Should schools require more P.E.? - physical education; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that teenagers do not get enough exercise

How much exercise did you have this week? If you are typical of today's youth, your truthful answer would have to be "little or none." A new government report says that today's teens don't get enough exercise. And the report adds that teenagers today are less active than teens of ten years ago.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported these findings last month:

* Only 37 percent of students in grades nine through 12 engage in 20 minutes of vigorous us exercise three times a week. Examples of such exercise include running or playing basketball.

* Boys did better than girls: 50 percent of teenage boys regularly practice such exercise, but only 25 percent of teenage girls.

* Teenage girls tend to exercise less as they move through high school.

The CDC says that exercise is good for teenagers when they are young. But it also says that teens who exercise will see health benefits later on. "We're going to reap what we sow," says Gregory Heath, an expert with the CDC. "We appear to be sowing an inactive lifestyle."

One reason for less exercise among teenagers, the CDC says, is "disturbing declines" in participation in school physical education classes. Almost half the students surveyed do not take physical education. Critics argue that schools should require more students to take physical education classes and that such classes should require more vigorous exercise.

But some students argue against this idea. They believe that older students especially should be allowed to make their own decisions about whether to take physical education. They suggest, for example, that schools might let students choose their own kind of exercise if they do it on their own time.

What do you think? Should high schools require more physical education?