The Haves' Children Are Healthier Than the Have Nots'

After reading this article, I realized that physical education and athletics are not a prominent issue in many communities that cannot afford them. With the lack of funds to barely cover food and if lucky, a home, physical activity is on the back burner. Therefore, children coming from those communities are not in physical shape and can be considered overweight. In this article, the author compares two different types of communities in California, Sycamore Valley and San Francisco's Mission district. The community in Sycamore Valley promote a high amount of physical activity with a physical education specialist to help prepare them for a state fitness test. They promote fun runs and fundraise to purchase new sports equipment, like basketball hoops. Children as young as six are learning push-ups and sit-ups from their physical education specialist. However, in San Francisco's Mission district, the exposure of poverty and violence takes its toll and the lack of funds doesn't provide the correct amount of physical activity for its students. It is a shame that such an important issue as children's physical activity can not take as much importance as it should in these areas.

Katharine Mieszkowski uses a comparison technique along with a logos appeal in her New York Times article "The Haves' Children Are Healthier Than the Have Nots'".  Mieszkowski's comparison is between the Sycamore Valley Elementary School and the Cesar Chavez Elementary School. She reports on the status of the physical education classes, who teaches them, the rate of success on the state fitness test, and the percentage of students able to receive a reduced price on school lunches. The topics she writes of were chosen wisely as they all contribute to the status of the school's fitness. With these topics, Mieszkowski also uses statistics and percentages to back up her point. Katharine Mieszkowski's purpose in writing this article is to compare the affluent with the non-affluent children's physical activity and prove that those children from affluent communities have a higher level of physical activity.

Source: Mieszkowski, Katharine . "The Haves' Children Are Healthier Than the Have Nots'." The New York Times 24 Dec. 2011, sec. United States: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 25 Dec. 2011.