In most schools, there is not enough time spent in Physical Education. According to Nancy Hellmich’s article “More Time in PE Doesn’t Add Up” (), even if there were more hours that students were given the opportunity to participate with physical activity, it does not mean that they would actually be more physically active. About one-third of the youth population in the United States is overweight. According to Government Research, from 1991 to 2005, the percentage of high school students who were active in Physical Education classes every day went from forty-two percent to thirty-three percent. Many states passed legislation laws a few years ago to toughen up Physical Education requirements and expectations.
An economist of Cornell University, John Cawley, as well as other colleagues, experimented and analyzed data on roughly 37,000 teenagers who were in grades nine through twelve. They did this in order to see if the higher Physical Education requirements were effective. There were surveys performed in 1999, 2001, and 2003. When the states required an extra year of high school students to be in physical education, they found that male students spent an additional 7.6 minutes per week exercising, and females spent an additional 8 minutes and 6 seconds exercising. This small increase may be due to either schools ignoring the physical education laws, or students not being active during physical education class. Additionally, the amount of time spent in physical education did not appear to have an effect on the risk of obesity in teenagers.
If the states in the country want to decrease obesity in youths, not only do they need to increase the time of physical activity, but the amount of physical activity and consideration in revising the curricula for physical education as well. Those revised curriculum need to provide motivated classes to get kids to play games with physical activity, and run and move around more. Additionally, this has to be enforced by parents and policymakers. The teachers need to be held accountable for the students to meet the requirements, as well as the schools.
Asperger’s syndrome has only recently been defined and diagnosed, according Maxine Rosaler, author of the article “Asperger’s Syndrome.” It is categorized on the very high end of the autistic spectrum. Autistic disorders can cause a serious impairment on the brain and thought, feeling and emotion, language, social interactions, and communication. These signs and symptoms can be are seen in varying combinations and to different degrees, hence why it is “on the spectrum”. Two people diagnosed with the same disorder will display similar patterns in behavior, however can be advanced and behind in all different areas.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that most doctors had even heard of Asperger’s. It took at least 10 more years for most doctors to be able to diagnose a patient with Asperger’s, due to lack of familiarity with the disorder. Since it is a relatively newly discovered disorder, it is yet to be determined by scientists how exactly to categorize Asperger’s, due to a lack of an exact definition. Asperger’s results from abnormalities in the brain, resulting in an absence of the part of the brain that allows people to comfortably fit in with the social world. Syndromes of people with Asperger’s are having significant difficulties interacting with most people, they often have unusual interests that they pursue with an extreme intensity, they tend to think in a concrete and very literal manner, and have a lack of common sense.
Having Asperger’s is usually not apparent to most people surrounding the individual, which could be a great disadvantage. The people surrounding the individual with Asperger’s may think that he is just acting rude or immature, when really he can’t control it. Whereas Down syndrome is highly recognizable and instantly gains understandings of the surrounding people, and the people wouldn’t doubt their actions since they are aware that they have a disability.
