When you were in grade school, didn’t you look forward to playing games in P.E.? Playing with your friends, burning up all that extra energy in fun?

Today’s schools are cutting gym time down. Some even only having it a few times a week. It is not just cutting down on fun time, but actually hurting learning skills. NBC news reported that in 2003, only 28 percent of high school students nationwide attended a daily P.E. class, but 38 percent watched television for three hours or more each school night. With 71 percent of the nation’s freshmen were in P.E. at least one day a week, hardly enough to be effective, experts say those numbers drop to 40 percent by the student’s senior year.

The New York Times even claims children who are physically fit absorb and retain new information more effectively than children who are out of shape. Schools with financial problems are choosing to eliminate more gym time. A large scale study in a Nebraska school with nearly 12,000 school kids were measured by body mass and academic achievement in English and math based on the state’s test scores. More physically active students did better than those who were not. Body mass had almost nothing to do with it, claims The Learning Network site run by the New York Times newspaper.

Elizabeth Spletzer, an advanced fitness instructor at the University of Minnesota wants others to understand that physical activity found in a P.E. class helps students with self-esteem and having better behavior habits. It also helps with depression and stress in some cases. Students being around others can be beneficial in more ways than one.

If schools cut more gym time out, how much learning will they be cutting out too? There is a constant debate on physical education in schools. Where will it go? What will happen to the students if they lose fitness time in their busy lives?

Obesity is just a side problem. Without proper activity, children will most likely be in the same daily routine every day. Wake up, eat, go to school, eat and go to bed. With not much activity sitting in a classroom all day. P.E. is a time to run around, play games, and be active with your friends. It is a regular class and should be treated as one. Cutting that time out can interfere with the learning of our youth.