“When I was a kid, we didn’t have McDonalds. If we wanted a burger, we had to cut it right out of the cow.”

Parents have been telling “when I was a kid” stories for centuries, and finally, they may be right. A lot of kids today do have it easier. They walk less and eat more, and the easy life is starting to show. In the last 20 years, the number of overweight children has tripled, and the Center for Disease Control estimates that 15 percent of all kids between the ages of 6 and 18 are obese.

“Between TV, computers, and video games, kids have too many things to do with their time other than play outside,” says Marissa Wheeling, council director for Girls On the Run-Charlotte, an organization devoted to battling obesity in young girls. “We want to do anything we can to get these girls moving.”

Girls On the Run is a 12-week program that encourages young girls to eat healthy and live healthy while they learn the skills to complete a 5K race. Programs like Girls On the Run are becoming more prevalent because our public school systems no longer have the resources to teach physical education.

As a result of Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, many schools have eliminated P.E. altogether in order to meet the academic requirements mandated by the act. The CDC recommends children get 60 minutes of physical activity a day, but only eight percent of elementary schools in America provide daily physical education. Georgia and North Carolina have no requirements until high school.

“No Child Left Behind has put tremendous restraints on what can be taught and tested,” says Kymm Ballard, P.E. consultant for North Carolina’s school system.

Then there’s the food. Many school lunches are high in fat, sodium, and added sugars, and 43 percent of all elementary schools have vending machines.

But Renne Newman, principal of Morehead City Primary on the North Carolina coast, says people blame the school system too much. “A lot of the problem occurs when mom decides to bring home fast food for lunch or dinner.”

Principal Newman may have a point. Childhood obesity rates began to climb one year after McDonalds introduced the Happy Meal, according to Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation. Forty-three percent of adolescents watch more than two hours of TV a day, and two-thirds of kids between ages 9 and 13 don’t participate in any athletics outside of school.

To combat the obesity epidemic, High Point’s Robin Lindsey operates a running program called Go Far 5K. Just like Girls On the Run, the children meet twice a week and gradually work toward running a 5K on November 6. Lindsey says many of the kids have never even walked that far before.

With the growing popularity of programs like Girls On the Run and Go Far 5K, the future may be thinner. And not all schools are succumbing to the pressures of the No Child Left Behind Act. The kids at Morehead City Primary still get 30 minutes of P.E. a day, and they plan on integrating walking and running into traditional classes like math. They also purchased a ropes course and climbing wall with drug money seized by the state.

“Schools and the community have to make a point to keep our kids healthy,” says Ballard. “Their lives and their future are at stake.”

–Graham Averill