NEWS
December 31, 2012 | By Eryn Brown
Give kids a break, doctors said Monday - or you might find that they have trouble paying attention in the classroom. In a policy statement released on Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on School Health, pediatricians urged schools to maintain regularly scheduled recess, arguing that it offered academic, social and physical benefits for children of all ages, from elementary school kids to adolescents. Even as increased pressure to raise standardized test scores has pushed schools to consider cutting recess, the personal time for kids shouldn't be curbed to make more time for classroom study, they added, noting that, “Ironically, minimizing or eliminating recess may be counterproductive to academic achievement.” For similar reasons, withholding recess also should not be used as a means of punishment, they said.
NEWS
January 2, 2012 | By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times / For the Booster Shots blog
Physical education may be disappearing from some schools, but a study finds that kids who engage in sports or physical activity may do better academically. Researchers analyzed 14 studies (most from the U.S.) looking at the relationship between exercise and school performance. Of those, 10 were based on observation, four used interventions. The number of participants, aged 6 to 18, ranged from 53 to about 12,000. The study was released Monday in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine . Although some of the studies were inconsistent in discovering a link between being more active and better academic performance, other papers did find evidence.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 3, 2011 | By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times
Fewer than one-third of California students who took a statewide physical fitness test this year managed to pass all six areas assessed, new results show. State Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, a longtime cross-country coach who has made physical fitness a signature issue, announced the results this week as he launched a program to improve children's health. The campaign will use such celebrity athletes as NBA all-star Bill Walton and others to visit schools to urge students to drink more water, eat more fruits and vegetables and increase their exercise.
NEWS
May 2, 2011 | By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times
Physical education classes may be scarce in some schools, but an activity program combined with school lessons could boost academic performance, a study finds. Research presented recently at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Denver looked at the effects of a 40-minute-a-day, five-day-a-week physical activity program on test scores of first- through sixth-graders at a public school. This program was a little different from most, since it incorporated academic lessons along with exercise.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 4, 2011 | By Gale Holland and Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times
After years of delays and false starts, the project seemed to be nearing completion, finally. It was the spring of 2009, and construction crews at Los Angeles City College appeared to have accomplished the neat trick of building a track and athletic field on the roof of a new parking structure. Field boundaries had been marked in white on the artificial turf. Bleachers had been installed, and workers were laying the track. Billions to Spend: Complete Coverage It was easy to imagine that students would soon be playing soccer or running sprints against a backdrop of pencil-thin palms, chocolate-colored hills and the Hollywood sign.
NATIONAL
January 24, 2011 | By Katherine Skiba, Washington Bureau
Calling it a moral obligation and matter of national security, President Obama unveiled an ambitious government effort Monday to increase support for military families. The push is aimed at using the full force of the federal government to aid the families of the country's more than 2.2 million service members. Four areas are being emphasized: the mental and physical health of military families; the education of their children; the educational and career opportunities afforded spouses; and the availability and quality of child care within the armed services.