Teach Kids to Fight Fat

California is an exercise Olympus. Full-grown fitness gods and goddesses pump iron and preen in all-night gyms, contort ecstatically in power yoga poses and careen down mountain paths on $5,000 bikes. Eighty-year-old men still rip up the waves, and bugs splatter on babies’ pacifiers as Rollerblading mommies push high-tech strollers. So why does the Golden State spawn so many chubby young slugs?

Nearly eight out of 10 students failed to meet the state’s minimum physical fitness standards for the fifth, seventh and ninth grades, according to results released last week. Most couldn’t run a mile at a good aerobic pace or quickly walk that distance without stopping to catch their breath. They couldn’t do the required curl-ups or pull-ups.

Class and culture help explain why black and Latino kids are even less fit than whites and Asians. Poor Latino children tend to eat breakfasts larded with fat and starches. Many city parents won’t let their kids play outside because they worry about stray bullets and bad influences. Others are too busy working too many jobs to take their children to the park. So televisions, videogames and computers often get more of a workout than the jump rope or Whiffleball in the closet. All of which explains why so few kids get the minimum hour of exercise they need each day.

Schools are part of the problem and offer part of the solution. Physical education classes began to wane with the state’s severe budget reductions two decades ago. When the money started flowing again, Sacramento and local school districts spent it on class-size reduction, textbooks and improved instruction. On many campuses, students cannot romp freely because the playgrounds are studded with portable classrooms to reduce overcrowding. Gym classes have swollen to 80 or more students.

Principals need to fit P.E. and fitness instruction back into the curriculum. After-school programs, like LA’s Best, provide supervised physical recreation and should be expanded. And perhaps more of the city’s adult fitness enthusiasts could pitch in to coach organized activities in neighborhoods where parents lack the time, money and expertise to pull together AYSO soccer, Pop Warner football or Little League baseball leagues on their own.

It’s heartening that California schools are sprinting ahead, trying hard to meet the raised academic test standards. Now parents, educators and communities need to remind themselves that brains work better when supported by well-tuned hearts and lungs.