DDD's 30th debate: Physical Education SHOULD be a requirement in schools

(INTRODUCTION) Thanks for posting, even though it was short, I still appreciate it. (ARGUMENTS) (4) So previously I made arguments about physical and academic and stress benefits. This time I will be talking about the social benefits of gym. In gym you obviously play athletic sports, most of them being team sports such as dodgeball, volleyball, soccer, basketball, badminton, etc,etc… Now besides the obvious physical advantages, there is a giant social advantage within these team sports. They are called team sports because to win you ultimately need to work as a good team. Group work is a key that is hard to learn but has lots of benefits. In gym, whenever you do (as an example) soccer, you need to be able to work in a group by passing and not arguing when you don’t get the ball. Group work also rubs off during classes when you are asked to work in groups, but I won’t go too much into that. “Activities in PE help children develop healthful social interactions. From a young age, children learn cooperation through group activities and form a positive sense of identity as part of a team. Such group activities are continually important as children grow older. The International Platform on Sport and Development states that “sport has been used as a practical tool to engage young people in their communities through volunteering, resulting in higher levels of leadership, community engagement and altruism among young people.” Sportanddev.org also notes that positive character development through group physical activities depends on the program curriculum”- {1} Besides groupwork what is gym also socially good for? Sportsmanship! Now what is sportsmanship? “Sportsmanship (or sometimes sportspersonship) is an aspiration or ethos that a sport or activity will be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with one's competitors.”- {3} I have searched for sportsmanship within schools and I have come up with many examples of how different schools have a whole sportsmanship aspect in their gym mark which is absolutely great! To conclude this particular point, I want to relate it back to the resolution and why gym should be mandatory for this particular social reason. If gym was optional, all the people who did not go to gym would not be a great social and group person, or kid. This also makes the job of teachers trying to get people to cooperate much easier. (5) A lot of arguments that I have made have discussed the short-term of P.E Classes, but what about the long term? “Linear time trend forecasts suggest that by 2030, 51% of the population will be obese. The model estimates a much lower obesity prevalence of 42% and severe obesity prevalence of 11%. If obesity were to remain at 2010 levels, the combined savings in medical expenditures over the next 2 decades would be $549.5 billion.”{2} I believe that is for the American population, so to contrast American obesity estimates, I will use American population estimates. The estimated number of Americans in 2030 is 363,584,435. {5} 51% of 363,584435 is 185,428,062. That is 182,428.062 MILLION OBESE PEOPLE IN THE USA ALONE! How can we prevent this? Simple. PE classes help encourage kids to not only stay active while in school, but to stay active for their whole lives and as a direct result these active adults may teach their kids to remain active, which means less overweight kids and less overweight adults. School’s purpose is to make kid’s long term better, so why should PE not do the same? (6) Unfortunately, some kids do not have the privilege of being able to exercise outside of school, a lot of these kids are poor and they have to work at home/work in a part-time job to help out with their family, no time to play soccer or baseball. “According to the 1998/99 National Population Health Survey, about 62% of persons with a household income of $20,000 or less were considered inactive. The same survey also showed that about 62% of persons without a high school education were considered inactive”{6} “Low-income families and their children face significant barriers to recreation. Many of the key barriers have existed for decades. A 1994 Canadian study found that recreation services have a variety of systemic barriers: socio-economic barriers – the cost of recreation is prohibitive organizational barriers – a lack of supportive policies, facilities and financial resources communications barriers – information about recreation resources and services doesn’t reach low-income families”{6} So what is a way to make sure they get active? Gym. What is a way to go to gym? School. In many many countries including the US, school is a requirement for children. {4} So if school is a requirement, then these poorer kids get to go to school. At school, they should get the exercise they need at school! That is why gym should be a requirement and should be encouraged in school, to make sure that these less fortunate kids get the exercise they need. (CONCLUSION) Thank you! DDD(REFERENCES) {1} http://www.livestrong.com... {2}http://www.ajpmonline.org... {3} http://en.wikipedia.org... {4} http://en.wikipedia.org... {5}http://www.city-data.com... {6}http://www.physicalactivitystrategy.ca...