![]() Lees and Hopkins in their 2013 systematic review article found that aerobic physical activity is positively associated with cognition, academic achievement, behavior, and psychosocial functioning outcomes.More recently a published study of over 2.5 million Texas kindergarten through12th grade students showed a significant correlation with higher state standardized test scores and healthy student body weight measured as body mass index (BMI) and cardiorespiratory fitness measured with the established “FITNESSGRAM” test.They suggest that this be done by a “whole of school approach,” not just during the physical education classes, and throughout a student’s waking hours by close partnerships in the community, to include active transportation to and from school. The 2013 Institute of Medicine report Educating the student body: Taking physical activity and physical education to school includes a strong recommendation to increase physical activity opportunities throughout AND before and after the school day for improving both health and academic achievement.Their recommendations include active travel to and from school. ![]() The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their 2010 review summarize the academic benefits of physical fitness in children and youth.Instead, research would support adding more physical activity before, during and after the school day to ensure kids are active, focused and ready to learn. ![]() For schools, academic achievement is measured by standardized testing focus on “reading, writing, and arithmetic,” and the “No Child Left Behind” education law of 2001 added pressures on school districts to perform in order to be funded.Ī report issued by the Institute of Medicine, Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School, highlighted those pressures, finding that 44 percent of school administrators had cut significant time from physical education and recess to increase time spent in reading and math since passage of the No Child Left Behind Act.Ī review of the research looking at the connections between fitness and academic achievement show that cutting physical activity can be detrimental to academic achievement. With children heading back to school and settling into their fall routines, schools continue to struggle with how to ensure that their students are able to achieve a sound mind in a sound body. The Greek philosopher Thales and the Roman poet Juvenal both wrote about the way in which physical health and mental health are intertwined, seeking the ideal of a “ sound mind in a sound body.”
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