips and other junk foods at home....
Thus if you make laws that require children to spend every waking hour at school and laws that dictate what they can and cannot eat at school, viola! Like magic, childhood obesity will disappear. (This is a little sarcasm on my part.)
I do support the part about banning junk food in vending machines and promoting more time for recess and PE. However, children are sitting so much during school time because they are cramming for standardized tests. Make the school day longer and you will create a whole other set of problems.
And look at the expense.
This year 10 schools are experimenting with an extended day, as part of a $7.5 million state initiative.
Don't you just love to see your tax dollars at work. I'm glad we homeschool and can avoid the whole mess (even if we can't avoid the taxes.)
See Cause of childhood obesity: school
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Related Tags: homeschool, public school, PE, taxes, longer school day
8 comments:
Well actually you can prevent your kids from eating junk food at home, you just don't buy it. But it is up to the PARENTS not the state to police what their children eat.
Not to mention that most kids in public schools don't have a chance to play outside after school because they have so much homework.
So they'll make the school day longer, continue to pile on homework and the kids will get less exercise, and less time with their families.
I agree.
This is laughable. One of the reasons that I did not like having my kids in the PS was that they never got any exercise. PE was twice a week, but recess was not a daily thing. The teachers claimed they had too much to do to get ready for testing. And this was in grades K - 2!
The kids came home very frustrated every day because they had no outlet for their energy.
Of course, now I know there are a million other reasons why homeschooling is better!
Oops, I wasn't done.
I don't see why they need to add more time to the day to reinstate the physical activities they took away. When I was a kid, we had PE 2-3 times a week and recess twice a day.
And we all managed to learn what we needed to.
Maybe they should consider cutting all the fluff programs. I can only imagine how much time they could recover for recess and PE.
My childhood was the same. We also didn't have any homework in the evenings until we were in 7th or 8th grade.
I remember coming home from school and playing outside until it got dark. I remember what a trial it was to do my 15 minutes everyday of practicing for band.
Actually there IS respected research by the RAND Corporation the original non-profit think tank helping to improve policy and decision making through objective research and analysis.
Based upon their findings, RAND Health researchers estimate that providing every kindergarten and first grade student with five hours per week of physical education instruction — close to the level recommended — could cut the number of overweight girls in those grades by 43 percent, and the number of girls in those grades at risk for being overweight by 60 percent.
Want to read the study for yourself? Go to:
http://www.rand.org/news/press.04/08.27.html
Melinda Bossenmeyer, Ed.D.
Peaceful Playgrounds, Inc.
http://wwwpeacefulplaygrounds.blogspot.com/
Most children begin school physically fit. Scheduling exercise in the school day is a start, but it ignores the fact that the long school day caused the problem in the first place.
As a kid, I hated and feared PE. Being forced to run around a track does not engender a love of exercise. However, I loved jumping rope at recess, and playing tag, and other games of my choosing. I loved playing after school.
I would support more free play time and less coercive exercise.
Fat kids need guidance at their schools and better education for the parents.
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