They say that physical education cannot solve the problem of obesity in America.  But why not?  I mean they could definitely make it more enjoyable, that goes without saying, and there are kids who will always try to find some way to get out of it such as faking sick.  There are also kids who will be too sick to participate in certain ways.  But if you start them early, that is one hour per day where kids are actually engaging in physical activity.  It should be ideally combined with a good diet as well.  But kids have naturally higher metabolisms as it is than they will as adults. 

Essentially speaking, the average adult that does exercise spends 30 minutes working out, because we have been taught that is the highest time quotient to see results and burn calories.  I don’t know that it pans out in reality, but that’s what we believe.  Some of us walk, and some of us follow the guidelines that were meant to accompany those guidelines of getting your heart rate up, sweating a little or a lot, etc.  We have work schedules to attend to, kids, family, friends, etc.  Especially in elementary school, the likelihood is kids aren’t going to be involved in that many extracurricular activities as compared to adults.  they don’t have to go to work.  They just go to school for a few hours a day, and yet when they’re not there, they are not exercising and there is a growing obesity epidemic. 

It would be ideal if every parent were to sign their child up for an extracurricular team of some kind in a sport that they actually enjoyed.  But the reality is, it isn’t going to happen in most cases.  So, assuming that kids would participate in a fairly rigorous hour that you don’t necessarily find in all classes of physical education, I don’t know that it would solve the obesity epidemic.  But it would certainly lessen it.  There are plenty of kids and parents that can attest to that kind of concept, because their kids suffered from childhood obesity up until a point when they joined  some kind of sports team that they liked, spending at least an hour every day at practice and therefore getting into physical activity.  Some have shown more dramatic results obviously, but it does pan out.