With seemingly little regard for kids' mental and physical health, politicians, public health "experts," and teachers upended the existing school system. They replaced it with a half-baked, online, distance learning "solution."

Surprisingly, there was little pushback on decisions that could have such catastrophic and long-lasting consequences as sending kids home to "learn" on a computer.

For an adult, a year might seem like a small amount of time. For a child, it's 8% of their K-12 education. A school year averages 180 days. That's 180 days of:

learning to get along with other children

handling disagreements

celebrating accomplishments

sharing stories of their individual lives (which develops empathy)

developing communication skills

moving more than they do at home (though most schools don't provide a lot of activity anymore)

Someone with an elementary level of critical thinking would have understood that sending kids home to learn on a computer would be a bad idea. Unfortunately, anyone who brought a reasonable argument against distance learning early on was labeled a conspiracy theorist, a threat to public health, or censored or canceled by media platforms where they shared their message.

The experiment on our youth will likely have tragic effects, as research shows. Two recent studies show what many reasonably-minded people knew from the start: Distance learning is not only less effective for learning, but it also leads to worse mental and physical health for students.

That's not to say the public school system is perfect as-is. Far from it. The shift in ideologies spreading across school systems this past year poses a significant threat as well.

But this article isn't about critical race theory, men using girls' bathrooms, or socialist indoctrination. And those ideologies pose a threat in an online setting as well as an in-person environment.

Here, I merely call attention to the mental and physical health problems an online classroom creates.

As a tax-paying American, you pay for the public school system. When you realize the damage it's doing, you may decide to get more involved with selecting the school board and making your voice heard throughout the local school system.

If you have insights to share, please do so in the comments section below.

The Sedentary School System and Adult Health Problems

Research has shown that a sedentary lifestyle causes a myriad of health problems in adults. Still, many adults (unnecessarily) accept that disease is a normal part of aging. 

But kids aren't supposed to develop the health problems of adults. They're supposed to create healthy, strong, and resilient bodies.

Unfortunately, the way the public school system works today. Kids remain sedentary for most, if not all, of a school day.

According to the CDC, pre-COVID, only 3.7% of K-12 schools required daily physical education or its equivalent. Said another way, 96.3% of K-12 schools did not require daily physical education or its equivalent. Seriously, WTF?

The human body thrives when it moves. It deteriorates when it sits.

Inactivity causes damage to both the body and brain. For a developing child, it may lead to long-term health problems and limited learning. 

Researchers in Finland looked at how sedentary time impacts systemic inflammation in kids. Systemic inflammation leads to heart disease, dementia, and numerous other health problems.

The paper’s authors concluded:

PA (Physical activity) was inversely and ST (sedentary time) directly associated with circulating levels of biomarkers of inflammation among children. Furthermore, we observed that PA was inversely associated with these biomarkers for inflammation in children with a higher BF% (body fat percentage).

Associations of physical activity, sedentary time, and diet quality with biomarkers of inflammation in children

The more sedentary kids are, the more systemic inflammation they create.