Physical Education Need and Importance

Benefits and Importance of Physical Education | Body Fitness and Health

In the Present World of Space age and automation era, all human beings appear to be living a more and more inactive life. They ride instead of walk, sit instead of stand and watches instead of participants. Such type of inactivity or sedentary life is detrimental to mental and physical health. Thus, there is great need for physical education as a part of balanced living.

Following are the importance or benefits of physical education -

1. It is needed because due to advanced technology the lifestyle of people becomes sedentary and they become passive entertainer.

2. It is needed during childhood for proper growth and development.

3. It is beneficial during adulthood to maintain good health and fitness.

4. During old Age, it is important to prevent and treat various ailments and disease.

5. It is important as it provides us the knowledge of our bodies from musculoskeletal, physiological and biochemical point of view.

6. It teaches us various physical activities that can be practiced now in later life such as motor skills for the games and sports of volleyball, tennis, swimming and so on.

7. It also teaches us the value of ethical behaviour in sporting situations.

8. It teaches us the value of physical fitness and how to become physically fit.

9. It teaches us the value of physical fitness and how to become physically fit.

10. It is important for aesthetic reasons as by participation in physical fitness programmes like gymnastics and dance, beauty and grace in cultivated in the movement.

11. It is also important for catharsis reasons with mean releasing of energy, emotion, tension or frustration and some people let off their extra steam by participating in various games and sports which are part of physical education. This way physical education helps in checking juvenile delinquency.

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Should Children With Temporary Orthopedic Impairments Be Left Out of Physical Education?

Fractures, sprains, and strains are injuries that happen in everyday life to many children. These injuries are healed by using different types of casts, crutches, slings, and splints.

After these injuries occur most children are sent back to school with a note from a doctor that says “Please excuse _________ from participating in Physical Education for the next six to eight weeks”. What does this mean for a child’s health? These children are not allowed to get physical activity and fitness into their life for up to eight weeks. This does not make much sense for many reasons.

If a child with a temporary Orthopedic Impairment, such as a broken arm went to their English class and had to take a written test but could not because their dominant arm was broken that teacher would most likely accommodate that student by having them take the exam orally. Can accommodations be made for students in Physical Education? The answer is Yes! For example, a students with a broken arm can practice soccer dribbling skills. That student may also practice throwing a football, baseball, or frisbee with their non dominant hand. Practicing with their non dominant hand can increase a student’s skill level. For a student who may have broken a leg or foot they can use a wheelchair and play wheelchair basketball. They may also focus on more activities that require upper body.

Why should these students sit out of Physical Education due to a temporary Orthopedic Impairment? These impairments should not hold them back from physical activity. Children with permanent Orthopedic Impairments participate in Physical Education so why should these children be exempt. Some may argue that these students should be exempt so that no further injury will be caused. With correct accommodation and modifications made for these children no further injury will be caused. What will be caused is students fitness and physical activity decreasing.

Keeping students with temporary Orthopedic Impairments out of Physical Education will be detrimental to a child’s development and fitness. These students need to be kept in Physical Education and have accommodations and modifications made so that they can participate. Only good can come out of this because students will be kept active for at least 45 minutes in their day opposed to getting no physical activity in their day. When students are excused for those six to eight weeks their fitness and activity level drops.

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Stealing the Football Coach’s Spotlight and Refocusing it on Physical Education

In most American school systems coaches are also physical education teachers, and physical education teachers are also coaches. Historically speaking most physical educators don’t choose to go into the field because of their love for gym class, but because of their love for football, basketball, baseball… sports of some kind. And for a high percentage of these folks coaching (their first love) occupies 90% of their attention, while physical education class (their job) occupies 10% of their attention.

In other words the games, and practices for those games is where the coach’s heart is, while PE class is an afterthought, a stepchild, a second class citizen that’s tolerated because it’s the means to a highly regarded, highly valued, and often highly publicized (it’s also the most potent PR vehicle in the world for most schools systems) end – the games, the sports, and the 5 to 10% of students who actively participate.

Physical Educators and Pink Slips

Under these conditions is it any wonder why Physical Education has inadvertently climbed all way to the bottom of the academic ladder in most school systems? The people who are in charge of the classes don’t even value them.

In contrast math and science inevitably occupy the top two positions, while art, music, and physical education occupy the bottom three positions, and everything else is sandwiched in between. Under these conditions is it any wonder why physical educators are so often at the first pink slip recipients when local budget slashers start chopping away at their school system’s budget?

A Strategy Designed to Steal the Football Coach’s Spotlight

In this light I’d like to introduce a strategy that’s designed to steal the football program’s spotlight an to refocus that spotlight on the 90 to 95% of the students who have historically been overlooked, ignored, and basically shortchanged by sports dominated physical education departments, educational administrators, school boards, and American culture in general.

In the process we’ll aim to breathe new life into physical education, rescuing it from the depths of academia, placing it right up alongside math and science. After all, a mathematician or a scientist who lacks a physical body is pretty hard to value.

Solving a $100 Billion Dollar Problem

Think about this scenario. Over the past fifteen years obesity in this country has grown into an epidemic. According to government sources two thirds of Americans are overweight. One third of Americans are obese. And childhood obesity is a forest fire raging out of control costing American taxpayers a cool $100 billion annually.

I contend that physical educators can tackle this problem with a simple and cost effective intervention and successfully eliminate childhood obesity one child at a time, one school at a time, and one school system at a time. This in turn will cause local communities to see physical educators in an entirely different light. Check it out.

In Less Than Five Minutes Per Week

Here’s how it works. Show all your kindergartners how to use a height adjustable pull up bar together with a technique called leg assisted pull ups in order to grow stronger week after week, month after month, all year long while learning to do conventional pull ups. In less than five minutes a week you’ll find that 90% of your kids will learn to do conventional pull ups in year one, and the other 10% will be well on their way.*

Eliminate Childhood Obesity in Your School District

But why in the world are pull ups so important you ask? They’re important because kids who can do pull ups are NEVER OBESE. And once they’ve learned to do pull ups, all they have to do is maintain the ability and they’re IMMUNIZED AGAINST OBESITY FOR LIFE. Now if you repeat this kindergarten based scenario with each new class for five straight years, and make sure your graduates maintain their ability, childhood obesity will be eliminated in your school within five years.

Much Bigger Than a Win on the Football Field

And if you let the media in on what you’re up to it won’t be long before the junior high and high school have implemented their own respective editions of this (Operation Pull Your Own Weight) strategy, and within one decade you and your fellow physical educators will have eliminated childhood obesity in your school district completely.

Changing the Communities Eyeballs

Do you suppose that would be worth a headline or two in the local (national) newspaper, TV or radio station? And in the process what do you think that would do for the value of physical education in your community? At worst I’m talking about great job security! At best I’m talking about helping lots of kids live more productive lives while avoiding the obesity related problems that plague so many lives today. Now remind me one more time, why are math and science are so important?

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