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Page 17 · column 5 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
By JOHN KASSEL
Arundel Newspaper Contributing Writer
According to an article in Health Action, a magazine put out by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, American children may be fatter and less fit than ever before. The article asks, “Are schools working as hard to develop a child’s body as his mind?”
One of every six children in the United States is s%weak, uncoordinated, or generally inept that he or she is physically underdeveloped by the standards of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
In a study by Dr. Thomas Gilliam, while he was teaching at the University of Michigan, 62 percent of a group of active children had one risk factor for heart disease — high blood pressure, high cholesterol or too much weight. Thirty-six percent had two or more factors.
Unless the underdeveloped child is identified and helped, he or she cannot function effectively either in society at large or in the physical activities and games that are an important part of growing up.
A good physical education program should promote mental, physical and social development through a varied program of activites which develop competency in motor skills and efficiency of movement. According to the President’s Council of Physical Fitness and Sports, it should educate young people about the essential nature of physical activity and its relationship to good health. It should produce physically fit youth, and give them the skills knowledge, and motivation to stay fit.
As a part of the total school program, physical education should provide movement oriented experiences which will help a child reach his or her fullest potential.. However, there are those, both inside and outside of a school system, who confuse athletic contests for a few select athletes with physical education for all.
A quality physical education program (K-12) will benefit a high school athletic program in the long run, but a high school’s success on the athletic field does not necessarily , guarantee a good physical education program.
The physical education program should be designed to provide the student with skills basic to the individual, whether he or she is interested in competitive sports or not.
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