Originally posted by 2kitties
Childhood obesity in the US is reaching epidemic levels. And, an obese child is almost certain to be an obese adult. I'd like to see twice the PE in schools at all ages. Fitness is important to health and gives us quality of life.
I agree with this 100%. Don't get me wrong, I was paranoid in gym class. I hated getting dressed in front of other girls. I was never overweight, but, I was always the smallest girl (in every way) and I had hairy arms and legs (not Sasquatch, but, not normal either) and a problem with acne, not just on my face. I was terrible at basically everything we did in PE. And, I dreaded taking the class. I still can't run a quarter mile without almost passing out. But, I don't say it's a waste of time to have PE as a required course because of girls and boys that are shy, overweight, underweight, weak, etc. There are a lot of people that benefit directly and immediately from PE. And, ALL people can benefit by taking care of themselves physically. Most kids and teenagers would not take any classes if they weren't required, then, we'd have even more unintelligent, physically unhealthy people. And, physical fitness is just as important as mental fitness. Now, if you have legitimate medical conditions that prevent you from safely doing what's required, the school should accomodate you. I stand by that, most definitely, but, having low self esteem is not enough of a reason to not be required to take a class. Trust me, I was 23 years old before I realized that confidence has less to do with the way other people look you at as it does with the way you look at yourself. I have very high self esteem at 27, and, have recently been taking good care of myself physically and mentally. Negativity does no good for anyone, though. There has to be a way for them to accomodate your asthma and, even letting you wear a shirt and shorts in the swimming pool. Heck, I think I wore a long tee shirt over my swim suits til I was about twenty years old, because I'm so small chested. And, people may think that being overweight is a lot harder mentally to deal with than other physical qualities, but, for the individual person, being skinny or freckled or hairy or pimply or small or large-breasted can be just as crippling. Just my two cents (or maybe my ten cents)