Childhood and Exercise
Life is a treasure; every person should maintain their life in a safe way because our lives are a gift from God. Exercise is very important and a good thing for all people, especially children, to get healthy and maintain our bodies and minds running properly. Many people today need to exercise for several reasons such as health problems, psychological problems and obesity. In addition, it is known that exercise improves academic performance in school.
For all these problems exercising produces many good effects. Nicholas Bakalar (January 2012) published an article based on a review of 14 studies of students, which concluded that where physical exercise time was measured, improved academic performance was confirmed.
Nicholas Bakalar is a writer who worked for nearly two decades as an editor for Doubleday, HarperCollins, and other publishing houses. He is the author or co-author of 13 books on a range subjects from health and medicine to sports, humor, and literature. He regularly writes for The New York Times on a variety of scientific subjects.
I found the title of that article in the New York Times: Childhood: Exercise Yields Dividends in the Classroom, somewhat misleading; of the 14 studies undertaken, the article states that for nine of the studies – i.e. the majority – “These produced inconsistent conclusions”. So the thesesis statement in his opening sentence: “Physical exercise in children improves not only cardiovascular health but also academic performance, an analysis of several studies has found.” is true of five of the studies, but maybe not proven for the other nine.
The review had originally been published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The lead author of the Review – a senior researcher at the VU University Medical Center in the Netherlands, said that she thought there should be a good balance between times spent in exercises and study for students, and makes a statement that physical activity is associated with improved academic performance.
But, there are a lot of children who don’t get enough exercise; this unfortunately may be for several reasons, most importantly, insufficient attention given to physical education in schools. The writer did not mention this point in his article, although this is an important point in my opinion. Everyone must “join hands” in order to concentrate more on sports in schools to build a generation of youngsters who are healthy – both physically and mentally.
In my opinion, the author’s thesis was not clear enough, and very brief. If he had written a thesis containing more information, that would attract a larger audience. Also, to illustrate his belief that there is a positive relationship between physical activity and academic achievement, he used studies to prove his idea, but the studies produced conflicting conclusions. The author’s purpose was to highlight the importance of exercise on performance in the classroom.
In general, the idea was good, but the studies used by the writer were not clear enough and did not give the precision required to convince the reader. The author provided compared studies that gave us information but not any accurate view of the results. And he did not expand on the examples in his article so that could be a reason for the weakness in it.
In addition, I believe that exercise is important for many parts of our bodies. The most important part, and that which gets most of the benefit, is the cardiopulmonary system. Then the circulation of blood is improved. As Bakalar states, the researchers suggested that exercise increases the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain; that sentence makes the article seem like methodically-backed argument. What isn’t stated in the article is that the most important thing that we notice as a result of exercise is that our breathing becomes clearer and more regular. Not only the heart and lungs benefit from exercise, but it’s also important in minimizing stress, as researchers suggest that exercise may lead to increased levels of secretion of endorphins, which reduces tension and thus could help achieve a high level of academic performance.
Exercise is very important for all ages, also to exercise enough for the health of both mind and body. It is scientifically proven that exercises are important for our bodies and our mind so, as the author attempts to show in his article, I agree that although doing regular exercise is important for all ages, it is especially so among schoolchildren to improve academic performance. In general, the title for the article was appropriate and the author used a suitable tone to put across his ideas, as well as using statistics, although he did not use the examples and studies sufficiently or clearly enough to prove the case.
So summing up, whilst I agree with the principle that exercise is good and probably does contribute to improved academic performance in schoolchildren, I don’t think the subject article makes a convincing case.
In terms of logos, i.e. persuasion by reasoning, there are elements of that, but without clarity of thought or argument. In terms of pathos, (persuasion via emotional appeal), I think that is missing altogether. Perhaps Bakalar could have included a sentence or two something like: “Health is a blessing from God, and the crown on the heads of the healthy. In order for humans to live healthy and happy lives, we should maintain our health through exercise, which can produce good effects in our life”, which I think would fit into the pathos category of persuasive argument. Finally, there seems to be no content in the article that is covered by ethos – argument based on the author’s moral character.
