Yes, rickets, the bone disease that was ever so popular in the unenlightened 19th century is now making its triumphant return in the 21st to the coddled children of America.
Studies are being launched to see just how pervasive these increased incidents of softening bones and increased bone fractures are in children. The three causes: kids not drinking enough milk, not getting enough sun, and not enough exercise.
Is anyone surprised about this?
Parents keep their kids out of the sun because of all the fears that that UV rays will cause skin cancer. More and more schools are doing away with recess because of fears over lawsuits or having to deal with behavior that they can’t control. Good old fashioned running around and playing is replaced with carefully controlled play dates. Little kids are constantly chugging down fruit juices rather than milk. Half the peak bone mass happens during adolescence, a time when today’s teens aren’t exercising or drinking milk or going outside, but instead sitting cloistered in front of computers or vegging out listening to iTunes and drinking soda.
This isn’t a rant over how kids today are no good. It’s how parenting and schooling that skids between sloppiness and overprotectiveness is once again not getting the job done.
PAD
• 
AMEN BROTHER!!! i couldn’t agree with you more!
Let’s not forget the increasing “milk is bad for you” stuff in the media, especially pushed by extreme vegan and animal-rights people.
I’d blame parents, but he hasn’t got ’em.
All I could think of was the time on the Sim psons when Mr Burns blocked out the sun, and Homer Griped “These rickets are killing me!” Is Homer parenting all these kids for real?!
It’s not so much that milk is bad, but more that there are better things to drink, and pass-proccessed milk might not be good from a variety of viewpoints.
But that digression aside, it’s really challenging to raise kids. Maybe that statement seems obvious, but aside from the effort and energy required, there’s a huge amount of information that gets thrown at you…in addition to the stuff you seek out yourself. And to add in another failing of our education system, very little of that information gets taught in public school. And the little that did get taught…in my case, over 20 years ago…it’s now hopelessly outdated.
We gave our son whole cows milk until he was two, at which point the high fat content isn’t needed as much for brain development anymore. He still gets cows milk, but far less than before, and then only organic.
To add to things, I was taking a look at the ingredients to the Dove Bodywash we just bought…I can’t make out a single one. I’m sure hoping that something in there equals soap, but who knows?
It’s become increasingly difficult to tell what’s good, what’s not good, what’s safe, what’s not safe. Take sun exposure. Yeah, we know too much sun is bad, but what about the alternative? It’s harder to get proper exercise indoors, so muscle and bone mass suffer when kids are kept indoors because of fears of UV exposure. America puts tariffs on cane sugar, making it expensive, so products substitute high fructose corn syrup in just about everything that needs to be sweet…with no longer-term understanding of what exposure to high levels of that substance are.
And of course there’s the lead paint turing up in toys.
It’s hard work being a good parent, maybe harder now than in the past. I’m sure every generation says that.
I’m not a vegan nor a vegetarian, Yet I will also say too much milk is bad for you.
You can get Calcium and Vitamin D (which is actually the more important nutrient for bone growth/health/strength) from many other sources, all which supply a larger amount than milk.
Milk/dairy has triggered Psoriasis in three people I know: My grandmother, my girlfriend, and my girlfriends friends father. Removing all dairy from their diets has cured the psoriasis, where creams and other treatments have failed. (and I say all this as i drink a big glass of chocolate milk with my breakfast.) I would never tell anyone what to do with their diets, but I personally would not over-emphasize milk/dairy for this reason. Not when many other healthy foods carry the same, if not better nutritional value.
But besides that…I completely agree. Kids need to go out and play. When I was younger, I would watch tv and play video games but only after my homework was done, and after I played some sport in the street for 2 hours. I sit here at age 31, I play my video games and go online, and i WISH I had some friends who wanted to go out and play. I had to buy a pitching net and a pitching machine so I can pretend I’m 15! To this day, my mom will say to me: get off that dámņ computer and go outside for a while 🙂
IMO, I don’t think its parents being overprotective, I think too many parents just don’t care anymore. Too many parents are absentee, or they just want their kids to shutup and leave them alone. If the TV or video games can control the children, that is good enough for the parents.
I also think soda should be limited if not completely removed from childrens (everyones?)diet . A friend of mine from the midwest said they used to clean their toilet bowls with Coca-Cola. That was enough for me to stop drinking the crap. If its strong enough to clean your toilet, I cant imagine what it does to your insides :/
Michael
I’ve always been infinitely grateful that my parents didn’t freak out at every report of what’s good/what’s bad for kids that came out when I was a kid. I had plenty of freedom to play and explore (and be *alone*, something kids don’t seem to have anymore) and they didn’t mind if I tried to eat the mud pies I made. They never got overly excited if a trip to the emergency room was needed for stiches or what used to be normal childhood injuries. I got generally balanced meals and barely ever remember drinking anything other than milk and water.
Thanks to that, I’ve got an excellent immune system and the only health problems I’ve got can be attributed to mistakes I’ve made, such as too many years of smoking.
I genuinely feel sorry for kids these days.
Jan
Y’know, it’s funny. Given your love of using wordplay, including in the titles of your blog entries, I figured your use of “rickets” would turn out to be some sort of double meaning, or something. It’s sad that it turned out to be an actual returns of rickets. But it’s not surprising. This is what happens whenever pseudoscience gains a foothold in the public consciousness with regard to medicine. In its own way, the sentiments you report here on the part of parents with respect to UV is little different from the MMR vaccine controversy, or AIDS denialism.
I really don’t think the proportion of bad parents to good ones has increased that much to account for this kind of phenomenon. I’d say the likelier culprit is very likely overprocessed American food and the accompanying lack of a calcium-rich diet (lots of veggies also provide calcium). I also believe culprits like overprocessing and high-fructose corn syrup — and this is all top-down corporations-thrusting-onto-consumers stuff — is at the heart of the so-called “obesity epidemic” much, much more than lack of individual willpower (or even more logical factors like heredity or yo-yo dieting). Whenever culpable corporate and government entities enlist their buddies in the media to spread lines about how something bad is consumers’ fault rather than shouldering any of the blame themselves, that’s always a red flag to me.
Then there’s , of course , the assertion that tooth decay is on the rise because America is hung up on bottled water, which is not fluorinated. G-dam! is there NOTHING in the world that is harmless for humans to consume?
Bob
A portion of the problem no one wants to admit is the idea that firm parenting, that part of parenting that uses the word NO and goes against what the child wants, will irreparably harm the developing psyche, as it has for the last 1 million years. Current philosophy says that to tell a child No Soda, drink milk, No TV, go play, or no, you can’t have $50 for another video game, is to demean your child and ignore his needs and desires. Thus, it is now okay to have a 5 year old who can’t speak because there is still a pacifier rooted in his rotting teeth.
You also need a parent who is HOME and spends time with their kids. When the kid is in daycare 12 hours a day, he’s not used to being outside. When he’s supposed to stay inside after school until someone gets home at 6 or 7, he won’t see the light of day. Children shouldn’t be raising themselves.
And when the government keeps raising the price of milk – over $4 a gallon here – and soda costs $1.50 a gallon, what is a financially strapped single parent going to buy more of??? My crew goes through 7 gallons of milk and a pound of cheese or more every week, but not one of them has ever broken a bone.
G-dam! is there NOTHING in the world that is harmless for humans to consume?
I’ve got a friend who’s an EMT who tells me that it’s basically impossible to give a patient too much oxygen. I’m sure that someone smarter than me can come up with some long term problem associated with high oxygen content, but I’d still be that O2 is as close as you’re going to get to an actual real-world answer.
If you want to talk intangibles, then maybe “God’s love.”
Teens have been surly and uninvolved since the beginning of time. But my kid has recess at school, plays in the sun (with sunscreen when appropriate), and his play-dates could hardly be called endured, much less “carefully controlled”.
But yes. He doesn’t drink a lot of milk. Wanna know why? Humans are the ONLY mammal that drinks the milk of other mammals, and there is WAY TOO MUCH crap in regular milk these days. Bovine Growth Hormone, antibiotics, and all sorts of other crap. No, thanks.
I’m not all that concerned that humans are the only species that actively seeks out other animal’s milk to drink…we eat a huge variety of things. But I am concerned with all the stuff that’s not milk that ends up in the milk in order to make it stay fresh longer, or gets passed through by the donor cow in order to make that cow more productive longer, or the stuff that gets carried through the cow’s digestive system that’s intended to make the feed the cow is given last longer, etc.
There aren’t a whole lot of people or agencies looking out for the actual health and welfare of people. On top of that, most people don’t give a second worth of thought about the safety of the food they eat.
And yet, for all the supposed crap that we’re eating, aren’t we living longer than before?
There might be a tradeoff–granted, too many preservatives can’t be a good thing…but it might be better than risking aflatoxin in your produce. Though there’s no reason we should settle for merely the lesser of two evils.
BTW-does anyone know if any form of artificial lighting can replicate the Vitamin D producing qualities of sunlight? The cruddy fluorescent lights of school are sure no help. Not suggesting this as a replacement fbor sun, just as a supplement
“And yet, for all the supposed crap that we’re eating, aren’t we living longer than before?”
And how much of that has to do with better medical facilities, fewer wars (at least so far as the US is concerned), better hygene, the fact that most of us don’t have to chase down wolly mammoths for food anymore, etc.
And while we’re living longer, aren’t cancer rates up?
As a teacher I have to say AMEN!!
I have been really disappointed in how children today DON’T act like children. They have no idea how to go outside and have fun. As for the parents……… 🙁
Hopefully, information and problems like this will stear some back in the right direction…
MILK is beneficial because it provides calcium and vitamin D. But people who never drink milk CAN be healthy without it. And as a rule, milk is harmful to you; as a specific case, milk might not be harmful to you. It all depends on if you are LACTOSE intolerant or not. I am.
Calcium can be found in many foods. If you think you are calcium deficient, you can get calcium from a high quality supplement.
VITAMIN D is made by the body from the reaction to sunlight. In winter, most people in the US do not get enough sunlight.
ARTIFICIAL lighting can help somewhat in the winter, but the light must be from full spectrum lighting. Those bulbs are expensive. Standard incandescent bulbs will not help.
Bill,
I don’t know if there’s a lightbulb for humans, but I know that they sell full-spectrum lightbulbs for use in reptile terrariums. So, theoretically at least, you could install those in your house, and as long as your kids didn’t develop scales or anything, you’d be good to go!
.
.
.
I get a lot of information on health subjects from Healthy Talk Radio. They feature natural health care.
http://www.healthytalkradio.com
Here is a specific link to an hour from the show that I just listened to last night. “How much Vitamin D do you need?” They also talk about other things in this hour, but the Vitamin D info lasts throughout the show.
I STRONGLY URGE EVERYBODY TO LISTEN TO THIS. I don’t know that anyone would have the time to listen to all 3 hours of the show every day, but this one hour is a good place to sample the site.
(The link will go away around December 7.)
http://vista.streamguys.com/healthytalk/DRS20071127-11.wma
The answer is 2000 IU (International Units) daily.
100 mg equals about 400 IU.
Julian Whitaker, M.D., says that the recommended
daily amount of 400 IU is too little, especially in the winter months, when there is little exposure to sunlight. He also speculates that the lack of Vitamin D leads to a weakened immune system, causing people to get the flu in winter.
.
.
.
Here in Britain the government started several programs in schools, mainly for fighting obesity. Schools offer more PE (physical education). Children under 5 get free milk, children 5 and over get subsidized milk, like my daughter. Younger children are also entitled to one free piece of fruit or vegetable a day and school meals have to meet strict nutrition guidelines.
Fizzy drinks and sweets are not allowed in school lunch bags. Children are allowed to use a personal water bottle they can also have in class.
My daughter is a very fussy eater. When giving her fruit and vegetables at home, she might eat one carrot and one small piece of broccoli, and that takes some persuasion. At least she seems to eat her portion at school because she sees other children eating it. What we are doing is giving her real fruit smoothies so that she gets some natural vitamins and a vitamin and mineral supplement for children in the morning, as we call it, her “building block”.
Fortunately, our daughter still loves milk and occasionally she eats yoghurt, too.
Otherwise, her favourite meals are eggs, fish fingers, toast with butter and nothing else and the occasional small piece of meat. It is not the best diet but she seems to be healthy and happy. And she is certainly not overweight.
From early on, she had milk or water, not the colourful sweet drinks other children got. Now she doesn`t even like them. When offered, she is asking for water.
Where we live, we are very lucky: We have a green area next to our house with a big play ground that actually offers a lot to children. If we would live in the middle of town surrounded by busy roads, providing excercise especially in school holidays would be much more difficult.
Bone disease doesn`t seem to be a problem here and I must admit, I have only seen very few children I would classify as obese.
All I can do is second that “Amen!” and say “mmm…bovine growth hormones…”
he fact that most of us don’t have to chase down woolly mammoths for food anymore, etc.
Ahh… Those were the days! The real health program was running away from sabertooth tigers!
As for the parents….
Well, that’s a loaded statement.
Maybe it is just me, but it sure seems that many parents let (particularly young) kids get away with more than I could as a child.
And while we’re living longer, aren’t cancer rates up?
That’s to be expected–the longer you live the more likely you are to get cancer. Isn’t it true that half of all men over 70 will get prostate cancer (though far fewer will die from it). Cancer seems a natural and expected result of aging.
I imagine that it isn’t a big problem in Lesotho (life expectancy 42.6).
All that said, I’d rather eat eat meat that has as few added chemicals as possible and I’d like to see more effort put into alternative to chemical pesticides.
You know, one of the reports I read on rickets said that 10-15 minutes of sunlight per week was sufficient for kids. Holy smokes what kid isn’t getting at least that much???
Well, there’s fire.
I’ve heard a high enough quantity of oxygen will in effect slowly burn lung tissue. To burn something is to oxidize it.
http://www.dámņìņŧërëšŧìņg.com/?p=860
It may turn out that our practice of giving oxygen to heart attack victims may hasten their deaths. We need to keep them oxygen deprived and drop their body temp. Ice slurry infusions have great potential in improving our fairly dismal odds of surviving massive heart attacks.
http://www.dámņìņŧërëšŧìņg.com/?p=860
It may turn out that our practice of giving oxygen to heart attack victims may hasten their deaths. We need to keep them oxygen deprived and drop their body temp. Ice slurry infusions have great potential in improving our fairly dismal odds of surviving massive heart attacks.
“I’d blame parents, but he hasn’t got ’em.”
Gotta eat to live, gotta steal to eat, tell you all about it when I’ve got the time! :p
Anyway, this is sad news. I’m really surprised that kids aren’t getting outside enough. I was under the impression that it was programmed into every parent to turn off the TV, stand in front of it and say “Go play outside! It’ll blow the stink off ya!” Maybe that was just my parents.
Anyway, I have to ask the people who have mentioned that there are lots of other foods besides milk that provide Calcium and Vitamin D to please actually name them. I’d also like to ask them if you believe many kids will actually eat them. You see, I ask because I know that kids can get really stubborn about food and when they decide they don’t like something and don’t want to eat it, they won’t. The whole thing reminds me of when I was younger and talked to some people about being vegetarians. When the subject of protein came up, they’d all say that there are plenty of other places to get protein. Then they’d list all sorts of beans. As a kid, I hated beans. Wouldn’t eat them no matter what. I’ve since learned to like them but I’m still not crazy about them. Less strict vegetarians would promote eating fish. I didn’t like eating fish until maybe I was in college. I never would have made it as a vegetarian. So, what I’m basically saying is that if you cut out all dairy and then try to base your child’s Vitamin D and Calcium intake on certain vegetables that your child will NOT eat no matter what (including against the ever present threats of “no dessert” or “grounding”), you’re kind of up the creek.
Me, though, I never had a problem with Calcium or Vitamin D. Then again, I just love milk. 😀
Several wise men (Jesus, Aristotle) have discussed the value of moderation. That not only means food and drink, but work and play, love and lust, joy and sorrow. As parents we have to teach our children how to expel and conserve energy, and when its appropriate to do so. My daughter LOVES milk. She will drink it before juice. She’s gotten a few upset stomachs from it, though.
I, on the other hand, avoid dairy because of Crohn’s Disease. Every once in a while, though, I still drink milk or have ice cream. Just cause, you see.
Rickets? Crap…what’s next? Scurvy? Bust out the limes!
Ðámņ, Lance C Johnson *just* beat me to a comment about scurvy!
I agree that kids today (I’m 37 — still not old by MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL standards, but old enuff to gripe about kids today) tend to be a lot less active than in the past. Athletic activities like sports and playgrounds have been laregely replaced with console games and watching tv or dvds. (And no, I don’t think the Wii will contribute much to exercise.)
Thus, it is now okay to have a 5 year old who can’t speak because there is still a pacifier rooted in his rotting teeth.
While I’m sure you’ve seen an example of such a wretched creature, have you seen such a large proportion of them that you’d describe it as being seen as “okay”? Are most, or even many, of the 5 year olds you see in that state?
“Let’s not forget the increasing “milk is bad for you” stuff in the media, especially pushed by extreme vegan and animal-rights people.”
Soy milk has just as much calcium as milk.
Oh yeah, and there’s those pesky VEGETABLES that have lots of calcium. How do you think all those herbivores keep their bones strong?
But let’s not forget that some people are allergic to soy, and there are concerns about the effect that phytoestrogens have on humans.
Great. Next week we can look forward to the Plague rearing it’s head again.
Personally, I blame anyone who uses the phrase “for the children.” Okay, Tonka Trucks are now plastic, good sugar has been replaced by high fuctose corn syrup, teachers have been vanquished by the psycho-babble-speaking Ritalin pushers, people are putting foam hats on their kids when they have to piss, nutrition has been replaced by cost-effective dietary endeavors, and I, for one, am getting fed-up with it. No pun intended.
What the Hëll has happened? When I was a kid (Ðámņ I’m getting old) I never wanted to come back INside. None of us did. When we were outside we were in charge. Our parents were inside either having a fight or having sex. Or both!
Use of imagination led to crazy adventures and even crazier projects. Building forts, ramps, tree houses, digging holes for no good reason, farting on your friends only to realize that you’ve pushed a little too hard… “I gotta go home real quick. I’ll be back.”
It’s like over the course of 25 years everyone became scared of everything. Kids can’t go outside because it’s not safe, but we want them to behave themselves while they’re inside and then dope them up when they get a little hyper (after all the sugar water) because they can’t go outside what with it not being safe and all.
Look upon these works ye fearfull and despair. Then go pop open a jar of the latest designer perscription pills for your semi-regular-yet-often-unnoticed-untill-Pfizer-brought-it-up-left-eye-twitch-sometimes-but-not-always-accompanied-by-an-out-of-place-eyelash, throw some of the green and blue ones back then wash them down with Pineapple Schnapps.
Might as well feed the kids booze for breakfast and be done with it.
To bobb alfred:
Where did soap go? I don’t know what happened to soap. All I hear about now is Shower Gells and Bodywash.
Ben:
“Soy milk has just as much calcium as milk.”
Sorry Ben, but I have to…
There is no such thing as Soy Milk. Milk comes from animals. Soy is a plant. Juice comes from plants. Hence, no Soy Milk.
Here, have a Soy Juice on me!
Please don’t get me started on this ‘Fish Isn’t Meat’ B.S.
Many Regards,
Mitch
I should talk I’m a 10 year addict of the internet.
I have the hunched backed spine to prove it played videogames for three years straight. but I see kids are becoming hunched backed from sitting on the computer for endless hours doing god knows what.
Kids brains are fried with LCDs, mountain dew, and ipod music that sounds good but doesn’t teach anything.
But then again a real person shouldn’t worry about looks.
Posted by David Hunt
I’ve got a friend who’s an EMT who tells me that it’s basically impossible to give a patient too much oxygen.
Actually not true – though you need a fair amount of pure oxygen under pressure before you start, essentially, burning the lung tissue.
John W. Campbell, jr (who also said that history doesn’r *always* repeat itself – “…sometimes it just screams ‘Why don’t you LISTEN to me?!?’ and lets fly with a club>”) once pointed that oxygen is the deadliest addictive drug known to man – one small does causes lifelong addiction, it’s 100% fatal in cumulative doseage, and no-one has ever survived withdrawal.
Posted by Alan Coil
MILK is beneficial because it provides calcium and vitamin D. But people who never drink milk CAN be healthy without it. And as a rule, milk is harmful to you; as a specific case, milk might not be harmful to you. It all depends on if you are LACTOSE intolerant or not. I am.
I thank Whatever is responsoble for my mid-European ancestry that leaves me *not* lactose intolerant in my late 50s…
Building forts, ramps, tree houses, digging holes for no good reason, farting on your friends only to realize that you’ve pushed a little too hard… “I gotta go home real quick. I’ll be back.”
Ah, good times, good times.
Growing up in Upstate New York was pretty much as you describe it. We only got 3 channels on the TV, 4 if you could get your sister to hold the bent wire coat hanger just right. Plus, our parents made us play outside. Now I hear people saying their afraid the kids will get Lyme disease. We’ve ceded the outdoors to ticks.
I note that the situation now is somewhat divided on class lines–while the average middle class kid is probably sitting and playing Halo 3, the kids often disparaged as rednecks or hillbillys are out shooting deer and riding 4 wheelers through the mud. They can make a catfish trotline out of a bent needle and a spool of thread, while whistling “A Country Boy Can Survive”. Ok, their music sucks but they bring me deer jerkey so it’s cool. (in case you’re wondering, deer jerkey tastes like salty leather)
So, come the zombie uprising, there will be some who have the good bone health to survive.
1)Posted by David Gian-Cursio at November 29, 2007 12:32 AM
….Are most, or even many, of the 5 year olds you see in that state?
I work in a library that runs preschool programs every day. I see at least 2 a day. You are guaranteed to see at least one in every restaurant, and at least 3 in every trip to the mall.
2)Re: body washes: they’re a marketing joke. Read the label – sodium or aluminum laurel/laureth sulfate – the exact same main ingredients as your shampoo bottle. You are paying $6+ to wash with shampoo. Somewhere, some executive is laughing his butt off. If you must have it, buy a moisturizing shampoo for $0.88.
3)Re: Vitamin D – you CAN get Vitamin D toxicity. I did not believe it until my father, who was under a doctor’s care for calcium imbalance after thyroid cancer, became toxic because the doctor put him on both supplements and a drug that said in tiny print, “Do not take with Vitamin D.” It is quite dangerous in large amounts.
4)Re: “What’s next, plague?” In the news headlines, someone died of plague in the US this month or last month, I don’t remember exactly. It is endemic in the west, especially Colorado, where it is carried by mice, rats, and everyday squirrels, so don’t be surprised.
Mitch – Count me in as one of those who grew up without video games and with little tv. Outdoors, with tree houses, snow forts, and other activities is where the fun was. Well, that and indoors with books.
Another problem these days is the fear parents have of bacteria. Houses are drowning in anti-bacterial chemicals with the predictable result that kids’ immune systems don’t get the workout they need to develop properly. Gregory Benford and David Brin wrote about that in HEART OF THE COMET 20 years ago when the expedition medic’s most important job was to create and spread ‘challenge viruses’ to keep peoples’ immune system up to snuff without actually harming them. It only took medical science another fifteen years or so to wake up to that fact and start sounding alarm bells concerning our too-clean society.
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this yet because I didn’t read through all of the comments, but I wanted to respond to PAD’s point about schools eliminating recess and gym classes. It’s not as much a matter of not being able to control behavior and the fear of lawsuits that’s eliminating physical activity in schools. It’s fear of the Department of Education. Because of Bush’s high stakes test-loving “No Child Left Behind” and the anti-public school media, schools are often using recess and gym class time to give more time to students to work on their reading and math so that they can pass the high stakes tests that the district has to give. The last thing that a district wants to hear on the news is “Superduperland School District only has 25% of students that were proficient in reading and math under the guidelines of No Child Left Behind.” To these districts, the elimination of gym and recess is a small loss compared to the public humiliation of kids not performing well on just one test.
Lessee, AdamYJ…many green veggies are high in calcium and protein. Eat some green beans or peas, broccoli, etc., and you’ll be fine.
Diet is an acquired taste. Back in school when I decided to seriously lost weight, I reduced my beef intake to nearly 0, ate only chicken when I did eat meat, and ate a lot more salads. Best move was cutting out soda and juice, switching to water. I dropped 30 pounds in two seasons. I hated it at first, but after a while, my tastes adjusted and I was fine with it, even enjoying my food.
The key is your expectations. You’d be surprised what you can tolerate and accept when you adjust what your expectations are.
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this yet because I didn’t read through all of the comments, but I wanted to respond to PAD’s point about schools eliminating recess and gym classes. It’s not as much a matter of not being able to control behavior and the fear of lawsuits that’s eliminating physical activity in schools. It’s fear of the Department of Education. Because of Bush’s high stakes test-loving “No Child Left Behind” and the anti-public school media, schools are often using recess and gym class time to give more time to students to work on their reading and math so that they can pass the high stakes tests that the district has to give. The last thing that a district wants to hear on the news is “Superduperland School District only has 25% of students that were proficient in reading and math under the guidelines of No Child Left Behind.” To these districts, the elimination of gym and recess is a small loss compared to the public humiliation of kids not performing well on just one test.
Phys Ed isn’t going away, it’s changing. Many, if not most schools have eliminated things like dodgeball, not only out of fear or lawsuits, but because it’s not really a skill that carries over into the real world. The stress now is on lifelong physical activity, so Phys. Ed. often focuses on training students to enjoy activities that will carry over beyond graduation. Our school is what is called a "PE4Life Academy" where students are hopefully taught that physical activity shouldn’t stop when school lets out.
As I have asked on this page several times, please don’t generalize about all schools based on what you know of one or two. Most are doing their utmost to do right by their kids in spite of the interference from the government, the apathy of many parents and the animosity of the uninformed.
George Carlin started saying all this years ago. Kids are so weak and coddled compared to even when I grew up (I’m 38) it’s pathetic. It’s coming back to haunt this country already
It’s nice to know we’re ready for that No Ecstasy Left Behind testing.
“but because it’s not really a skill that carries over into the real world.”
It’s too bad I have yet to use much of that 5 years of math and 3.5 years of science I took in high school.
Why is it we can’t play dodgeball, but we can waste our time learning about sines and cosines and all the little things that make up plants when the great majority of us aren’t going to be rocket scientists? 🙂
I wouldn’t so much blame parents and schools directly as I would blame the “experts” on child care and education. Parents today, more so than when I was growing up, seem to be bombarded with mutually contradicting data about what is good and not good for their children. Honestly, I find myself in this situation as well. Organic baby food? That whole organic spinach packaging scare gave me the willies. My wife still swears that it’s the best thing for the boy. Milk or formula? Whole milk or reduced fat milk?
Half the stuff my parents let me do growing up would be considered illegal and borderline reckless now (lawn darts games, riding in the back of a pickup truck, playing in the woods near our home without an adult riding herd on me). All the stuff I remember as fun is frowned upon. I honestly can’t necessarily blame new parents for being confused, because as one of them, I know I often am. I just try to balance things as best I can. It’s tough for me to think ill of someone who takes the safest way (keeping kids out of the scary cancer-causing sun, giving them fruit juice instead of dairy products when half of the expert commentaries you see advise you of problems with our society overdoing it with dairy products) when they are blasted with so much conflicting information.
I checked out the link that Rich provided. Now, to both me and my son, that looked like the most dull place ever. I can’t stand treadmills or stair climbers. Want to get exercise from walking? That’s why they invented sidewalks. Want to get exercise climbing stairs? GO UPSTAIRS. I work in a six floor building, on the sixth floor. Now, when I’m bringing equipment up to the sixth floor, I see people wait 10 minutes for the elevator to go up ONE FLOOR. When the stairs are ten feet away, they still complain that the elevators take forever. Makes a LOT of sense, that.
I checked out the link that Rich provided. Now, to both me and my son, that looked like the most dull place ever. I can’t stand treadmills or stair climbers.
I can understand that. This is a case where the pictures don’t convey a thousand words, I guess, but they really do have a good curriculum that the kids have taken a shine to. They love the climbing wall, and the pictures don’t show things like the kids using DDR in class. About the only thing the kids tend to gripe about is the swimming portion of the year because they hate getting their hair wet. It’s not just throwing the class on a treadmill and having them go to it for forty minutes.