I’ve been teaching in Japan for over ten years now. Many kids now don’t play outside at all and it shows. I have first graders that literally can’t hop on one foot nor throw a ball.
My kids are in early elem and preschool. They have sports days here and my kids crush the other kids at races and shuttle runs.
My kids were lucky and until last year they went to a tough daycare. They had to walk almost two miles one way to a park to play. They were barefoot in the school ground til December 1st and could wear sandals. and could only wear boots if it snowed. the school had dangerous homemade playground equipment that even idiots like me helped make. There is a treehouse that the only way in is by a rope. My daughter at 5 could climb the 3 meters up to get in.
We moved and no longer are in the same town that has that daycare. Still between that and the fact that they don’t watch tv and play a lot, they are healthy. I wouldn’t say they are physically gifted not much above average.
Thing is the average has collapsed and physical standards are incredibly low. My daughter at school was tested. All her stats like ball throwing, grip and such were way above other kids in my prefecture.
my son plays tag with the other kids at school. Dude catches the other kids like he isn’t even trying and they can’t even catch him.
We are raising kids who never play outside. That makes it so that they never get fast and strong. As their bodies grow into and adapt to what they do. Sitting inside all day playing video games makes for unhealthy kids
I saw this start in the 90s in the USA. In my neighborhood when I was in HS I noticed that there were minivans parked in front of our house which was the bus stop for school. The moms would drive the kids down, like 100-200 meters to the bus stop and pick them up there in the afternoon. They were removing all aspects of exercise from these kid’s lives. I never saw the kids play outside either.
I think allowing kids to be raised by screens is a mistake. It’s going to lead to poorly developed kids with no attention span and no social skills.
JFK like him or hate him, he had a good PE program started. Focusing on physical development is missing in it’s entirety from modern society and that has to have a massive impact on mental and physical health. No wonder everyone is fat and unhappy.
I think schools need to focus on physical activities and not just medicate kids to keep them focused. I remember how much I loved recess and if we were good and an extra break.
Seems they instead of the occasional fat kid, that now the fit kid is the exception.
