PRESCRIPTIONS
Study links P.E. with classroom behavior, academic performance
By Landis Lum
Q. The state Department of Education wants to cut the high school physical education requirement from one year to half a year, but aren't rates of obesity skyrocketing? Will this really improve test scores?
A. The number of keiki who are overweight has nearly doubled over the past 20 years. Because of this, type 2 diabetes, considered an adult disease, has increased dramatically in children and teens. Also, Hawaiians have double the rate of diabetes as Caucasians. But will reducing P.E. and increasing the time for fine arts, foreign language, math and English improve academic performance and future well-being?
A "SHAPE" study in Australia involved 519 10-year-olds from seven schools who were randomly divided into three groups: a control group who did P.E. a half-hour three times a week, another which completed 75 minutes of P.E. a day and emphasized aerobic exercise, and a third that performed 75 minutes of P.E. a day and targeted skill development.
Despite 210 minutes less of formal teaching time per week, the two groups that had P.E. daily not only did just as well on math and reading tests, but had better classroom behavior. And on follow-up two years later, the study suggested that those two groups scored better on math and reading tests.
Roy Shephard, a professor at the University of Toronto, tracked 546 students from Grade 1 through 6 (ages 6 to 12) in the 1970s.
The control group had one 40-minute period of P.E. a week taught by their classroom teacher. The other had 60 minutes a day taught by a P.E. specialist. During the first year, the control group got slightly better grades, but in the second through sixth years, the second group earned better grades despite spending 14 percent less time (240 minutes less per week) on academics.
Twenty years later, the P.E. groups (now in their 30s) were much more physically active than their peers.
Perhaps exercise stimulates the circulation, increasing oxygen and nutrients to the brain. Perhaps P.E. breaks classroom boredom, allowing students to return to classes more calm and alert.
In the May 1997 issue of Pediatric Exercise Science, Dr. Shephard concluded that in schools with regular P.E., "the rate of academic learning per unit of class time is enhanced. ..."
P.E. also promotes social maturation. When Punahou School swimming coach Anjanette Kubo teaches basketball, she has a rule: You can't shoot until you've passed the ball twice. And Kubo selects the least-skilled players as team captains. They learn teamwork, leadership, and cooperation in ways that a math class could never do.
In Hawai'i, one in every four keiki is obese, yet P.E. is recommended but not required for elementary school. And parents are more sedentary and obese than ever. So who is left to be the role models for our keiki?
Dr. Landis Lum is a family-practice physician for Kaiser Permanente and an associate clinical professor at the University of Hawai'i's John A. Burns School of Medicine. Send questions to: Prescriptions,
Island Life, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com; or fax 535-8170. This column is not intended to provide medical advice.
