We've been hearing for a long time now that our children are sluggish, sedentary and already embracing lifestyles that will, sometime down the road, usher in life-altering and -ending ills like heart disease and diabetes.
It's a pretty sobering message, so I was gladdened this week to learn that a national campaign to raise awareness and get kids off the couch and moving is apparently having some impact.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said its most recent survey shows that the youths of this country are becoming more physically active. It says its campaign, called VERB (I couldn't find an explanation of the acronym, if it is one, so I can't tell you what it stands for), has helped create a 34 percent increase in weekly physical activity sessions among 8.6 million kids ages 9-10. It also noted gains in physical activity in other ages, up to early teens.
The assessment was based on two phone surveys to the same households, one in 2002 before the campaign began and one the year after. It said the survey showed the campaign helped shrink the gap between girls and boys when it came to physical activity. It also highlighted "significant gains" in getting girls with free time to do something physically active and healthy. Ditto children from lower-middle income families.
That's welcome news, especially at a time when school halls are filled with vending machines selling soda pop and junk food, while organized physical education classes are becoming more rare. Schools have had to prioritize what's important to them, and in times of tight budgets, PE has too often been sacrificed because there's simply not enough money to cover the basics subjects like reading and math. Now, with the "No Child Left Behind" mandates, there's not enough time, either.
I have mixed feelings about all that. When I was in school, interested in art and drama and languages, it used to bother me a lot that so much money and emphasis went into athletics. I knew I'd find work using language or science or math. Few adults, I figured, actually get a chance to play organized sports as a profession, so why waste resources on it?
Now that I have two little girls running around underfoot at my house, I feel differently about it. I still want my girls to excel academically. But I recognize they can't do that if they're not healthy. And it's impossible to be really healthy if you sit at a desk every day and do schoolwork, then go home and park on the couch to watch TV or play video games until bedtime.
When I get the girls up and outside for physical, aerobic activity, I find they eat better, sleep better, feel better. Then they are more alert and more focused, able to really learn in school. It's true for me as well.
I don't think providing that physical activity is a job just for the schools. They have to focus on making sure that children learn to read and do math and get an education. I taught adult literacy for a while, and I've seen first-hand the tragedy of a 54-year-old man who cannot read, and how hard it is to backtrack and learn something that should have been mastered as a child.
But the simple fact is most children spend more time in school in the course of a normal day than they do in the company of their parents, so it's important that physical activity is a part of the school day. Working parents are a reality. And in most households, a necessity.
While I can't speak for other parents, I know that after I've put in my hours at work, cooked dinner, caught up on the laundry and whatever else needs done, I'd dearly love to park in front of the TV and zone out.
I'm just beginning to realize that when I look in the mirror, the reflection I see is in part a picture of who my children will become. They will likely, as adults, have my religion and quite possibly a good portion of my politics. They will, without question, keep at least a chunk of my value system.
I am right now shaping the eating habits they will take forth into coming decades. And if I don't sometimes get off the couch and take them biking or skating or swimming or roller skating, if I don't encourage them to run and roll around and even take some chances, they will be adults who don't know how to do many of those things. They will be people who don't value what those activities add to both quality and quantity of life.
I used to think academics were everything. I don't feel that way now. I just hope that the very fine efforts to create strong, educated minds don't leave lumpy, sedentary, unhealthy bodies in their wake.
Deseret Morning News staff writer Lois M. Collins may be reached by e-mail at lois@desnews.com