Schools, parents have duty to ensure kids become more active
Sunday, March 30, 2008
This started out as an article encouraging parents to take their children turkey hunting this spring like we have. It's a magic experience during a magic time of year. Instead, my focus turned from magic to tragic.
Recently, doing some cursory research on the Internet, instead of turkey hunting statistics, what I found hit me like a thunderbolt.
As I read, I wiped tears from my eyes. We are literally destroying our children.
Yes, "destroy" is the right word.
The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that American youngsters spend more than 40 hours a week in front of the television and computer during the
school year.
Study after study finds that the more television a young person watches the more weight he or she gains and the more likely that young person will become overweight and deathly ill.
In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that 15 percent of our young people were overweight. In 2006, the American Obesity Association put the number at 30 percent.
While our children are becoming overweight and putting their health at risk, schools across the nation have cut back on physical education programs, according to the same CDC report.
Once a standard means of transportation, bicycle riding by kids is down 31 percent just since 1995, according to American Sports Data. Bicycle sales have fallen 21 percent since 2000.
The CDC found in 2002 that one-third of kids ages 9 to 12 do not engage in any strenuous physical activity whatsoever.
Childhood diabetes is at an all-time high. I could go on and on.
We are killing our kids. Literally. No, they are not going to fall over dead in front of you, but parents are shortening the lives of their children by allowing their kids to sit in front of the television or computer for hours upon hours.
This encourages a sedentary lifestyle,
which leads to becoming overweight, to heart disease, cancer and other maladies.
The problem is severe, so severe that I believe it is the single most critical problem facing our nation. The U.S. Surgeon General reported that obesity already kills 300,000 Americans each year and cost the U.S. economy $117 billion in 2000. The death and economic tolls will continue to rise if something isn't immediately done. Right now. Today.
Parents, look at your children. Review their lifestyle. Do you allow them to sit in front of the television or play computer games for hours on end? If so, turn it off right now.
Turn off this electronic junk and go for a walk with your child. Shoot some baskets. Play catch. Take your child hunting or fishing. Do something active with him or her every day or urge physical activity.
Next, get rid of the junk food — soda, ice cream, chips. Do this today.
Hug your children. Tell them you love them and what you are doing is for
their own good.
Schools should immediately institute fundamental changes in their physical fitness programs. Each kid should be forced to briskly walk 30 minutes each day at school starting tomorrow. Physical fitness is as important as math or science class.
Loving parents and schools must reverse this unhealthy trend.
Failing to act now will kill our kids. Only a soulless parent and a school that doesn't give a damn will fail to act right now.
Springtime is here, a time of renewal, planting, fishing, turkey hunting, quality outdoor family physical activity fun. Healthy kids make for a healthy America.
Ted Nugent is a Waco-based musician and television show host. Contact Ted directly at tednugent.com.
