Only about half of American students get the recommended minimum 60 minutes of daily vigorous or moderate physical activity.
A new report from the Institute of Medicine recommends that schools provide physical activity during school hours -- 30 minutes per day in elementary school and 45 minutes per day in middle school and high school.
The report also indicates that schools should make other opportunities available outside school hours for sports and other physical activities.
They add that the government should designate physical education a core academic subject and that recess should not be taken away as punishment or replaced with more classroom time.
The authors suggest that physical fitness improves academic performance.
They suggest that the recent trend toward replacing physical education with reading and math should be stopped.
