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Why we need to focus on physical education

It is on the sports field, namely, that our children’s characters may evolve into more solid qualities. It is through playing sports that they learn to collaborate, to communicate, to respectfully compete, to perform under pressure, to deal with failure and success emotionally and to persevere in the face of adversity.

Santi Damayanti (The Jakarta Post)
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Jakarta
Mon, December 30, 2019

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Why we need to focus on physical education Accelerate: Students in Depok run up a hill as part of their running training program. (The Jakarta Post/P.J. Leo)

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s a parent, my wish is to see my children grow up healthy and happy, developing their talents and utilizing these qualities for the benefit of themselves and our country.

After having lived in Europe, North America and the Middle East for around a decade, I have learned that these countries rely heavily on physical education (PE) as a part of child development. In Indonesia, I was surprised to find that our society does not seem to consider PE a priority.

Indonesia’s 2006 education law prescribes that children of grades 4 to 6 should receive four lessons of “physical education, sports and health” weekly, a number that drops to just two lessons per week for those in grades 7 to 12. I have found that, at most schools, and for most parents, the importance attached to these hours is very limited.

In continental Europe, while PE at school is limited like in Indonesia, parents tend to make sport the core of their child’s extracurricular activities. Every city and village has sports clubs, often organized by volunteers, where children are sent some three times a week to participate in football, tennis, gymnastics, martial arts and so on.

In America, sports are more integrated into the school curriculum. I found, however, that most upper-middle class parents also organize additional, extracurricular sports for their children.

This is not because of some sort of culture-specific preference for sports.

It is through sports that children develop their motoric skills and build up their physical strength. Sports have also been shown to offer substantial mental health benefits. Playing sports makes the body release several chemicals that work as mood enhancers and enable a person to better deal with tension and stress.

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