Importance of Physical Education in Health.
The developmental care of the body is critically essential for a healthy lifestyle that protects the body against preventable health conditions. The body is like an engine and requires appropriate care for it to function appropriately. Therefore, physical education is an important aspect of everyday life as it is primarily “education through the physical (“Physical Education,” 2020).” Abbreviated as PE, students benefit in developing knowledge for competence in movement and safety, which increases their ability to develop and carry out various activities that improve their physical development to a lifestyle that is active and healthy. Moreover, PE also helps students in confidence development and managing their generic skills such as communication, creative thinking, and appreciation. Altogether, PE is essential in the creation of positive values in students and improving their attitudes, for a good and life-long foundation for wider learning.
Just like any other kind of school work, physical education is an important part of the student’s curriculum. Various schools encourage students to ensure there is a considerable and significant balance between classwork and PE. This is because, essentially, physical education is an important aspect for healthy living in people of all age groups, and most importantly, the school-going age groups since school life have a lot to deal with that certainly results in anxiousness and stress. Different researchers have scientifically proven the effectivity of PE in the students learning environment (Sam, 2017). Many schools have found the reason, therefore, to encourage students always to take part and benefit from the school’s PE programs.
PE improves concentration and focuses on students, which is beneficial to the growth and development of their brain. Studies are showing that the brain part: basal ganglia enlarge through physical activities, an important part of the brain that is responsible for focus capability in an individual. The world today is increasingly diverse in technology, which creates difficulty in maintaining focus in students. Therefore, schools can improve their concentration through different PE programs such as physical games and other body exercises. Students taking part in the activities will help them maintain a stable state of body and mind.
Additionally, physical education to students comes with more benefits as it helps them to realize the importance of living a healthy lifestyle and how to become responsible adults. Regular physical education of fitness activities is a leading aspect of healthy lifestyles. PE helps students to maintain muscle strength, become physically fit and improves their cardiovascular health (Ministry of Education Guyana, 2020). PE also helps in improving various body processes such as digestion, metabolism, and many more psychological events taking place in the body.
Through physical education, students are taught more than fitness. They are also taught on physical health and how to maintain and understand different physical changes in the body. Taking high school students as an example, this is the point in their life where they develop a lot of physical changes with failed interpretations such as “being overweight” and other eating disorders (Ministry of Education Guyana, 2020). Therefore, through physical education, they get to know and learn more about the importance of good health and nutrition. Students then become aware of proper eating practices, together with the essential dietary guidelines.
When students indulge themselves in physical activities, they become more active and break the norm of sitting in class and attending to their classwork. It is important because they allow their brains to balance concentration on their school work. Moreover, regular physical activities are recommended for growing children, especially adolescents, as they are experiencing new developmental changes body wise. PE helps them improve on various parts of their body, such as the building of strong muscles and bone strengthening. As they experience new things, their lives tend to be filled with stress, anxiety, and also depression. Having a few hours of physical activities will help in breaking the internal lifestyle pressures that make them develop poor health conditions.
School levels physical activity programs are an important part of any comprehensive school work curriculum that all school going students have to go through in many parts of the world. It is, therefore, a significant subject that is planned and taught in class, based on considerable standards governing physical education (CDC, 2020). Most importantly, physical education is designed in a way that provides cognitive content, with instructions aimed at improving general knowledge and improving physical activity and fitness in students. Therefore, PE provides a daily education and knowledge in support of student’s confidence capability and having a life-long active lifestyle good for their health.
Sleep is important in childhood development in that sleep deprivation is a critical health condition that can lead to various underlying conditions that might affect the health of an individual. Enough and regular night sleep is important and contributes to a ‘happy and healthy lifestyle (Sam, 2017).’ Physical education helps students realize how much enough sleep is important for their growth and development. Moreover, it also helps them in the creation of regular and beneficial sleeping patterns. Incorporation of physical activities is further important as it ensures that students take part in body activities that mostly make them tired with exhaustion leaving them craving for a good sleep in the night.
Physical activities provide a new and fresh environment outside class for students to breathe out whatever stress they hold in their minds. Through exercise, the body undertakes deep breathing, which makes the lungs work more to fill enough air into the lungs, essentially converted into oxygen which is transported through the bloodstream to other functional body parts such as the brain and also for the supports of other physiological processes (Sam, 2017). When the brain is fed with enough oxygen supplied efficiently through the bloodstream, it brings the feeling of relaxation and free of stress.
Students who are often physically active tend to be happier in class, important towards a positive attitude for their classwork. They also feel happy and positive of themselves, thus creating for them a positive psychological growth (Sam, 2017). Physical education, on the other hand, creates a happy and flexible individual. Creating a balance between exercise and stretching through knowledge acquired in physical education increases physical balance with lower chances of getting injuries.
Students who positively take up physical education as part of their school work are more flexible when it comes to their everyday adventures (Sam, 2017). It is scientifically proven that physical education helps in the coordination of the neurons of the brain, thus improves the ability of thinking.
Finally, physical education is something that all schools should emulate. Apart from the general classwork, a competent curriculum will ensure students are physically active as a part of improving their concentration and understanding in class and breaking the normal classwork routine to teach them the importance of physical activities towards their health. A healthy student can attend to all school programs until the finale.
References.
CDC. (2020). Physical Education | Physical Activity | Healthy Schools | CDC. Retrieved 18 June 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/physical-education.htm
Ministry of Education Guyana. (2020). Importance of Physical Education in High School. Retrieved 18 June 2020, from https://education.gov.gy/web/index.php/teachers/tips-for-teaching/item/2021-importance-of-physical-education-in-high-school#:~:text=Physical%20education%20in%20high%20school%20is%20essential%20to%20the%20development,of%20a%20healthy%20body%20posture.&text=Physical%20education%20teaches%20students%20the%20importance%20of%20physical%20health.
Physical Education. (2020). Retrieved 18 June 2020, from https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/kla/physical-education/index.html
Sam, R. (2017). Top 5 Reasons Why Physical Education Is As Important As Schoolwork – Education, and Behavior. Retrieved 18 June 2020, from https://educationandbehavior.com/is-physical-education-important-in-schools/