[ti:More Physical Education, but Also More Injuries in Class]
[ar:Steve Ember]
[al:Education Report]
[by:51VOA.COM]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English 
[00:03.06]Education Report.
[00:04.75]Too much eating. 
[00:05.91]Too many unhealthy foods. 
[00:08.70]Too many advertisements 
[00:10.84]for food. Too little activity.
[00:14.02]Different explanations are offered 
[00:16.37]for America's weight problem 
[00:18.56]-- a problem increasingly shared 
[00:20.85]by other countries. 
[00:22.89]Almost one-fifth of American children 
[00:25.79]and teenagers are overweight.
[00:29.07]Schools have been urged 
[00:31.46]to increase physical education, 
[00:33.90]an important tool for public health. 
[00:36.78]And many have. 
[00:38.45]Yet now comes a study showing an increase 
[00:41.92]in the number of injuries in "phys ed" class. 
[00:46.06]Injuries increased one hundred fifty percent 
[00:49.99]between nineteen ninety-seven 
[00:52.39]and two thousand seven.
[00:54.53]The study involved injuries treated 
[00:57.62]in hospital emergency departments. 
[01:00.80]Only two percent were serious.
[01:04.09]The researchers did not try 
[01:06.27]to identify the causes of the increase, 
[01:09.47]but they have some theories.
[01:11.81]Lara McKenzie from Ohio State University 
[01:15.65]was the lead researcher. 
[01:17.59]She says one possibility is a decrease 
[01:21.52]in the number of school nurses 
[01:23.76]during the period they studied. 
[01:26.55]For example, 
[01:27.74]a two thousand four study showed 
[01:30.83]that the number of school nurses nationally 
[01:33.83]failed to meet federal guidelines.
[01:37.21]Schools without a nurse 
[01:39.60]on duty may be more likely 
[01:42.25]to send an injured child to a hospital.
[01:45.78]Another possible reason 
[01:48.47]for more injuries is a change 
[01:51.10]in the traditional idea 
[01:53.24]of physical education. 
[01:55.78]This "New P.E." expands the kinds of sports 
[02:00.21]that are taught. But activities 
[02:02.73]that some schools offer now, 
[02:05.22]like rock climbing walls and skateboarding, 
[02:09.29]can also expand the risks, 
[02:11.93]says Cheryl Richardson. 
[02:13.87]She is with the National Association 
[02:16.45]for Sport and Physical Education.
[02:19.34]Also, she says not all states require P.E. 
[02:24.52]teachers to be specially trained. 
[02:27.35]Untrained teachers could be less likely 
[02:30.99]to recognize unsafe conditions.
[02:34.42]Cheryl Richardson also points 
[02:37.22]to one of the study's findings 
[02:39.46]-- that injuries are often the result 
[02:42.44]of contact with a person or a structure. 
[02:46.48]This tells her that the teachers 
[02:48.97]were not giving each student 
[02:51.16]enough space to move around safely.
[02:54.80]Six activities produced seventy percent 
[02:59.23]of all injuries: running, basketball, 
[03:03.31]football, volleyball, soccer and gymnastics.
[03:08.84]The study appeared online this week 
[03:12.32]in Pediatrics, the journal of
[03:16.94]the American Academy of Pediatrics.
[03:20.07]The researchers say larger class sizes 
[03:24.16]are another possible reason 
[03:26.84]for the increase in injuries. 
[03:29.54]Larger classes can mean less supervision. 
[03:33.97]The National Association for Sport 
[03:37.25]and Physical Education says 
[03:39.54]twenty to thirty students 
[03:42.23]in a P.E. class should be the limit.
[03:46.02]And that's the VOA Special English 
[03:49.86]Education Report, 
[03:51.80]written by Nancy Steinbach. 
[03:53.50]I'm Steve Ember.