No child left behind...academically....but what about health-wise?

The No Child Left Behind initiative has spurred schools to work harder to make sure that students learn the basics.....reading, writing and artithmatic. But what about helping our children achieve the goals of being healthy and physically fit? I think that the special areas like art, music and physical education may very well be getting short-changed in many schools.

At my son's elementary school, students are in class from 8:35 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. Once you add on transportation time at the beginning and end of the day, that makes for a long day! (My son gets on the bus at about 8:10 a.m. and arrives home around 3:50 p.m. We live about 2 minutes from school by car.) With homework, chores, meals and bedtimes, not a lot of time is left during the week for kids to play and exercise at home. PE is taught in rotation with art and music at our school, so depending on where they are in the rotation, the students only have PE once or twice a week. Other than that, there is a short recess period once a day.

I was shocked to learn that Illinois is the only state requiring PE classes every day from kindergarten through high school. Alabama requires daily PE classes until eighth grade. Several other states are working on developing standards for health and PE programs.

I think that daily PE classes would be a great thing. Children need exercise. I really don't think it's normal to make elementary school aged kids to sit still all day long in a classroom. Not only would daily PE classes help them to develop good habits, but I also think that getting more exercise during the school day might help some kids be able to focus and concentrate better to learn in class.