Not too long ago I read a blog where a woman was complaining about a kid on her son's baseball team. The child she was complaining about was overweight and not athletically inclined. She was frustrated and upset about his presence on the team. In fact, she stated that he should lose some weight before joining a team. My jaw dropped when I read that. If an adult can be so short-sighted and cruel, just imagine how other kids might treat an overweight team member, or the chubby kid in gym class. Joining sports and being active in gym class is exactly what overweight kids need. They need encouragement, support, and they need to feel confident and good about themselves.

It's a well-known fact that physical activity is good for kids (natch, everyone). And if a child is battling obesity, then exercise becomes even more important. But what if embarrassment, lack of coordination, or other issues make exercise a miserable experience for kids? Read this story about 13-year-old Matthew and what type of experience gym class was for him. So what's the solution?

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Wow, am I ever glad to read this. Some physical education teachers are warming up to the idea that gym class doesn't always need to be about sports and team games. Instead, they're getting their students up and moving with a mixture of activities that include solitary activities as well, like weight lifting, yoga, and Pilates. In the past, less skilled students may have spent their time on the bench or waiting their turn. Now, everyone is moving and sweating, and grades are based on effort.

Though I was a fit kid, I was never very good at team sports. I was shy and not very assertive, which left me more worried about what to do when I caught the ball than whether I was getting better at catching it. I would have thrived in class with this more individualized approach, and teachers are saying overweight kids are getting more exercise this way as well.

So kudos to you, gym teachers, for finding a way to help all kids succeed.

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It's exactly what it sounds like: doing yoga while completely naked. And not just in the privacy of your own home, either, but in a class full of other people. The idea of naked yoga is that class goers get to "shed their binding clothing" and "free themselves of judgment and body consciousness."

Call me old-fashioned, or uptight, or whatever, but as beautiful as the human form is, I don't think a class like this is for me. Even if I did manage to get over my (perfectly normal) self-consciousness at being completely in the buff in front of complete strangers, I'm not sure I could adequately concentrate on the meditation at hand with everybody else's naked selves contorting and stretching and sticking up into the air in front of me.

Now, I might consider trying it in my home, alone. That could be spiritual enough, because I don't need a dozen other people in the room doing it with me to feel free and natural. No, not so much.

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According to this, Kids in Manteca, California, can't meet state-imposed fitness requirements, which included tasks like doing 15 sit-ups. Kids in fifth, seventh and ninth grade were tested, and the results were quite low, even compared to the rest of the state, where minimum fitness goals aren't being met either.

You may not live in Manteca or California, but I think this will be a trend throughout North America, and it's really a shame. The school I attended at that age required daily activity, and if we couldn't meet the minimum goals, we worked harder at it. Truth be told, I didn't enjoy it at the time but now that I'm an adult, I'm glad I had daily fitness requirements because it inspired me to make exercise a priority. And guess what? 15 to 20 years later, I still get daily activity.

What do you think?

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