Iowa Association For Health, Physical Education, Recreation And Dance (IAHPERD)

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Physical Education in the Schools

Research findings clearly demonstrate that regular exercise, from early childhood throughout life, is a primary factor in maintaining health and enriching the quality of life. Physical activity has long been regarded as necessary for the normal growth and development of children and youth. Regular exercise is now recognized by the medical profession as a major factor in the prevention of cardiovascular disorders which claim more lives each year than any other form of illness. Exercise has also been shown to be effective in relieving tensions, thereby promoting relaxation and the reduction of stress in our highly technical society. Physical education is the only offering in the school curriculum which provides all children and youth the opportunity to develop movement skills in physical activities through which they may currently acquire and maintain throughout life the physical fitness essential to their health and well being. Although physical education also makes significant contributions to the psychological, mental, and social development of children and youth, its unique contribution to the total offerings in the school is the immediate and future enhancement of the health and well-being of the students through physical activity. It is this unique contribution which mandates that physical education be regarded as basic in the school curriculum and taught by well qualified and certified personnel.

Research findings show that regular participation in various physical activities results in well-defined physiological adaptations in the body. When regular participation is discontinued, these adaptations reverse and the body degenerates to its former physiological state. Similarly, skill in any motor activity can only by acquired through regular practice; discontinuation of practice sessions results in loss in the motor skill in question. Hence, to profit from the benefits of exercise and to develop movement skills in physical activities suitable for life-long participation, all students must be enrolled each year throughout their school careers (i.e., elementary school, junior-high school, senior-high school) in daily physical education classes.

Although programs of interscholastic athletics in the schools may meet the immediate movement and exercise needs of the participants during their season of competition, such programs do not accomodate all of the students. Interscholastic athletic programs are inherently selective in nature. The larger the enrollment of a school, the smaller the percentage of students who can participate in interscholastic athletics. Further, the team sports which comprise the major part of any interscholastic athletics program are not activities in which students will be able to participate throughout their adult years. The only offering in the school which provides for both current and future exercise needs of all students is physical education.