PE Should Be Required, Says IOM

With so much pressure placed on standardized testing, physical education classes have slowly but surely been bumped from schools’ curriculum. That’s a bad idea, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) said in a report Thursday. The IOM recommends all children get at least 30-45 minutes of physical activity while at school. It not only fights America’s ballooning obesity epidemic, but it is also good for students’ minds.

NBC has more on the report:

“Children who are more active show greater attention, have faster cognitive processing speed, and perform better on standardized academic tests than children who are less active,’ the panel wrote. ‘All elementary school students should spend an average of 30 minutes per day and all middle and high school students an average of 45 minutes per day in physical education class,’ the report reads. Since a physical education class is unlikely to provide more than 20 minutes of real exercise a day, kids need more than that, the report adds.”