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Luc Lovstad
Sotirakopulos
English 1102
May 13, 2016

Surviving the Epidemic of Obesity

Today, the U.S. is seeing one of its biggest epidemics among children, it is called obesity.
According to Healthier Generation, nearly one in three children in the U.S., ranging from two to
nineteen, are overweight or obese (About 1). Being obese causes a great amount of health issues,
and being exposed at a young age takes a toll on a persons body. This paper will explain how
health education, physical education, and making sports a priority will help reduce the amount of
obese children.
Being obese as a child can cause many health problems later in life. For example,
according to Healthier Generation, problems like diabetes and cardiovascular disease are a few
of the issues correlating with obesity (About 1). In addition, obesity doesnt just effect a child
physically, it can damage them mentally as well. At Bradley Hospital, there is an article
explaining the correlation between obesity and depression. It states the longer a child is obese,
the higher the risk of depression and other mental disorders (Obesity and Depression 1). This
quote helps exemplify how being obese can cause a higher chance of depression as well as other
mental disorders like anxiety.
Health education classes are being taught in schools around the country every day. These
classes are used to help children better understand their body, and learn about the ways of life.

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When I took this class, my experience was rather unsettling. I felt like all we talked about was
puberty and narcotics. I was never taught how to watch my calories, or when to diet, which I feel
are important during this day and age. Healthy Children states, health education classes are
used to help children approaching puberty and adolescence as well as facing many choices about
their behavior (Teaching 2). This information helps explain exactly what people are trying to
accomplish by having children take this class. Due to the rise of child obesity, people should start
exploring other ways of trying to communicate with children about this epidemic. For example,
if schools made it more of a priority to teach children how to eat healthy, it would help change
any unhealthy habits the children have already started in their adolescent lives. Providing the
right information to the children will help deter this epidemic. As one can see, revising the
curriculum and pursuing a new way of giving children the information they need will provide
them with ways of fighting against this disease.
Due to new laws regarding physical education in the U.S., most schools have dropped
mandated physical education classes. There are only six remaining states that require P.E. in
their school districts. In the article Childhood Obesity, Bonnie Rochman, a journalist for
Time, explains the troubling amount of schools not partaking in physical education classes. The
six states that still require physical education are Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Mississippi,
and North Carolina. These states are considered the strong states, while the other remaining
states could be classified as weak, or marked unclassified if the district had no physical education
regulations at all. Rochman states, In the proof-of-human-nature department unless youre
required to do something, you probably wont researchers found that the 4% of schools in the

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six strong states or districts were nearly three times more likely to meet the 150-minute
recommendation. In comparison, 17 states and 29% of school districts were considered weak.
Twenty-four states and 67% of school districts had no P.E. policies (Rochman 1). This
information provides proof that physical education has become less important all over the
country, but many people still believe it is necessary to have physical education in schools.
According to a survey I conducted on survey monkey, I asked the question, how important is
physical education in schools. The answers possible were very important, important, not really
important, and not important at all. I presented this survey to my English 1102 class and 55%
stated it was very important, and 45% stated it was important. That is 100% believing it is
important. This data helps provide the factual evidence that people still believe physical
education is essential in schools around the United States. As one can see, most school districts
in the country dont feel as if physical education is essential, but my data provides proof that a
large portion feel it is necessary.
Making physical education essential in schools all over the country would help deter
childhood obesity. Today, children are more sedentary than ever. With things like televisions,
video games, and computers, parents feel it is safer to stay inside and spend time behind a screen
rather than go pick up a bike or a ball and play in the yard. Joan Patterson wrote an article named
Many Schools. In this article she interviewed a man named James Sallis, a professor of family
and preventive medicine at the University of California, and director of the nonprofit Active
Living Research. Patterson and Sallis were talking about vital roles schools need to play to get
children active. Sallis explains, The reality for many children is if they dont get their physical

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activity in school, they dont get any at all (Patterson 1). This quote helped exemplify the point
that children are not getting enough physical activity. Times have changed and it seems as if the
only chance children have to be active is at school.
Children can make more of an effort of becoming physically active by joining sports
teams in their schools. While this statement used to be true, it has come to the attention of many
people that sports are on the chopping block. This shows how schools are having a hard time
paying for these extracurricular activities, and have no other option other than to cut the sport. It
is evident that most schools have seen budget cuts over the years, but that doesnt mean they
need to cut sports completely. With the rise of technology and sedentary activities, sports should
be made a priority to children. It is a way to find enjoyment in exercising. Instead, there is a new
idea that parents pay to play to participate in athletics. According to Public Health, rather than
cut a sport and destroy every childs option to play, pay to play gives everyone a chance to
participate (Obesity in America 2). Pay to play is an idea that if certain schools cant afford
to have certain sports, parents can pay for their child to play. This quote exemplifies the idea of
this pay to play rather than cutting a sport completely. If schools started cutting sports programs,
it would show the students that sports are not important. Making sports a pay to play option is
better than cutting the sport completely.
Many people believe that physical education is necessary in schools, but some may say
otherwise. In recent years, schools have been taking major pay cuts to help survive after the
economy fell. A major change schools made included dropping physical education from the
curriculum. Presented by Best Rank, named The Effects of Budget Cuts on Physical Education

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explains how education took a 3 billion dollar budget cut in 2013 (Effect 2). Due to the lost
budget many physical education classes were cut or majorly reduced. It was reduced to the point
that some P.E. classes had risen to over eighty children in a class. Many people believe that due
to this loss in funding, physical education should be cut. Yes, there is no way of coming up with
the money to pay for the classes that were cut, but schools could make up for it during recess.
Instead of cutting all physical activity from a students life, using recess as a time to keep kids fit
is a good alternative. As well as, teachers could use some way of involving physical activity in
the classroom to help boost the amount of activity. For example, teachers could make up
certain games that use exercise to help study for tests, or complete assignments.
In addition, some believe that it is necessary to cut physical education because schools
need more time to teach subjects like math or science. Though it seems that this is a positive way
to boost learning, according to Roy Shephard, in his journal Curricular Physical Activity and
Academic Performance, he explains The impact of daily physical education upon the academic
performance of primary school students is thus reviewed with particular reference to studies
conducted in Vanves (France), Australia, and Trois Rivieres (Quebec). When a substantial
proportion of curricular time (14-26%) is allocated to physical activity, learning seems to
proceed more rapidly per unit of classroom time, so that academic performance matches, and
may even exceed, that of control students. Children receiving additional physical education show
an acceleration of their psychomotor development, and this could provide a mechanism for
accelerated learning of academic skills. Other potential mechanisms include increased cerebral
blood flow, greater arousal, changes in hormone levels, enhanced nutrient intake, changes in
body build, and increased self-esteem (Sheppard). This information provides evidence that

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physical activity increases a students learning abilities, therefore, cutting physical education out
of student learning would actually hinder the ability for students to learn.
The mental and physical health risks that correlate with childhood obesity are very
serious and can sometimes cause death. This epidemic needs to be put to an end and it starts with
where children spend most of their time, which is in schools. The United States have the
resources to help stop this disease, so why not make the change?

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Work Cited
"About Childhood Obesity." About Childhood Obesity. American Heart Association, n.d. Web.
13 May 2016.
"The Effect of Budget Cuts on Physical Education | SPARK PE." SPARK PE. Best Rank, n.d.
Web. 12 May 2016.
"Obesity and Depression: A Guide for Parents." Obesity and Depression: A Guide for Parents.
Bradley Hospital, n.d. Web. 12 May 2016.
"Obesity in America." PublicHealth.org. Public Health, n.d. Web. 12 May 2016.
Patterson, Joan. "Many Schools Cutting Back on Physical Education." Las Vegas ReviewJournal. N.p., 14 July 2013. Web. 12 May 2016.
Rochman, Bonnie. "Childhood Obesity: Most U.S. Schools Dont Require P.E. Class or Recess |
TIME.com." Time. Time, n.d. Web. 12 May 2016.
Sheppard, Roy. "Curricular Physical Activity and Academic Performance."Human Kinetics
Journals. Human Kinetic Journals, 2014. Web. 12 May 2016.

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