More Gym?- I Think So

Exercise is very important for people of all ages, but specifically for children and teenagers. In many schools kids aren’t getting enough time during the day to get the proper amount of exercise. More specifically, at TABC, there is a significant shortage of gym time per week.

Most doctors recommend at least one hour of exercise per day or five hours per school week. I can’t speak for every student, but I personally have two to three gym classes a week. I know for a fact that many students have even less than that.

Each gym class is 40 minutes long; far from that 60 minute mark. Many student choose to use their mincha break to play sports and get exercise but that’s not everyone. For those who do choose to play sports during that time, once mincha is over there is usually about a half hour left in the period. If you add up five mincha breaks and three gym classes, that equals 4.5 hours a week, 30 minutes short of the five hour mark. Now keep in mind that that’s the best case scenario for a student. Many students have work to do during mincha break and don’t even have 3 weekly gym classes. I think that every student should have a gym class every day of the week. That would still fall short of the five hour mark, but throw in a few mincha breaks and that mark will easily be surpassed. Five gym classes might be a little bit hard to fit into an already packed schedule, but even if only four gym periods a week were put on the schedule, that would also be enough including mincha breaks.

Most students have too much work to do when they get home to exercise, and especially in the winter time, when it’s very cold and gets dark early. Kids are in school for hours on end, sitting in chairs with barely an opportunity to move at all, These few hours a week of exercise are imperative for each and every student’s health. If something as simple as adding two more gym classes to everyone’s schedule is the solution, then I think that it’s something worth doing.