Why is physical education a student’s most important subject? | William Simon, Jr. | TEDxUCLA

[Music] let's start with a pop quiz can you name the only subject in school that promotes physical and emotional health helps children learn better and cultivates the character that they need to be productive adults yeah I think some people out there got an a it's physical education I believe that physical education should be a core subject just like math English science and history but that's not the way it works today all too often PE is treated as the least important subject versus the most important subject which is how it should be children need to succeed

of course in academic subjects and by the way exercise helps them do better in academic subjects but principles of health and fitness they are vital in the truest sense of that word literally the students lives depend upon it think about it if the student has trouble with math maybe they won't be such good budgeters if a student has trouble confusing and adjectives with an adverb maybe they won't be a great author or maybe they don't understand the workings of a cell they may not be a good biologist but if a student doesn't understand the principles

of health and fitness they risk chronic disease and an early death so my vision is that every school should provide every student with the opportunities that will give them a healthy start in life and also with the education and skills that will give them a fit lifetime unfortunately in today's school system there are not adequate resources that are devoted to physical education whether it's because of competing priorities or whether it's because they undervalue physical education the median annual budget for physical education in schools for an entire school is 764 dollars for the whole school for

all children that boils down literally to pennies per pupil now there's there's plenty of money for PE it's a matter of priorities it's not a matter of resources my wife Cindy and I 20 years ago tried to address this issue and change the narrative about physical education we started a program that's now called UCLA health sound body sound mind we put physical fitness equipment in schools we have a curriculum we have training for physical education teachers today we're in 151 schools we impact over 185 thousand children every year we know the problem and the solution

and there's a lot more to be done locally nationally and even globally we know that robust physical education helps children become better learners better versions of themselves and better people for tomorrow now I know the transformative impact of exercise both professionally and personally this is our son Willie he has autism he's 31 years old he's thriving in a residential home he works at Home Depot as you can see he paints amazing seascapes it wasn't always that way for many years he struggled with behavioral issues my wife and I were concerned about his weight which had

soared to over 220 pounds that's a lot for her even a 6-footer like Willie then six years ago a wise member of Willie's care team said let's have Willie do some exercise and he went on a treadmill in the beginning 20 minutes now he's ramped up to 2 hours a day he runs in local races I've tried to run a few with him I can't keep up with him the results have been spectacular Willie was diagnosed at the age of three and for the last 20 years he has been on meds and therapy of some

kind but I'm here to tell you ladies and gentlemen that the best therapy the best med he's ever had his exercise now there's compelling evidence that exercise helps your bodies and brains first with with with respect to academic outcomes the Institute of Medicine found that reading and math are the subjects that are most impacted by exercise they also found that reading and math require a good executive function and they also found that there's a link between a good executive function and exercise even moderate exercise seems to help quite a bit in neuroscience magazine a study

reported that a group of nine year olds were given cognitive tasks and they in some instances they walked beforehand and what happened was there was significant improvement in their performance versus when they didn't walk beforehand in Naperville Illinois eighth graders were given a math test in cases where they had thirty minutes of vigorous exercise they performed 11 to 22 percent better it's clear even a moderate amount of exercise goes a long way so if you had just a slight change in priorities a slight change in resources there would be a substantial change in learning by

the by our students dr. John Ratey a Harvard neuroscientist explains why this is so he says exercise releases a cascade of neural chemicals and other growth factors that bolster the brains infrastructure dr. Ratey said exercises miracle-gro for the brain he said they're basically three reasons for this first exercise optimizes your mindset improving your alertness and your motivation second exercise helps cells bind together which is a way that the brain holds information and third exercise actually helps create new nerve cells in the hippocampus which is the Center for learning and memory exercise it turns out helps

the brain structures in many many ways let's talk about mental health you saw what happened with our son Willie the Mayo Clinic did a study where they found that endorphins that are released upon exercise you know they're the the brain's neurotransmitters and the feel-good effect it has an impact on mild cases of depression and anxiety it turns out that exercise is a low cost effective natural way to deal with life stressors think about socially these days many of us spend a lot of time on screens particularly students there's a lot of loneliness that that scientists

are finding right now exercise addresses that social aspect and the maturation by having other people to workout with so we have found more and more research on covering how exercise helps the body the mind and the emotions so we should consider as well what happens when there there is no exercise inactivity is dangerous and widespread to the point that Lancet Journal which is a respected British Medical Journal has called inactivity the new smoking now it's clear that inactivity is a core cause of obesity there's others whether it's a sedentary lifestyle whether it's the undervaluing of

physical exercise whether it's urban living whether it's safety factors one thing is clear that the incidence of obesity has exploded it's doubled amongst children so the 1980s during that same period amongst adolescence it's tripled a third of American children today are overweight 14 million American children are obese 14 million that is unacceptable the impacts of obesity are profoundly disturbing the World Health Organization characterized several they said that obese children tend to be bullied at school they have low self-esteem they generally underperform in the classroom and they have poor employment prospects as adults not to mention

that the disease is that they become susceptible to including hypertension diabetes - these are two ailments that used to be confined to adults no longer did you know that the Centers of Disease Control reported out that 40% of cancers are linked to obesity 40% studies have shown that childhood obesity inevitably leads to adult obesity sadly it appears that this generation of young people is likely to have a shorter life span for the first time than their parents Public Health visionary dr. Jonathan fielding has said and I paraphrase the results are in younger people are not

working out they are in danger it's a it's a pathway to chronic disease and early death he said shockingly 19 year-olds get no more exercise than 60 year olds now ladies and gentlemen I'm 68 60s in my rearview mirror normally I'd like to be compared to a 19 year old but not today and if this picture isn't scary enough the financial consequences are quite high Johns Hopkins researchers submitted a report that basically said if you take all children between the ages of 8 and 11 put them on a program of regular exercise 25 minutes three

times a week which by the way is 20% of what is the recommended amount the savings will be sixty two point three billion dollars over the course of their lifetimes whether it be in lost wages or in medical expenses so we're looking at a massive health crisis what's the solution well clearly one solution is schools why is that well that's where the children are that's where the purpose is to train and to educate I call physical education class the low-hanging fruit on the fitness tree children deserve to be literate in physical fitness just like they

do in English or math they deserve to understand the roles that nutrition and fitness play and it's not just confined to your bodies it's also has to do a cognitive achievement mental and emotional health and again studies have shown that students who take physical education are more likely to be able to be active outside of physical education class that will set a firm foundation for fitness as they go into adulthood special area of concern is low-income schools Children's Defense Fund study found that children in low-income neighborhoods are nine times more likely to be overweight we

know that in low-income neighborhoods there's relatively few safe places few affordable healthy adoptions organized sports very expensive so it may be realistically that physical education in lower-income neighborhoods is the only realistic chance for those students to get any exercise you know I think what strikes me most is if physical education class is the only class that benefits the body the mind and the spirit this is not breaking news this is ancient wisdom all the way up to the present that there's a fundamental connection between body mind and spirit this is a timeless concept that's being

ignored today in the educational establishment exercise teaches exercise good for your body but it also teaches resilience and perseverance and a host of other character traits that are necessary for a life well-lived physical education class is a practice field where these character traits can be honed and developed to have our children reach their highest potential it's the adults in the room that need to make the best decisions for them in the United States we enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world surely there's a way to provide this gift for our children

it's not a matter of resources it's a matter of priorities we did it in the 1960s when our schools rallied around the call of President Kennedy for a fit nation and we could do it again President Kennedy said Fitness is a vital prerequisite for America's fullest realization of its potential it was then and it is today so let me leave you with a couple of thoughts it's well settled in law and in the Constitution's of many states that education is a fundamental right shouldn't physical education be a fundamental right what if physical education was required

in every school in every grade in every year for every child what if physical education was considered the most important subject in school if we really care about our children and their future shouldn't we do more I know what our son Willie would say thank you [Applause]