This is what childen should be doing in a Physical Education class and it should be a required grade every year until graduation.

Third Set of Sources

I unfortunately have not gotten to the third set of my sources. I have had a lot of issues with this blog and got very behind in the deadlines and have been trying to play catch up all week. I guess technology isn’t my thing. Which I guess is a good thing since my paper is all about some of the downfalls of technology. At least we all now know that my son will not be learning any of this from me. J

I do want to say thank you to all of my classmates that did respond to my first set of sources though. All of the feedback I got was great and is going to be in the front of my mind while writing the final draft of my paper. There was some very helpful information in all of the responses. More than I imagined actually. This will help considerably. I especially love the comments from the people that have children and have been through or are going through this stage of their lives. I have a son but he is only 16 months old, so I have not had to deal with this just yet. So, when he gets to be older you can guarantee I will be coming back to this paper and those comments for a little advice.

Since I don’t have any sources to write about, I thought I would write a short summary as to where my thoughts are on my topic so far. I feel that schools do not serve healthy lunches. I think this could be a small cause for childhood obesity. My strongest opinion on this is that children do not get out enough. Technology has taken over and playing video games or watching TV is more appealing than playing outside. I think that parents play a big role in this. If your children are active at a young age then hopefully they will want to stay that way. If a parent is always inside then how is the child going to learn that there are a lot of great things to do to be active? We, the parents, need to take responsibility and teach our children these things. Interact with them and have fun. Play games, run around, go skiing or for a hike. It not only benefits the children but the adults too.

When I was young I ate the school lunches but I was also very athletic. My dad made sure of that. He was very active too. I played soccer competitively for 12 years. To keep me in shape and trained to play my father not only pushed me to do it, he did it with me. This not only made me try harder (it was a lot of fun to beat him in things sometimes) but it also gave us the bonding time. It kept him in shape too.

I also think that schools need to incorporate PE back into the curriculum. We took a PE class every year and got graded on it.

If children would do a little exercise everyday then they would have room to be able to play video games and watch TV.

My Second Set of Sources

My second set of sources has unfortunately come from the internet again. I was really hoping to make it into the library but didn’t get a free moment this weekend. I will be going this weekend though. One of the sources I found on the link that our professor provided for us. The lii.org link. I found this to be very helpful. It gives you an article and then has many sources within that article. I did a lot of research and used the best sources that were used in the articles. For the second one I actually went back to the database provided through Front Range but went into the Academic Search Premier instead of The Point of View tab.

One of the sources came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. It was the article that gave me many sources from within it. One of the things I want to focus on the most in my paper is the fact that I believe technology plays a bigger part in childhood obesity than lunchroom food does. I have gotten a little frustrated with this because I haven’t been able to find good sources to help support this. When I found this website I hit the jackpot. I finally found three really good sources in one article. All of these sources finally talk about technology and how much children watch TV compared to how much they actually exercise. Now I am in search of the source that states how long obesity has been a problem and how they have been run with technology.

The second source is very helpful because it talks about the importance of physical education in schools and the importance of parent involvement in order to help with the obesity issues. It gives parents very helpful tips on things they can do with their children to help them become active. The great thing about physical activity is that it can include the whole family. Parents can stay healthy as well. Across the nation: only 3.8 percent of elementary schools, 7.9 percent of middle schools and 2.1 percent of high schools provide daily physical education. (Green, Riley, and Hargrove)

I hate it that people have become so lazy that the outcome has to affect the health of their children. I really wish people would think about how getting up and taking a walk is so much better than laying around, eating junk food while playing video games. This needs to start at home. Parents need to realize that they have to lead by example. Play with your kids outside, go for a hike, or even just a walk. In the long run it benefits everyone.

 

 

Green, Gregory, Clarence Riley, and Brenda Hargrove. “Physical Activity and Childhood Obesity:

               Strategies and Solutions for Schools and Parents. Education (2012):Vol.132 Issue 4 p915-920

               Academic Research Premier. Web. 2012.

 

Rideout V & Hamil E. (2006). The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers,

               Preschoolers, and their Parents. Menlo Park, CA: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation; 2006.

My first two sources

I have decided to start my research using the Online Library Databases section provided to us by school. I used this site because I have a lot of success with it in the past. It is very easy to use and has a lot of different sources. In using this site I have actually found two very helpful articles to use for my paper.

The first source is Physical Education: An Overview written by M. Lee and Maureen McMahon. This article talks about the importance of exercise in children. It is so important that some people are arguing that it should be a requirement to pass basic physical education classes in order to graduate high school. This article states that in China, Greece, Rome and Europe, exercise has been very important in the upbringing of youth. Here in the United States it has not been so important. That is probably why over twelve million children in the United States are obese.

I believe that technology plays a big part in childhood obesity. Children do not want to outside playing, but inside playing. The difference between playing outside is they are active, whereas inside they sit on the couch and eat and play video games. If we can’t get them involved in physical activity outside of school then maybe it should be pushed harder inside.

The second source is Public Schools Should not be Permitted to Sell Junk Food to Students written by Deborah Lee and Nancy Sprague. This article is about the food served in the lunchrooms at schools. It focuses most o vending machines placed in schools. Not only are they serving very non-nutritional food, they are making snacking on sweets and sodas way too accessible. The two main causes of obesity are diet and inactivity.

I picked this article because it goes against my main belief. I know that the food in lunchrooms aren’t the best and I will probably pack my child’s lunch everyday when he starts school because of this. I feel that people are focusing on this part of the obesity problem when there are other things that can be done to help obesity as well. Obesity could be some of the parents fault as well. Allowing their children to eat bad food and allowing them to just sit around and not be active. To me I think that they are placing blame so it doesn’t come back to them. Don’t get me wrong. Like I said, lunchroom food isn’t the best, but there are other issues o be looked at as well.

 

 Lee, Deborah and Nancy Sprague. "Point: Public Schools Should not be Permitted to Sell Junk Food

       to Students." Points of View:Junk Food in Schools. (2011):p2-2 Points of View Reference Center.

       Web. 2011

 

Lee, M. and Maureen McMahon. "Phyical Education: An Overview." Points of View: Physical

       Education. (2011):p1-1 Points of View Reference Center. Web. 2011.

 

Cox & Forkum. Cartoon. Treehugger. Environmental Groups Lobby for Sin Tax on TV's and Video
Games to Fight Childhood Obesity with Outdoor Education, 25 Jan 2008.


This cartoon sums up what I want to say in my essay. I think that children today are lazy and don't want to get out of the couch to go outside to play. The child in this picture is acting like he will only ride this bike if it pedals for him. I bet he has some sort of video game that he rides a bike on and hasn't even learned to ride a real one. If parents don't get a handle on this when their kids are children it will only get worse. He is obese, drinking a soda, and listening to headphones.

The arguement is that lunchroom food is what is causing obesity. I disagree with this. No, I do not think that lunchroom food is great for children and I plan on packing my son's lunches when he goes to school. I feel that schools have changed the options of what the kids can get. They have added salads and fruit. There are healthier options than there used to be. Even if they eat healthy, children still need to exercise. They need to have some physical activity on their lives.

I plan on looking deep into this topic to see what the statistics really are. I am interested to see when technology really took off and if obesity has gone up significantly since then. I want to know what schools are serving and what the nutritional value of these food are.

What I would like to learn from my paper

- First, what is your research question? Write it out.

Are the lunches being served in school cafeteria’s causing obesity in children?

- How would you currently respond to this question, based on your gut emotions and experiences?

I don’t think that the lunches have much to do with childhood obesity. I do think that the food served does not have the best nutritional value but it can not be blamed for obesity.

When I was growing up I was always outside. I was very active and played a lot. I would get upset when it started getting dark out and I knew I had to go in for the night. My mom did not really see me until dinner time. I know that this is true for my father’s generation as well. The difference between then and now is that we did not have the technology that children have today. I think that technology has made children lazy. There is so much out there and so many new things coming out every day that it draws the kids in. They would rather be inside playing video games, watching TV, or sitting in front of the computer. Who needs to go outside and make friends or play with existing friends when you can do that from your computer on Facebook? This is what is causing the obesity in children. Technology. Children do not get the exercise that we use to.

I also think that families are busier now than they used to be. We used to have a sit down dinner every night that my mom made for us. I think families now go out to dinner a lot more. Or are too busy to cook so they pop something into the microwave because it is quick and easy.

- What do you think people with other viewpoints would say in response to your question?

Some people will probably disagree and say that the school lunches are the cause of obesity. The lunches have no nutritional value and therefore are no good for the kids.

- What else do you want to find out to gain a working knowledge and some credibility on this issue?

I really want to look at the statistics of obesity over the last 20 years. I feel like that is when the technology really started to pick up. It would be interesting to see the rate of new technology coming out compared to the increase in obesity. I would also like to do some research and see what really is being served in lunchrooms.

Introduction

 

Hello, my name is Marnie Angner. I live in Longmont and am a single mother to a 16 month old son. I am taking an English class at Front Range and have to write an arguement essay. I chose this topic to write about because I have a strong opinion on it but don't really know the facts. I would like to gets the facts and statistics to see if my opinion is valid.

When I was a child I was always outside. I was very active and got upset when it started to get dark out and I had to go inside. My belief is is that technology has taken over and has made children of today lazy. I don't believe that the luchroom food has to do with obesity, it has to do with children wanting to sit inside and play video games. Since this is just my opinion I chose this topic to do some research on this and know for certain.