04-28-2002, 05:47 AM
A nation of monkeys?
By MICHAEL HOFFMAN
Yomiuri Weekly (May 5-12)
The kids start trickling in after first period. "I don't feel well," they complain. "I'm tired." The nurse sighs. What is the matter with these children? It's not fever, not flu. Malingering? Not that either. How can elementary school kids be so debilitated so early in the day?
It's not just this one school -- in Saitama Prefecture's Warabi Minami. Last year a survey of 1,629 Warabi City elementary and junior high school students indicated more than half routinely felt under the weather in the morning. It also suggested a probable cause -- the children weren't sleeping enough.
Why not? "Watching TV," said 28.7 percent of the respondents. "Studying," said 18.4 percent. "No particular reason," said 31.9 percent.
Actually, there is a particular reason, says Yomiuri Weekly. The kids get so little exercise during the day that they aren't tired enough for sleep at night. "The lifestyle of children today," observes Warabi teacher Ikue Arai, "gives them no opportunity for physical exertion."
This has alarming implications for the spine. Lack of exercise, Yomiuri Weekly finds, leaves the backbone so weak it can barely support a child's weight. Teachers who see children slouching when they stand and slumping when they sit suspect sullenness. Inattention and disruptive behavior in class are generally blamed on emotional problems. But sitting straight and paying attention require a physical strength many children may no longer have.
Everyone knows that children are less active and therefore not as strong as they used to be -- but no one appreciated just how bad the damage was. In 1997, the Education Ministry dropped its requirement that elementary schools measure children's spinal strength, and most schools jettisoned their equipment for doing so. Recently Warabi Minami reintroduced this testing, and was shocked at the results.
Spinal strength is important, explains professor Takeo Masaki of Japan Education University. It's what allows us to defy gravity and walk upright; in a sense, therefore, it defines us as a species. If elementary schools don't start taking kids hiking or introducing some other exercise program, Yomiuri Weekly observes archly, Japan will end up "a country of monkeys." And today's girls will grow up into mothers too weak to hold their babies.
The problem is grave but easily solved, say optimists, Masaki among them. "If schools have kids do tug-of-war or sumo once a week," he says, "spinal strength will soon recover."
Maybe so, retorts Yomiuri Weekly, but can today's kids be induced to throw themselves into such activities? Tug-of-war is a great annual sports day staple, but once a week? As for sumo, it's pretty remote from the lives of most preteens.
There's always soccer. Education officials in Ibaraki Prefecture noted a heartening fact in 1992-93 -- there was a surge in statistics relating to children's physical strength. That was when J-League turned pro, with the local Kashima Antlers winning the first-stage championship in '93. Suddenly boys -- and girls -- were out there kicking soccer balls around. The effect doesn't seem to have lasted, but it's worth recalling with the World Cup on its way.
By MICHAEL HOFFMAN
Yomiuri Weekly (May 5-12)
The kids start trickling in after first period. "I don't feel well," they complain. "I'm tired." The nurse sighs. What is the matter with these children? It's not fever, not flu. Malingering? Not that either. How can elementary school kids be so debilitated so early in the day?
It's not just this one school -- in Saitama Prefecture's Warabi Minami. Last year a survey of 1,629 Warabi City elementary and junior high school students indicated more than half routinely felt under the weather in the morning. It also suggested a probable cause -- the children weren't sleeping enough.
Why not? "Watching TV," said 28.7 percent of the respondents. "Studying," said 18.4 percent. "No particular reason," said 31.9 percent.
Actually, there is a particular reason, says Yomiuri Weekly. The kids get so little exercise during the day that they aren't tired enough for sleep at night. "The lifestyle of children today," observes Warabi teacher Ikue Arai, "gives them no opportunity for physical exertion."
This has alarming implications for the spine. Lack of exercise, Yomiuri Weekly finds, leaves the backbone so weak it can barely support a child's weight. Teachers who see children slouching when they stand and slumping when they sit suspect sullenness. Inattention and disruptive behavior in class are generally blamed on emotional problems. But sitting straight and paying attention require a physical strength many children may no longer have.
Everyone knows that children are less active and therefore not as strong as they used to be -- but no one appreciated just how bad the damage was. In 1997, the Education Ministry dropped its requirement that elementary schools measure children's spinal strength, and most schools jettisoned their equipment for doing so. Recently Warabi Minami reintroduced this testing, and was shocked at the results.
Spinal strength is important, explains professor Takeo Masaki of Japan Education University. It's what allows us to defy gravity and walk upright; in a sense, therefore, it defines us as a species. If elementary schools don't start taking kids hiking or introducing some other exercise program, Yomiuri Weekly observes archly, Japan will end up "a country of monkeys." And today's girls will grow up into mothers too weak to hold their babies.
The problem is grave but easily solved, say optimists, Masaki among them. "If schools have kids do tug-of-war or sumo once a week," he says, "spinal strength will soon recover."
Maybe so, retorts Yomiuri Weekly, but can today's kids be induced to throw themselves into such activities? Tug-of-war is a great annual sports day staple, but once a week? As for sumo, it's pretty remote from the lives of most preteens.
There's always soccer. Education officials in Ibaraki Prefecture noted a heartening fact in 1992-93 -- there was a surge in statistics relating to children's physical strength. That was when J-League turned pro, with the local Kashima Antlers winning the first-stage championship in '93. Suddenly boys -- and girls -- were out there kicking soccer balls around. The effect doesn't seem to have lasted, but it's worth recalling with the World Cup on its way.