Kaiser 1

Megan Kaiser
Professor Dorhout
English 2089
27 July 2015
Healthy School Systems: The Reality of Childrens Health
Child obesity has become a growing problem in the United States lately. Gym class, what
used to be a daily occurrence, has withered away to almost nothing. It has become a rotational
system with other subjects such as art, sex education, music, or band. Although these topics are
important for growing children to be able to explore and learn about, they are cutting out
physical exercise from students daily activity. Not only are they cutting out physical education,
they are cutting recess from school days too. This problem, along with the unhealthy foods
served in school cafeterias, has started to generate a negative impact on the health of todays
younger population. Public school systems should promote programs to help students become
healthier.
One of the main struggles that most Americans are facing today is obesity. The elderly
and middle aged group are not the only ones facing this; the younger generation is exposed as
well. According to research, twenty-eight percent of children on the border of the United States
and Mexico are overweight and another twenty-six percent are obese (Lpez-Barrn 2049). This
number is continuing to grow too. With unhealthy foods becoming more available and the new
technologies that tempt children to stay inside and play games on their electronic device, they are
not getting the nutrition and exercise they need. As a child grows and matures they need certain
foods to help them grow healthy and strong, along with physical activity to keep them from
developing bad habits that will influence how they live their lives as adults.
Obesity does not just affect the physical appearance of a person; it comes with many
associated health problems that could show up as a result of being overweight. Child obesity

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especially has a negative effect on the body because children are more prone to develop these
different health complications throughout their lifetime. Things like diabetes and heart disease
are the most common things that could come from obesity, but there are also other issues that are
not commonly thought of. One of these complications are the effects the excessive amount of
weight has on the bones, especially in a child. In adults, the more weight one has is thought to
actually increase bone density and strength, but this is not the case in children. Because the
body has little time to compensate for the weight gain, bones are relatively more fragile based on
body weight requirements and fracture occurs before positive bone accrual from the increase in
loading due to weight does (Taylor 241). This effect, along with many others, can contribute to
an unhealthy lifestyle that can in turn shorten a persons life. This often is very difficult and hard
to reverse by the time they reach adulthood.
One major aspect of the school day that could help prevent the risk of becoming obese is
gym class. When schools have to cut funding for certain programs because of a greater need for
money, physical education is usually one of the first to go. This however should not be
something that gets cut out of the day because children are constantly growing and are in need of
exercise to help maintain strong muscles and bones to help them grow up healthy. Physical
education is one of the only times throughout the long school day that children are able to get up
and move around. Aside from then, they are sitting in a chair learning for multiple hours in a row
which can impact their learning. Studies show that children who stay active throughout the week
are able to concentrate better and absorb more of the information being taught to them. So
eliminating gym class not only affects their physical health, it affects their mental health as well.
When focusing more on the physical side, that little bit of exercise for an hour or so each day is
just enough to keep students from gaining the unnecessary weight that they otherwise would

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have without any type of activity. This is not to say that the physical education teacher should
work their students to the point that they are gasping for breath and wanting to quit; they should
make it enjoyable so they can get the appropriate amount of exercise while also learning other
things such as team work and interaction with other peers. Gym class is not just about a child
being able to get away from learning for an hour each day.
Many parents believe that their children should not have to take time out of their school
day to go the gym class. They believe that school should be for learning about things such as
science, math, geography, English, and so on. Unfortunately, they do not see the benefits of what
gym class can do for their children, so when they are presented with a dilemma about what
school function they need to cut in order to fit a certain budget, of course they cut gym class. To
them, gym class takes away from the studies that their children could be doing. Instead of
spending one hour in physical education, students could be spending that hour learning about
multiplication or the history of the United States.
While these critical parents may have a point, they are missing all of the other benefits
aside from the physical aspect of gym class. Studies show that taking a break from school work
occasionally throughout the day allows for the child to be able to focus more closely on their
time spent inside the classroom. With that said, that extra hour that they could have spent
studying some other subject may be useless because they are not focused and fully absorbing
everything that is being said. This in turn could result in lower exam scores when they are being
tested on the subject because it was so difficult for them to pay attention. According to one
source about students health:
The CDC (2010a) evaluated 50 studies on the effect of physical activity on academic
performance and found substantial evidence that physical activity helps improve grades
and standardized test scores. Physical activity at school (from a combination of recess,

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PE, class room, and extracurricular activities) was found to have a positive impact on
cognitive skills, attitudes, and academic behavior, which includes enhanced concentration
and attention as well as improved classroom behavior. (Cook-Cottone 108)
When looking at the physical aspect of gym class again, it can benefit them in their future as
well. Exercise, according to many, can lay the groundwork for levels of physical activity in
adulthood and later life (Waldfogel 158). So, not only is physical education helping a child fight
obesity and health problems at a young age, it is helping them later in life to become healthy
individuals and set examples for other people.
Another reason parents can be so critical of having gym class for their children is because
of a thing called obesity bias. Obesity bias is the little noises and comments about levels of skill
performance that other students and sometimes even physical education teachers make toward a
peer that is overweight (Cook-Cottone 109). This is essentially a form of bullying, and they do
not want their children to have to face that. This obese individual may be trying their absolute
hardest, but the coordination may not be there and may make them look awkward or clumsy to
some.
Obesity bias is a very real thing, but it does not just occur in school situations. Obesity
bias can occur in the workplace and throughout almost everything later in life as well. People can
be very judgmental not just about weight, but about nearly everything. There is no way around
this. However, there is a chance for these individuals to work off the excess pounds so they do
not have to face the bias throughout their entire life. It is harder to lose weight the older one gets;
so if going through this obesity bias for one hour a day can save them from a lifetime of it, the
future benefits outweigh the short term disadvantage of it.
Recess, like gym class, has many benefits to health. It allows students to be able to get
out and exercise along with many other things. Recess provides nearly half (42%) of the

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available opportunity for physical activity among students, followed by PE class (32%) and
after-school programs (26%) (Cook-Cottone 115). With that being said, students will participate
in physical activities as they please. This means that in gym class they may be forced to play
soccer when they really do not enjoy the game. This could cause them to not try as hard and not
get the full benefits from it. On the other hand, in recess they are able to play whatever game
they wish to play. Because they are so into the game, they become more competitive and try
harder so their team can win. Along the way they are getting a good workout in from all the
running around.
Critics believe that recess times are full of bullying and injuries. The exercise might be
good for them, but the unsupervised interaction is not. When some students are alone they will
say whatever comes to their mind whether it hurts the other person or not. This bullying cannot
really be monitored by teachers, whereas in the classroom and hallways students are in close
enough proximity that the teachers can hear just about everything that is going on and can put a
stop to the bullying. According to many parents, if students can get their physical activity for the
day through gym class there is really no need for a recess period as well.
Despite the bullying that can occur on the playground, the benefits that come from the
unsupervised social interaction outweigh the possibility of bullying. Also, bullying can happen
anywhere, even behind teachers backs in the classroom. So, there is no way of completely
preventing it from happening. As Pellegrini said:
As I see it, as a parent, a former primary school teacher, and a researcher, the recess
period represents an almost unique part of the school day. By this I mean it is one of the
few times when children can interact with their peers on their own terms with minimal
adult intervention. Consequently, the playground represents one of the few places in
primary and middle schools to observe spontaneous peer interaction. Classrooms,

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generally, do not have much spontaneous peer interaction! So, from a scientific
perspective, recess represents a unique opportunity to study children's social interaction.
(Pellegini 2)
Recess is a time to build friendships among students as well as build their own identity. Physical,
mental, and emotional health are all benefited by a small span of time during the school day
called recess.
When thinking about health, one thing that commonly comes to mind is eating habits.
Food is a huge factor that can effect ones weight and appearance. What is put into the body
affects how the body will look on the outside and how the body will act and feel on the inside.
School lunches today are making small improvements to provide healthier food choices on their
menu, but is it enough? The main course for schools may not be terribly healthy, but when
schools start counting French fries as the vegetable or when they smother the broccoli in so much
cheese that the benefits from the nutrition in broccoli are counteracted by unhealthy cheese
sauce, there lies a problem.
The majority of people would agree that school systems need to improve the quality of
the food that they put in the vending machines and serve during lunchtime to the future
generation of America. In fact, a recent poll by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that
90% of parents and teachers support replacing unhealthy items in school vending machines with
healthy items (Baxter 53). The schools should be setting an example for their students by
providing them with a healthy amount of fruits and vegetables that can supply the nutrients that
growing children need. This is not to say that schools have to completely cut out sweets from
their entre of foods. Even sweets can be harmless to the body as long as they are taken in
moderation. However, when these foods are being overeaten and abused, the school foods being
served are greatly harming the health of todays youth. The CDC has stated that of children

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born in the year 2000, one out of every three Caucasians and almost one out of every two African
American and Hispanics will contract diabetes in their lifetime, most before they graduate high
school (Cooper 25). This statistic should be an eye opener to the society and the school officials
to take action.
On the other hand, price is always an issue. Even in a case where price should not trump
students health, it cannot be overlooked. Healthier foods, no matter where in the United States it
is bought, always tends to come at a higher cost. With schools already on a tight budget, it is
hard to pick between health foods and school supplies. Since the ultimate reason children attend
school is to learn, the obvious choice is to purchase more school supplies. Even with the lower
prices of the unhealthy foods, students are still not paying for their lunches. In one school the
school official dealing with budgeting and money says that they have a $54,000 debt just from
students not paying for their lunches (Shah 17). Imagine how much higher the debt would be if
the lunches cost even just fifty cents more per person. Not only is the cost and money a major
factor, the students motives greatly affect how they eat. For example, if a student went into
lunch with the mindset of wanting to eat healthy, they could. They could ask for no cheese on
their broccoli or ask for a double scoop of fruit instead of having the French fries. However, this
is not the case for most. Most go in and they get the unhealthy foods because they may taste
better. They also choose to go up and get a cup of ice cream because they are craving it at the
time. Another thing that schools cannot do anything about is packed lunches. Children taking a
packed lunch to school were consuming approximately double the amount of sugar and 50%
more sodium and saturated fat in their midday meal compared with those having a school lunch
(Rees 420). This also shows the students end motives were not to eat healthy from the start.

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Even though these critics concerns are legitimate, they do not outweigh the fact that the
unhealthy foods are harming the students. Even though the one school stated above was multiple
thousands of dollars in debt from lunches, the average amount of money schools across the
United States spend is one dollar per student per day. It is hard to find one piece of fruit for that
price. This goes to show that if they are only spending one dollar, the food that they are feeding
the students has to be very damaging to the body. If growing children are not provided with the
correct amount of nutrients found in certain types of foods, they will not be able to grow up with
a healthy lifestyle. Not only is it unhealthy, it tends to be very high in calorie intake and less
filling. Cheap food that provides few nutrients may actually be expensive for the consumer
from a nutritional economy perspective, whereas a food with a higher retail price that provides
large amounts of nutrients may actually be quite cheap (Carlson 30). So, according to this, in
the long run of things cheaper food will not supply the proper amount of nutrients the body
needs. Therefore causing the body to crave more food which then leads to overeating and having
to buy even more. On the flip side of that, healthy foods will supply the nutrients so it does not
leave the body wanting more.
When everything is put together this would be how a typical school day would look: the
students would go to class for a couple of hours, and just when they start daydreaming it would
be time for gym class. In gym class they would run around playing kickball or basketball for
about an hour while learning different skills and how to work as a team. After gym class they
would return to the classroom for a while until it was lunchtime. When they get to lunch they get
to choose from an array of healthy food choices including a multitude of fruits and vegetables.
This wide selection of food would also include a healthy dessert such as a yogurt parfait or
something of the sorts. After they finish their lunches they would go outside, or in the
gymnasium (depending on the weather) for recess. At recess they would not only get in a good

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amount of exercise and burn off all the energy the food just gave them, they would form
friendships and get to experiment with what crowd of people they are most comfortable with.
This would allow them to do all this without a teacher by their side telling them what is wrong
and what is right. Finally, with the last couple of hours of school left they are able to concentrate
on their studies and do better on their upcoming tests.
Now as many realize, this sequence of things does not always go as planned for every
student. However, if schools were to implement the gym class, recess, and healthy eating, it
would definitely be a step in the right direction to keep the students as healthy as possible. There
will always be complications with new programs and ideas, but that does not mean that they do
not work for the other students. At this day in age with childhood obesity rates growing more and
more each day, anything that could make a difference is worth a try.
School systems should do what they can to promote and implement different programs
such as gym class, recess, and healthier school lunches to help their students keep to a healthy
weight and lifestyle. In the case of child health, budgeting should be out of the question.
Anything a school system can do to decrease the growing number of obese children within the
community, they should do so. Not only does this help with their health, but it has shown to have
a positive correlation with students in-class knowledge as well. So, if these things have shown to
do nothing but benefit the future of these young children, why are school systems choosing to get
rid of them?

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Works Cited
Baxter, Thomas J. School Nutrition and Children. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc,
2009. Print.
Carlson, Andrea, and Elizabeth Frazo. Are Healthy Foods Really More Expensive? It depends
on How You Measure the Price, EIB-96, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic
Research Service, May 2012. Print.
Cook-Cottone, Catherine P., Evelyn Tribole and Tracy L. Tylka. Healthy Eating in Schools.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2013. Print.
Cooper, Ann. "The Nightmare Of School Lunches." Progressive 74/75.12/1 (2010): 2425. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 July 2015.
Lpez-Barrn, Rita Gabriela, Arturo Jimnez-Cruz, and Montserrat Bacardi-Gascn.
"Modifiable Environmental Obesity Risk Factors Among Elementary School Children In
A Mexico-US Border City." Nutricion Hospitalaria 31.5 (2015): 2047-2053. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 22 July 2015.
Pellegrini, Anthony D. School Recess And Playground Behavior : Educational And
Developmental Roles. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. Print.
Rees, G. A., C. J. Richards, and J. Gregory. "Food And Nutrient Intakes Of Primary School
Children: A Comparison Of School Meals And Packed Lunches."Journal Of Human
Nutrition & Dietetics 21.5 (2008): 420-427. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 July
2015.
Shah, Nirvi. "Districts Tackling Meal Debt." Education Week 31.30 (2012): 1-17. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 24 July 2015.
Taylor, Lisa Anne. "Obesity And The Effects Of Excess Adiposity On Bone Properties, Health,
And Function." Pursuit: The Journal Of Undergraduate Research At The University Of
Tennessee 6.1 (2015): 239-247. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 July 2015.

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Waldfogel, Jane. What Children Need. Cambridge, MA: Havard University Press, 2006. Print.