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Educating the Student Body
I
t has been argued that, while reversing the obesity epidemic is not solely 
the responsibility of schools, the trend is unlikely to change without 
schools’ assistance (Siedentop, 2009). Schools are an ideal venue for the 
implementation of healthy behaviors because they serve more than 56 mil-
lion youth in the United States; because youth spend such a large amount 
of time in school; and because schools already have the access, personnel, 
equipment, and space to implement physical activity programming. 
Physical activity opportunities in schools take the form primarily of 
formal instruction in physical education for all students and sport-based 
athletics for the talented and interested. Although physical education is a 
required school subject, the classes may occur infrequently, and children 
taking them often accrue only low levels of physical activity (Simons-
Morton et al., 1994). According to Tudor-Locke and colleagues (2006), 
physical education programs typically provide only 8-11 percent of a stu-
dent’s daily recommended physical activity. However, a meta-analysis of the 
literature revealed that physical education can help children achieve up to 
40 percent of the recommended 60 or more minutes of daily vigorous- or 
These opportunities need to be reexamined to address disparities 
based on socioeconomic status, school location and resources, stu-
dents’ disabilities, or cultural/religious barriers.
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