The Obesity Epidemic Essay -- Obesity in America

In 1990, obese adults made up less than 15 percent of the population in most U.S. states. By 2010, 36 states had obesity rates of 25 percent or higher, and 12 of those had obesity rates of 30 percent or higher. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015) Even more alarming, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents is on the rise, and youth are becoming overweight and obese at earlier ages. One out of six children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 are obese and one out of three are overweight or obese. (Ogden, 2012) This essay looks at the question of what are the main causes of obesity and what steps the school system can take to assist in the reduction of childhood obesity. While childhood obesity has been increasing, the school system continues to struggle with what exactly their role is in the fight against this epidemic. With these rising concerns from not only the parents, but also the government, our school system has now placed important emphasis on physical fitness and offering children a physical education program that will not only reduce the childhood obesity rate here in America, but also increase the child’s academic skill levels through motivation and exercise. While the school system is offering this physical education to the children, the need for educators to be equipped with the educational knowledge base to offer the children is a subject of great concern. Many teachers today lack the education themselves to properly instruct children within the physical education classroom and there for need to acquire additional edification themselves. The demand for superior physical education at the basic levels of education is extremely vit al as research has shown that there is a relati... ...or Physical Education. In Dynamic Physical Education For Elementary School Children (pp. 1-19). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Education, Inc., Publishing as Benjamin Cummings. Tinning, R. (1990). Chapter 1Physical education, curriculum, and culture:Physical Activity and knowledge. In D. Kirk (Ed.), Physical Education, Curriculum And Culture: Critical Issues In The Contemporary Crisis (pp. 1-18). doi: ISBN 1-85000-674-1 Wall, S., Rudisill, M., Goodway, J., & Parish, L. (2004). A comparison of three movement settings on the development of fundamental motor skills in young children. [Supplemental material]. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 26(S194.). Wong, A. K., & Chueng, S. (2010). Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Test of Gross Motor Development-2. Measurement in Physical Education & Exercise Science, 14(3), 202-209. doi: 10.1080/10913671003726968