When said study just confirms common sense
The end of 2008 brings some discouraging news about our kids’ brains and brawn. Recent results from an international math and science test show United States students are performing near the middle of the pack compared to other countries, while their levels of obesity continue to climb.Historically, these two trends were studied independently with plans of action developed for each. However, several researchers and a new book have been making the case for linking these two problems by showing the effects of aerobic exercise not only on a student’s fitness level but also on their test scores. [...]
In his latest book, “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” (2008, Little, Brown), John Ratey, a Harvard clinical associate professor of psychiatry, argues for more physical fitness for students as a cure for not only their obesity but also their academic performance.
Get those kids back on the playground.
Comment by FreakyBoy on 12/30 @ 9:53 am #
On the playground kids play games like tag and kickball – games where there are winners and losers. We can’t allow that to happen.
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/30 @ 9:57 am #
I think that the researchers need to consider the effects of television and video/computer games on these young folks; it’s not hard to see the connection.
Both are essentially passive types of entertainment with the games requiring just a bit more creativity and use of intellect. Certainly neither match the use of imagination and reinforcement of learning skills that, say, reading a book, building something or engaging in an otherwise creative endeavor, actually playing sports instead of engaging in their virtual equivalent, or perhaps actually going participating in an adventure by hiking/camping/climbing or otherwise enjoying the great outdoors…
A bonus is that one generally doesn’t sit around and graze while doing any of these things. You’re too busy! Dig it, that’s why they’re called activities, man…
I don’t want to sound too harsh on the gamers as much as TV. I realize that some games require more intellect than others; that they’re not all “Super Mario Cart”…
Some folks say that kids enjoy a much better life than I did when coming up; I really take issue with that sweeping generalization…
Comment by Benedick on 12/30 @ 10:40 am #
Grand Theft Auto requires a tremendous amount of creativity. Don’t you have any idea how many ways you can smack down a ho?
Comment by Dan Collins on 12/30 @ 10:42 am #
I say give them all M80s. That will encourage them to run.
Comment by B Moe on 12/30 @ 10:45 am #
Paper bags, dog crap and a lighter signaled the start of a couple of midnight footraces when I was a kid, Dan.
Comment by TheUnrepentantGeek on 12/30 @ 10:52 am #
Back in the days of Pong you may have had a point. But these days, games can be quite a bit more engaging. Many, like those offered on the Nintendo Wii are quite aerobic by design. Many offer complex puzzles that challenge the mind or offer creative ways to create solutions to problems. Some games come with the entire purpose of stimulating creativity or building skills in math, reading comprehension, memory, etc. Hell, some even include complex moral choices and include content much like some of the better films. Games these day are an artform. There’s high and low art – it all depends on what you consume. And it’s usually not kids making the ultimate decision on that.
Parenting trends are what matters here. If you let your kid play crappy games, watch tv, and eat junk food all day, of COURSE you’ll have a problem. The real issue is that picking out smart games, reasonable TV, healthy food, and healthy physical activity isn’t as easy as letting them do whatever the heck they want so they stay happy and quiet.
Comment by Mossberg500 on 12/30 @ 10:53 am #
Throwing snowballs at police cars provided an excellent cardio workout in my youth.
Comment by Sdferr on 12/30 @ 10:59 am #
I seem too remember our neighborhood gang (used loosely) of kids being a pretty-much self-organizing system, not really in need of guidance from the parental units where it came to inventing games and time-eating endeavors we would find to our liking. All the P-U’s had to do was let us go.
So let them go. Be free little monkeys. Just try not to die. The rest of it we’ll patch up and take along as a lesson learned.
Comment by Bob Reed on 12/30 @ 11:11 am #
Unrepentant Geek,
I think that we agree more than we disagree friend. I qualified my discussion at the end of my comment…
And, I agree that the Parents are at the root of the problem…Just like with education…
Comment by Synova on 12/30 @ 12:25 pm #
And two posts down we talk about Obama’s pecs.
It’s good that he works out regularly. And it’s good that Bush did, and Condi, too. It was stupid of those who portrayed the time spent running or working out by Bush as time taken away from his important duties as president. Even as a couch potato I know (and knew) that the time spent wasn’t time taken away from other duties, but time that enhanced them. (Like getting enough sleep.)
I realize it isn’t much, but I got our little mini-trampoline a couple days ago so I can “move” while watching television. Not even a full jog or anything, just *not sitting* for an hour. Just moving, even if a little bit. It’s more than I was doing before.
Comment by dicentra on 12/30 @ 12:58 pm #
One good thing about video games: it keeps teenaged boys mesmerized and out of trouble.
Of course, they emerge from those years as useless lumps, but you can’t have everything.
Comment by Sdferr on 12/30 @ 1:03 pm #
You write as if “out of trouble” is an altogether good thing, dicentra. I’m not so sure it is, to generalize broadly about teenage boys. Think for instance of the story in “October Sky” and the trouble those boys got into.
Comment by stiv on 12/30 @ 1:28 pm #
You have to be of a certain age to understand this. We’re all Larry Mondello now!
Comment by JohnAnnArbor on 12/30 @ 4:26 pm #
Two words:
Treadmill desks.
Comment by J."Trashman" Peden on 12/30 @ 10:54 pm #
…making the case for linking these two problems by showing the effects of aerobic exercise not only on a student’s fitness level but also on their test scores.
No shit? And all this time I thought it was just me whose brain was connected to his body.
Comment by Jeff Y. on 12/31 @ 7:32 am #
Has anyone asked why these changes happened in the first place? To benefit girls at the expense of boys. But, surprise! It hurts everyone.
Which is good, because our society only helps males when it can be shown to benefit females.
Comment by apotheosis on 12/31 @ 8:32 am #
We’ll let them out on the playground, but before they go out they have to choose the recess activity off a clipboard of approved activities, and then perform ONLY that activity throughout the recess period. No exceptions.
There shall be no running or jumping, which might lead to legally-actionable injuries.
There shall be no “cowboys and indians” or “cops and robbers” or “Normandy beach” or any other game which bespeaks violence or the use of firearms, even if said firearms are dried sticks and imagination.
The (neutered, plastic) playground equipment shall only be used in the accepted manner. There will be no climbing on the outside of the equipment, or the top, or any action intended to utilize it in any way that is less than utterly safe and achingly boring. You will go up the stairs, you will go down the slide, and you will not question this decision. Failure to do so may lead you to a three-foot drop onto chipped rubber playground surface, and we wouldn’t want you chafed.
Comment by Alec Leamas on 12/31 @ 9:41 am #
I had the good fortune to grow up in a city where, though there may have been less fields and parks than your average suburb, we boys had enough autonomy to “knock†for one another and play our favorite sports at will. Yes, a broken arm and black eye here and there – but we sure got enough exercise and had what the ancients used to call “fun.â€Â
It must be a terrible thing to go through life without ever fully testing your body, striving, and knowing its abilities. Some kids look to me like they’ve never drawn a full breath.
I think Sommers, through JeffY, above, are on to something. Something about wacky feminists in education and fighting the Patriarchy by arresting the cryptofascist “Cult of Masculinity†engendered in competitive athletics sounds about right.
Comment by Jim C. on 1/1 @ 1:16 am #
Fat people are stupid. Harvard said so. It’s common sense, too.
Do you have any idea what a complete crock that is?