Dear Future President:

          Physical education and getting exercise is a very important part of our lives. Yet some schools don't offer classes that will get us active and exercising. Even my school doesn’t even let us go outside or have recess. As president you need to help make schools healthier and more fun for kids.

           One of my reasons for adding P.E. as a core class is obesity. Did you know that about 31.8 percent students are obese or overweight says stateofobesity.org? You can change that if you make schools have exercising classes. Because students are overweight they might have diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol, which can cause depression, strokes, and heart diseases. It's scary to think that middle school and high school students might have to deal with high blood pressure and depression at such a young age. 

           Another reason is the student's health. Exercising can help improves muscles tissue and increase your bone health according to the CDC. Studies have shown that being active improves students with anxiety, stress and their performance in their core classes. I know from experience that the students that I have had in my class generally work harder after they get to run around and get out all that built up stress and energy. I bet you didn’t know that being healthy and fit actually helps your self-esteem and makes you feel better.

          My final reason is spending time on a screen. When we have school all day the last thing we want to do is homework. And since we already got our daily dose of screen time (2 hours) we should get a break from the constant bright screen and get outside. And students going clubs like drama or basketball get home at 5:00 and sometimes longer if you join soccer.

          I can see that you might think that the schools might need more gym teachers or that the students will have to have another period, nevertheless needing more gym teachers could in fact  be a good thing because it could give people jobs. And I can see why you would think that we would need a new class, yet if you just shortened every class by five minutes then you will have enough time to have another class. As president, that's why you need to have schools around the country increase physical education.

My sources are;  http://newsela.com/   http://stateofobesity.org/rates/         http://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/facts.htm