CDC Urges Daily Physical Activity in Schools

If students are to lead healthier lives, educators must prod them to flex more than their intellectual muscles while they're in school, a federal report released last week says.

Noting that more young people have become overweight in recent years, the report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls on schools to diversify the physical activities they offer students and to mandate physical education courses that stretch from kindergarten through 12th grade.

The percentage of children and adolescents who are overweight has more than doubled in the past 30 years, according to the Atlanta-based agency. While some of that increase can be attributed to overeating, it is also due to the fact that fewer students participate in a regular regimen of physical...