Schools and Obesity
What Role Should Schools Have?
By Daniel Muniz

Should our school system require our children to participate in physical education (PE) “every day” from kindergarten throughout all four years of high school?

Illinois is the only state in the union with such a stringent requirement although many others states are beginning to eye ways to increase PE in as many grades as possible. The requirement already exists in Alabama but only until the eighth grade.

Middle schools and high schools already have extensive and expensive athletic programs but participation is purposely limited and voluntary. Although most elementary schools have minimal PE requirements, many elementary school teachers have little in-depth training for rigorous physical education programs.

Incidentally, quite a number of schools reduced their emphasis on PE years ago in order to enhance their curriculums for a better concentration on the basics of education.

But the push to make “daily” PE mandatory for students is gaining momentum throughout the country especially since discussion of the issue has now become more widespread. And some state legislators would be thrilled if their states could adopt mandatory daily PE for every day that a student attended school.

The problem of obesity for adults in general has garnered national attention especially with the rise in weight-related health problems. And particularly worrisome is obesity in our nation’s youth. And since children are in schools, there is a natural compulsion to attempt to address the problem in our education system, hence the focus with PE. That is why state legislatures are eyeing idea of mandating more physical activity for students.

However, a number of critics dispute the actual extent of obesity because certain measurements do not accurately depict what being overweight really is, except for the blatantly obvious. And defining obesity itself is also a bit muddled because certain advocates insist that even being minimally overweight is still catastrophic. As a result, critics insist that some of the supporters of this movement are either exaggerating or falsely overstating the severity of the problem.

In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attempted to make this correlation:

● Only 28 percent of U.S. high school students attended a daily PE class.
● About 38 percent watched TV for three hours or more each school night.

The implication of this assertion is that our youth is spending too much time watching television while their bodies are withering away. And in all reality, there are not too many people who will object to this assertion.

But more to the point; although obesity is rising throughout the population, what roles should our school system have in dealing with it?

In addition, obesity is now being portrayed as a national emergency because of the health risks involved but isn’t that really an issue of personal decisions and lifestyle choices?

If so, then what obligation does the government have in being so intimately involved in our everyday way of life?

In addition, some teachers are not exactly thrilled with being constantly given tasks to solve the nation’s problems mostly because they feel that certain social issues ought to be handled by parents instead of by educators. Oftentimes, communities have unrealistic expectations on what our education system ought to be responsible for. Some schools are already exerting enormous efforts to confront issues like promiscuity and the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics. Other schools have also begun a focus on home Internet usage and even dental hygiene.

Consequently, a number of teachers and administrators want our schools to be solely devoted to teaching students a basic curriculum and have the parenting done by parents. That is an amazing concept however a number of state legislators across the country continue to ask the pointless question:

What about the children who have lousy parents?

My response is: so what!

This country has always had lousy parents and my guess is that it always will have a number of them for the future.

But what is most disturbing is the contention that our local government through our school system must somehow be involved in correcting all of our social problems. I do not disagree that kids watch too much television instead of participating in some sort of athletic activity but why do our state legislature’s have to be involved in a role that is best suited for a parent?

There is also another potential risk for making a bad parent even worse. For instance, if our schools continue to assume more parenting roles such as monitoring weight and obesity, some parents will then feel that it is the school’s responsibility if their child is overweight; after all, they are the ones monitoring it and teaching about it.

It has already happened with other social issues such as promiscuity, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. A number of parents already expect our education system to fully instruct their children about the social norms of sex and drugs.

And more parents wouldn’t mind if our schools would take another problem off of their hands.

I in no way intend to denigrate the problem of obesity because it has become much more prevalent and it is a real health threat, but on the other hand, there is only so much that our government should be expected to do in the place of parents. Our society has already placed too many unrealistic expectations on all the social problems that our schools are supposed to solve. And the issue of children being significantly overweight ought to be handled by the people who are responsible for lifestyle decisions, which happen to belong to parents instead of our education system.

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