Art Caplan on the Need for P.E. in Remote Learning Plans

Medical ethicist Art Caplan made his weekly call into Boston Public Radio on Wednesday, where he discussed worries about kids not getting much-needed exercise while they’re learning from home. The conversation came on the heels of a recent study from the American Heart Association indicating only about 40 percent of American adolescents are aerobically fit. 

"The best we could do, I think, is build it into our plans for remote education this fall,” he said. "Let’s talk recess and phys ed as well as math and English.”

Caplan also stressed that group sports aren't the ideal solution to the problem, saying “[if] we get a rebound of COVID, then the kids are gonna be bringing it to the field. It’s not that they get it there, it’s that they track it in – so to speak."

Arthur Caplan is the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and the director of the division of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.