Kids Need Gym Class

Children are considered obese if they are greater than:.
             twenty percent over the recommended weight for height,.
             the eighty-fifth percentile for Body Mass Index, which is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared, or.
             twenty-five percent of weight as fat for boys and thirty percent of weight as fat for girls. (Summerfield).
             When these criteria are used, data indicate that eleven percent of all 6-11 year olds and fourteen percent of all 12-17 year olds are obese, doubling the percent of thirty years ago (Summerfield), and that twenty-five percent of U.S. children under 18 are at least over weight (Sason). These figures are very worrisome, especially when we take into consideration a few more statistics. First of all, a recent study conducted by Council for Physical Education for Children of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (COPEC) indicates that overweight children who are inactive are at an extremely high risk of becoming obese as adults (Sason). Many of these children will grow up to be one of the fifty-five percent of Americans who are overweight, a number which, according to the American Obesity Association, is expected to increase to seventy-five percent within the next twenty years (Sason). Lastly, of those fifty-five percent, some 300,000 to 580,000 die each year due to diseases caused by unhealthy diets and physical inactivity, five times the number of people killed by guns, HIV, and drugs combined (Sason).This is why it is so important to teach children the importance of exercise at an early age. A recent study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that sixty-one percent of 9-13 year olds participate in no organized physical activity outside of school, and that twenty-two percent of them engage in no physical activity in their free time (Students ) . Therefore, "physical education, provided at school, is an ideal way to encourage activity and develop fitness among children and, for many children, will be their only preparation for an active lifestyle.