Of Course America is Fat! There's No Phys Ed Classes!

That's messed up. How can they ban tag? This is one of the largest loads of bull I've probably ever heard.

I remember in the 8th grade they banned dodge ball from Gym class because it "promoted violence" at my school. Later in the year they got rid of all our sports teams and invested in an Agriculture class because it made the school money.

Funny, my high school had a requirement of at least a semester of PE per year. I personally got waivers by doing extracurricular sports (crew, despite being 5'7"), but there was no avoiding it if you wanted to graduate.

jim rome is a good man

Phys Ed and sports are always a big focus in Australian schools, well at least they were when i grew up, and they definitely made a difference. I found it quite incredible when i did schooling in Canada for a year that contact sports were out of the question.

Then again at this time, apparently Australians are as overweight if not more than the states now. Tho i put that down to a higher percentage of Australians living securely (less homeless etc), and our lifestyles have become far more americanish in the last 10 years. (Lazy as fuck)

2 of the high schools in my town have gym twice a week half a year for 3 years, mine has it 4 days a week 4 years through. I appreciate that.

Is a 40 minute Gym period, where half the kids don't even do anything, going to help? No.

Americans aren't the only fatties these days.

You should look at half the kids in British schools lately.

well I am a college student and started Bodybuilding 3.5 years ago ,  I was kinda overweight myself at that time but now things are totally different .  I think If you want to lose fat you can . 
though I like the idea of replacing the fat with muscles rather than just losing weight and getting weak  .

"Is a 40 minute Gym period, where half the kids don't even do anything, going to help? No.

A worthless gym class in school will do nothing for you; get outside and go runnning if you really care about how you look, lets not blame the school for fat kids. 

"

in elementary school we played dodgeball like crazy. it was friggin awesome, anyone who dislikes dodgeball shouldnt even be alive.
in highschool all that sensitive sissy crap started and it got banned. Fortunately they just changed the name to "agility ball" and everything stayed the same.

in PA you need to pass gym class every year in highschool or you dont graduate.

I think the majority of the blame comes from greedy lawyers and the stupid parents of stupid kids who get hurt.  No school wants to give away a few million dollars to little Timmy who got a broken nose with a dodgeball so they take the extreme position.

And this is yet another reason why I hate the nanny state mentality.

"Here in texas hardly anyones fat."

the whole public school system is screwy.

"Here in texas hardly anyones fat."

"And then people wonder why all these kids are obese."

I'm all for having PE in schools.  Whether you realize it or not, people in general have a tendency to follow patterns of behavior that were instilled in them during their youth. While this doesn't  guaranteed that you will continue to maintain a healthy lifestyle after graduation, it certainly increases the likelihood that you will.  I understand that there are exceptions to the rule.

We live in a great technological time period. However, it has not only tethered us to these wonderful gadgets, but each has made us somewhat lazier in some respects. Growing up, there was no Internet to chat it up on. You couldn't sit in front of the TV and play games all day (not that I don't enjoy doing this).  You actually went outside, or went next door to talk to friends and neighbors. For some people, PE is the only time they will do any physical activity at all during the day.  In other words, I think it fills an important need that some parts of our society have forgotten that exists in the first place.

I'm as guilty of it as the next person. However, it just had to be said.

I'm overweight, but active. I remember in eighth grade when we had P.E. our gym teacher always came in with a hangover and just told us to play basketball. lol. I played Tennis in High School, but I really couldn't stand regular P.E....but then again , that's what inspired me to push myself harder to do something more challenging. But I understand that's not going to be the case for every person.

And tag is fucking awesome. I'm almost 18 and I fucking love tag. Best game ever.

"Here in texas hardly anyones fat."

This sudden concern about fat Americans is just another fear tactic by the media ... and I'm sure if you really do some digging, you'll find a cash cow at the bottom of the pit.  In other words, some industry somewhere is profiting handsomely from the media brainwashing that is taking place concerning fitness.

Don't get me wrong,  I'm not saying being physically fit is a bad thing,  but like with many other so-called studies and statistics, as well as with most media campaigns, it's blown all out of proportion.

For instance, when you read some statistic about how X percent of Americans are overweight, the reality is, if you're even one percentage point over the the line, you're slapped with the label.  However, the descriptions are worded to have everyone believing that anyone considered "overweight" are HUGE.  In point of fact, whenever I'm on campus, I'm pretty hard pressed to find someone who is noticeably overweight. Maybe 1 in every 100 people I see are overweight enough for me to actually notice how fat they are.  People who look physically fit are far far far more common.

More on topic, gym class was never meant to be an exercise program.  It had more to do with teaching kids about sportsmanship, fair play, teamwork, and for gaining an understanding of the rules for various sports.  As someone else pointed out,  the half an hour or so you might spend in gym class twice per week isn't going to keep anyone skinny or fit.

And dodge ball was fun!  Now a'days, I'm surprised they aren't teaching crotchet or basket weaving in gym class.  Anything to avoid our precious angels from skinning their knees.

My brothers elementary school banned tag. When the principal was asked about it she said, "It was too rough"... LAME!