Educators often say that good marks and fast career building are the most important things in life. But everyone would agree that money and success bring no pleasure if a person has weak health. A school is a place where students’ comprehensive development, both intellectual and physical, should take place.
This is especially true for the tech era in which we all live. People have a sedentary lifestyle, use computers for work and entertainment all day long. Busy parents often do not have time to play with kids, track their activity and habits. They act as bad role models coming home from work and spending whole evenings near a TV. When a kid asks a mom or a dad to go outside and walk, adults just give one a smartphone or a tablet and say to sit calmly. With such treatment, children stay inactive both in school and at home, which adversely affects their health.
Obesity is one of the most serious problems of the modern time. Young people consume large amounts of sweets and fast food. Due to academic overload, their brain makes constant requests for energy. But fatigue and hunger return over a short time. In addition, food is often used as a substitute for positive emotions, a thing which is supposed to make lives of kids drowning in routine brighter.
Eating a chocolate bar is much easier and faster than getting out of a house and spending half an hour in the open air. That is why many teenagers prefer playing video games to football, basketball, volleyball and other team games. Physical education classes remain one of a few things showing the benefits of an active lifestyle to students, which gives reasons to believe that this discipline should be compulsory at all educational levels.
Childhood is a particularly suitable period for acquaintance with sports because kids undergo constant emotional and physical development. It is hard to ensure a full-fledged, healthy life if just overloading them with academic assignments. Intensive mental work and physical inactivity may lead to different diseases and psychological problems.
It is an educational system’s responsibility to preserve a healthy balance between all areas of kids’ lives and help them to grow harmoniously. Experts from Pro-Papers have analyzed several arguments in favour of this point of view.
Physical health
PE classes help a young body to develop in a correct, natural way. Kids spending several hours a week in a gym are more likely to feel good, have no extra weight, avoid asthma, sleep disorders, heart disease, diabetes. Sports activities promote bone and muscle development, strengthening a cardiovascular system.
Doctors claim that regular physical activity in childhood lays a foundation for strong health throughout all further live. It is rather challenging for adult people to make up for lost time, get rid of bad habits, extra weight and long-term illnesses. Therefore, schools should act here and now to ensure their students’ happy future.
A curriculum on physical education should contain both exercises, team games and theoretical preparation. Young people should not only strive to comply with sports standards but also get valuable information on sleep, nutrition, ways to avoid stresses and other elements of a healthy lifestyle. Then the effects of PE classes will be long-lasting and not disappear once young people graduate from schools and universities. Useful habits and knowledge will direct all their further decisions and actions.
Boosting academic performance
Even though some people claim that physical education distracts students from “really important” disciplines, researchers have proved that diluting lessons in a classroom with active games stimulates better academic results.
This may be explained by the fact that a human brain is overstrained if constantly processing information. It may be compared with an overheated engine which may break if exploiting it without limits. A child’s mind has its limit. The constant flow of new knowledge and homework may bring rather harm than benefit if there is no chance to relax and change activity for a while.
Always doing the same things, reading the same textbooks and writing the same essays, students feel like prisoners of the educational system, become less enthusiastic and study unproductively. PE classes are a fresh breeze in their learning routine.
An experiment was conducted in North Carolina. Children from kindergarten to 8th grade had 30 minutes of sports activity daily. Researchers have analyzed academic indicators of 106 schools and came to the conclusion that physical exercises can boost learners’ performance.
Social assimilation
Teachers need students to be calm and silent at math, chemistry, physics, and other lessons. After coming home, learners do homework or play with their gadgets. There is no chance to make friends and create healthy social interactions. The situation does not change as a person matures. Adult people do not need each other to perform most labour and everyday operations because machines have become their faithful assistants. At the same time, everyone wants to be loved and necessary, be a unique, indispensable part of a team.
Sports solves the problem of social isolation provoked by intensive technology development. As PE classes involve active games, participants can communicate, have fun, acquire teamwork skills, learn effective cooperation models. This experience prepares them for social life, strengthens leadership qualities, raises engagement and altruism. The ability to work effectively with other people is valued in any industry, so students keen on sport have better career prospects.
In contrast, kids lacking communication, spending all their time with textbooks and a computer often grow into shy, self-doubt people with low self-esteem who suffer from psychological problems.
Mental health
Since a human organism is an integral system, all its elements influence each other. If a person has strong physical health, one is more likely to be healthy mentally. Sports ensures good night sleep. A brain can replenish an energy balance and prepare for the next day. Obesity is a reason for sleep disorders. If a body does not have a full-fledged rest, its immune functions weaken.
