Say Yes to PE in Your School

With today's society, teenagers are becoming less and less active in participating physical exercise. This phenomenon of teen's inactivity is now leading to a major worldwide health issue. The numbers of overweight and obesity students are constantly increasing not just in North America, but all developed countries. One of the main reasons that turn teens lazier than ever before is because of the new technology such as video and computer games. Other than the technology factor, the trend of the school life today is mainly angled towards the academic side. In British Columbia, students are forced to take physical education programs from grade one until grade ten. After grade ten, physical education courses become optional, and not that many students will continue on because it does not require for post-secondary entry (2005 Survey of Canadian Schools). Some people believe that school life should be limited to academic standings and students can exercise on their free time. However, in reality, students are very busy with their study schedule to keep up the good grades; so even when students have leisure time, most of them will usually play video games and watch television instead. Therefore, should physical education be mandatory all through elementary school to high school is still an unsolved argument.

This argument remain to have unsolved is due to various factors. For example one of the main concerns is that those who said no PE classes argue school should be focusing on the academic side; physical education will only be wasting time and money; especially when physical education is useless in going into post-secondary. In addition, when students participate in those courses they will not as likely to stay focus on their studies. On the other hand, the affirmative side states that physical exercise does only solve the obesity problem but it also helps students academically have been proven by the studies from Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum. Exercise can eliminate distress and helps students to concentrate more on their studies. Active Healthy Kids Corporation states that there are many corporations that are willing to pay funding for those physical programs such as McDonald, so money is not a problem. Furthermore, the affirmative side states that the best way to teach students about healthy life style and health knowledge is to attend physical education classes. Students can also learn how to be a team player through sports which can contribute to future networking. Nevertheless, the negative argues that student can substitute physical knowledge through book and nutrition courses. As a result, both side have mentioned some important issues but money and supportive environment play crucial roles in teens’ positive physical status.

Personally I believe that physical education is as important as the academic educations. It is because without a healthy life, one will be unhappy no matter how knowledgeable one is. I think that making physically education as a mandatory part of students' school life would be supported because it helps to lower obesity rates, improve habit of healthy lifestyle outside of school and analyzing the factors that affect health. Even though, it may not help in a lot in one's academic side such as going into secondary school, it certainly provides fun and joy in student's school life.

References:

Association, A. H. (n.d.). Physical Education in Schools. Retrieved June 27, 2011, from American Heart Association Learn and Live:

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3010854

Canada, A. H. (n.d.). Mandate . Retrieved June 27, 2011, from Active Healthy Kids Canada: http://www.activehealthykids.ca/AboutUs.aspx

Goverment Education. (2011). Retrieved June 27, 2011, from Health and Physical Education - Interim Edition - 2010 :http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/healthcurr18.txt

Kemper, V. (2003, September 30). Boston.com News. Retrieved June 27, 2011, from Schools are skipping P.E.:http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2003/09/30/schools_are_skipping_pe/

video provided by Youtube:

Demand a Quality Physical Education Program In Your School Video by rosaryfilms

No Pain, No Gain?

Article 1: No Pain, No Gain Philosphy

Living in modern society, exercise is an essential element to healthy lifestyle as people are now more concern about getting fit. However, each individual has his/her own way to exercise. Especially for teenagers, they are very easily influenced by the information that they perceive every day. There are mass of varieties of inaccurate information on internet which may mislead the teens to exercise in ways that are unsuitable for them.

I believe most people have heard of the “No pain, no gain” philosophy. I think this philosophy is not plausible. Looking at the website provided below, let’s point out how teenagers can easily believe in these ridiculously doubtful information. Firstly, the website writes in strong bias and persuasion. In the first few paragraphs, it attacks the reader’s self-esteem and criticizes that people are weak and they are not doing the exercises “right”. Secondly, it manipulates pictures of muscular models as a support of what they are trying to point out. There is absolutely no evidence of how these people get so bulky. Thirdly, throughout the website, it has not mention a word about the risk factors of overworking yourself. The website even brings out a message saying that if we do not push our bodies to the limits then we will not build any muscle. This could cause teenagers to injure themselves by exhausting their bodies. Furthermore, the website talks a little about diet, “But all this is no good without a well-balanced diet… you got to eat like the big guys;” it doesn’t provide any guidelines saying that big guys are healthy eaters. Lastly, the website encourages people to blindly follow the “no pain, no gain” philosophy without taking into account people’s initial exercise status. Teenagers may feel pressured and stressed out if they think they are useless because they cannot get the perfect body sizes they want.

Many teenagers who follow the “no pain, no pain” motto injure themselves easily because they think if they don’t experience pain, they are not doing enough exercise. One of the facts for muscle building reported by Harley Pasternak, a celebrity trainer on NBC TV, is that as long as there are some discomforts occur in one’s muscle, it is a sign of muscle building, many of which don’t require pain. In addition, he also mentions about time and intensity of exercising should be adjusted accordingly. Also, an article written by Marlene Habib, a fitness instructor and writer at CBCNews, talks about how easy exercising can be. One of her successful examples is when she sets some simple exercises for an old man to keep fit. Those exercises are just walking 15 minutes two or three times a week, stretching, and easy weight lifting. Therefore, the most important thing in exercising would be “knowing your limits and playing within it”. There are also health classes and physical education classes in school that provide teenagers with more accurate and detail information.

Websites that are credible:

Exercise newbies: Have no fear

Video: No Pain, No Gain and other workout myths