Another Piece of Good Evidence that Children NEED Physical Exercise to Improve Learning – Every parent and school administrator should read this article linked below.
By eliminating recess many schools are going in the WRONG health direction. Parents, we encourage you to advocate for your children; see to it that yuor child’s school has a built-in time for recess or other scheduled physical activities during the school day. Also, before your children start homework, be sure they get phically refreshed; they will do better academic work. Children NEED play time. Please read the full report linked below.
Schools Find Active Kids Make Smarter Students
Minneapolis Star Tribune, Herón Márquez Estrada, 04/23/2012
When students at Meadowview Elementary in Farmington needed to improve their reading scores last fall, they were turned over to physical education teacher Joe McCarthy. Each morning for months, McCarthy had the students spend 15 minutes running or shuttling from side to side in the gym. It wasn’t any type of punishment, but part of a growing trend in education that focuses on increased physical activity to improve learning. The students were selected based on their scores on fall state assessments. When the kids took the tests again earlier this year, after McCarthy’s exercise regimen, they showed the greatest improvement of any students at Meadowview, double the school average, McCarthy said.
“It’s more than a theory. It’s a well-established fact,” said Jack Olwell, incoming president of the Minnesota Association for Health, Physical Education and Dance, the group representing the state’s thousands of physical education teachers. “The more active you are, the more brain cells you create.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a paper in 2010 urging more physical activity for students because of the health and academic benefits.
“There is substantial evidence that physical activity can help improve academic achievement, including grades and standardized test scores,” the CDC report concluded.