By, Lahela Hekekia (Lahelafit.com)
July 13, 2010
My latest Facebook post got a lot of responses, which prompted me to expand a little bit with a little blog-article.
Today's children are being "robbed," and they don't even realize it. I'm talking about physical education. All this No Child Left Behind focus is on passing standardized tests. Granted, I am very much for increasing their abilities to comprehend math and the English language. But do these schools not realize? It is absolutely essential to their mental development, to also develop physical coordination, strength, flexibility, and so forth.
Is that so? Well, I've been reading some amazing books by Pete Egoscue (Pain Free, Pain Free for Women); and he is a renowned physiotherapist with a PhD in the subject matter. He writes some really convincing stuff on how our physical development from raising our head and rolling over as babies, to crawling, and toddling, and then learning to run, jump, climb, catch all has an effect on our mental development. I'm not even that old (40), but when I was a kid, folks typically had their children in the late teens through the 20s, and they had plenty of energy to keep up with us. We were not confined to playpens, we were allowed to explore. Nowadays, people are becoming parents well into their 40s-60s, and kids are also being raised by grandparents. Their play space has become much more limited, or even worse, they're encouraged to be "good" and stay nice and quiet, sit still. This is actually not good for them. So many are already defaulting to sedentary activities like video games.
Speaking of pain -- the link between posture and pain, as well as comfort, cannot be denied. Kids today sit at computers after spending a full day at a desk, and they are developing posture habits that my generation didn't have as kids, I see teens looking like they have 40 year old spines. It's rather scary because they are setting themselves up for chronic back pain. They need to develop leg muscles, glutes (in the butt), hip muscles, abs, shoulder, and back muscles to hold their bodies up in space. When muscles become chronically deconditioned, others have to take over. Those muscles will be doing actions that they're not designed to do. The result is pain, injuries, reduced range of motion, less balance and control over their own bodies. Exercise is essential to live pain free, and to maintain a high quality, independent life as we get older.
Let's also take a look at mental and emotional health. Hallelujah for Dr. Mercola, he recently posted an article saying that exercise is the most effective way to combat depression, than a chemical pill. http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2010/07/10/is-exercise-the-best-drug-for-depression.aspx?aid=CD945. Kids are bombarded with media messages sabotaging their self esteem. Life is complex, especially in the tweens and teens; and I have to say that nothing beat a good swim or run to beat my growing pains. ADHD is also rampant, and before prescribing a pill that changes their brain chemistry, maybe they ought to experiment with mind/body exercise which also builds the ability to relax and focus the mind. Yoga, martial arts (especially Aikido!), Pilates, they all accomplish that really well. And hey, it never hurts to learn a skill to defend yourself, right?
Speaking of defense -- The childhood obesity crisis is actually posing a threat to national security. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/06/how-to-win-the-food-battle-with-your-child.aspx Yesterday's children ate a lot of crap food, but they moved around a lot. Which sort of helped, at least until they hit 40. Today's children are eating unhealthy foods and not exercising. The result is an explosion in childhood metabolic disorders that we previously didn't see in people until their 30s -- Type II Diabetes, for example. So many of these kids will be too sick to qualify for military service. Don't think for a moment that this will somehow bring on world peace. On the contrary, we might end up having to do as Rome did and hire mercenaries to defend this country and it's interests. If you do a little bit of research on Rome, you can see how that ended up working against them (Hello, tiny army of Visigoths).
Healthcare, healthcare! The cost of having so many sick children today cannot adequately be measured 20 years from now, when they are supposed to be the ones supporting the economy, running the government, and caring for the elderly. It's already theorized that these children will have shorter lives than their baby boomer aged parents. If they already have high incidences of Autism, ADHD, metabolic disorders, etc., what are they to expect when they hit 30, 40, 50, 60, and the so called retirement age?
We don't have to take this as a necessary outcome, there is plenty of time to turn it around! Children are so resilient, so malleable, that they can pretty much do anything they want with their bodies. We have to start them, however, NOW. Let's get phys ed back in the schools. It is necessary for their very survival.
IF you want to learn more about me, please see my website! http://www.lahelafit.com
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