Can the school system force kids to engage in deadly sitting behavior?

Over the last year or so, many health studies have indicated that the simple activity of sitting down for long periods of time is harmful to health and may be as dangerous as smoking cigarettes over the long run.

Smoking cigarettes is the cause of so much preventable, deadly disease. But now new research shows sitting for long stretches of time may be just as dangerous.
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I read about a study done by the American Cancer Society that tracked 123,000 Americans for 14 years and found that the death rate for men who spent six or more hours a day sitting was 18% higher than that of men who sat for three hours or less per day. For women, the increase in risk was more than double at 37%! Also interesting was that even among those who exercised regularly, the risk associated was the same
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Kids should never be forced to 'sit down' for long periods of time in a regular manner due to the health implications. Schools need to reinvigorate their physical fitness programms and begin exercise routines that have children up and pumping blood around every 30 minutes or so. If not, they are opening themselves up to law suits due to not taking the kids health into account.

What are your thoughts on schools forcing kids to 'sit' for long periods and so many parents turning to drugs to ensure they do?

My daughter's school is very pro-fitness. The kids continually are doing physical excercises/yoga/walks thruout the day in addition to daily PE classes. They are encouraged to wear athletic shoes everyday because of this. Her teacher this past year would also do a dance time so they would get up and move around and dance for about 5 min. Then back to school work. I absolutely love this about this school. We never had this when I was growing up.....way back in the 70s/80s...

I am very anti-drugs for kids.....Unless there is a serious medical reason to take it. But for being bored and having too much energy or having parents who suck at parenting or feed their kids crap 24/7 and then use drugs to fix their kids.....nope, totally against it.

I was sort of wondering when people were going to begin taking notice of these studies. Sounds like sitting on your butt all day may be way worse than we first thought!

reply to post by greeneyedleo


Sounds like a really nice school. Same here, we didn't have much physical fitness when i was going to school back in the 80s. I wonder if many schools are like this now and I am just stuck in the past?

Not just kids a woman at work walks bent over and her backside is shaped like her chair. The only time she gets up is lunch so yes sitting is bad for all.

We all know that if you get up and walk around you'll get a detention. Hell, you even have to ask for permission to get up and sharpen your pencil.

When I was at school, we had a bit of phys ed, but only 1-2 times a week. Better then nothing, anyway, once we started a type of sport we did oooooonly that sport for 3 months in a row, that was stupid...anyway!

Even more stupid now, phys ed is now an OPTION. You don't have to have it in your schedule starting from 7th grade. I wonder who got that stupid s%$& idea, the last big school reform was made by a women that after went has party leader. Less art, less science more languages...waste. of. time.
Like I'm gonna vote for that brainless fool.

It's proven that especially men NEED exercise to be mentally in shape. I still think part of the classes should be sex separated and having boys make more exercise.

Seriously, 6 hours a day is not that long if you count eating, siting in the car, etc.
Even if I did have a type of job that I wasn't siting most of the time, I bet I would still be siting 6 hours a day.
So even if I do believe in exercise, I don't believe in that research.

Edit : I am very against drug use on children. The child isn't the problem, his environment is.
I also heard the corn syrup they use has sweeter almost everywhere is a factor.

I know kids usually have to do a lot of sitting still at school, but I'm pretty sure they don't have to sit for 6 hrs straight at most school at least. Well I hope not! I'm a teacher and in my class I never let them sit still for longer than 30 min. Sometimes we will just get up and do some stretching exercises or do a fun and silly march around the room a few times. Their most favorite is the surprise dance offs! Dancing full steam for just one song makes such a difference. Anything to get their blood pumping and of course those wiggles out. Since incorporating this I notice that the time they do spend sitting in their chair, they are more focused and get more accomplished. They are also more active when its recess time somehow. I strongly encourage other teachers to give it a try. It's good for us grown ups too!

I just noticed your edit user8911, and YES I too believe that the environment is much more the problem. I have had some adhd children in my class and I have to say with complete honesty that I have very rarely ever had behavior or attention issues with these students. I totally believe that my little method of keeping them active all day solves many problems.