We Can't Weight For a Change
Those of you in my age bracket will remember the annual President�s program we participated in during physical education classes. I remember dreading it. All of that running and jumping, sit-ups and push-ups, I couldn�t wait until it was over. In a box in my attic is a patch that I won in sixth grade for completing the entire process. An award I was very proud to receive.
Fast forward some 30 years down the road to today�s sixth-graders. Statistics show that one in six school age children is obese. Stats also reveal phys ed has been all but eliminated from many schools� curriculums. There�s not enough time in the day to teach these children what they need to know to pass fourth and ninth and twelfth grade proficiency tests AND promote healthy bodies through exercise. Pile on top of that the lunch fare offered at many educational establishments and you have a
formula that is sure to have kids toting around extra pounds.
Kids today, who don�t participate in extra-curricular sports, are very likely to come home and park themselves in front of the TV or Play Station 2. No exercise there. Older ones, able to drive themselves wherever they choose, seem to elect to eat fast food over anything prepared at home. Think about your own offspring. What does their day consist of?
Research also shows, and this is no surprise, that children who exercise keep their weight under control and therefore have better self-images. And kids with better self images do better in school.
Here we are in a time when medical research has us all living longer than ever before. Every day we hear about new and exciting discoveries in the fight to cure cancer and other related diseases. Yet we�re raising a generation that is predicted to be the first one that will not live longer than their parents.
It won�t be a heart attack or breast cancer that ends their lives.
It will be the burgers and fries that they�ve biggie-sized for years and years.
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