We all remember physical education classes from when we were schoolchildren.

In elementary school, you probably played kickball, dodgeball or softball. It was almost like having another recess. In middle school or junior high, you may have graduated to flag football, basketball, track and field or even gymnastics.

But some schools are changing the way they teach PE because of the current obesity epidemic, Washington Post blogger Lenny Bernstein reports. Instead of team-oriented games, they now try and teach students how to stay fit for life, he wrote:

Glenelg High in Howard County, for example, has practically turned its gym into a fitness club. "Lifetime Fitness" is now the required course at the school, where students have access to spin bikes, elliptical machines, balance balls, step aerobics, free weights and other equipment. They use heart-rate monitors and pedometers and develop individual exercise plans.

One school, the historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, required students with body-mass indexes greater than 30 to take a “Fitness for Life” class to graduate, Bernstein reported. The school rescinded the policy in December after some receiving criticism from activists and the media.

What do you think? Should schools change the way PE is taught? Should it focus more on teaching students how they can stay fit for the rest of their life? Or is running on a treadmill, working with stability balls, or riding a stationary bicycle too boring to keep children’s interest?

Should schools increase PE requirements for students? Should colleges also have PE requirements? Should those standards target obese students, as Lincoln University tried to do? What would you do?

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