The Rice School/La Escuela Rice

Health and Physical Education

Parents please read!!!! Make physical education a bigger national priority. With childhood obesity at epidemic levels in the United States, it's time to put a greater emphasis on ensuring that schoolchildren are physically active.

From the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Sept. 15, 2007

 

One of the greatest dangers facing America's children is something they carry around with them every day, and it's not guns, drugs or booze. It's fat!  Childhood obesity is an epidemic, and it's getting worse. In 2004, an estimated 9.9 million children and adolescents in the United States were overweight, and for the first time in decades, high blood pressure is rising among American children. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that by 2010, an alarming 20% of American children will be obese. Then the problems really begin. Overweight adolescents have a 70% chance of becoming overweight adults, which greatly increases their risk for lifelong chronic ailments, including diabetes and heart disease, and other illnesses. But there is a tried-and-true remedy, namely, keeping kids physically active. Unfortunately, America is failing its kids by skimping on physical education at the very time it should be giving such activity a higher priority.

Read complete article at http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=662199