> Forcing college students to exercise will backfire, leading many of them to stop as soon as the course is over.
Much of what we do started out by being forced to do it. We keep doing it out of habit, social pressure, and in many cases the belief that it is a good thing (brushing our teeth, eating healthy, etc.), but it's often force, habit, and social pressure ('ew, you don't shower regularly?') that got us there in the first place. Most of it is not default behavior.
Similarly, I think mandatory exercise could be very effective in normalizing exercise, which is a very important step in getting more people do do so.
Of course, the exact implementation matters a great deal. But stating that it will backfire strikes me as a unwarranted conclusion.
EDIT: also, exercise, unlike many other healthy things and unlike many things that we are forced to do, is actually fun and even addictive.
PE is mandatory in every high school in the US. Why don't we have a nation of fit, active people?
I think the real problem is exposure. I don't like running, soccer, or football -- so my years in PE were generally a waste. There are physical hobbies I enjoy but the odds of being exposed to them in high school were improbably slim.
True, but PE might have had a positive effect on many people other than you, both physically and in other ways, so at the very least it's more effective than doing nothing.
That said, I do hope of course that they offer more variety than they often do in high school. I was pretty lucky with my high school and definitely benefitted from being exposed to sports that I still engage in occasionally (rugby and ice skating).
Much of what we do started out by being forced to do it. We keep doing it out of habit, social pressure, and in many cases the belief that it is a good thing (brushing our teeth, eating healthy, etc.), but it's often force, habit, and social pressure ('ew, you don't shower regularly?') that got us there in the first place. Most of it is not default behavior.
Similarly, I think mandatory exercise could be very effective in normalizing exercise, which is a very important step in getting more people do do so.
Of course, the exact implementation matters a great deal. But stating that it will backfire strikes me as a unwarranted conclusion.
EDIT: also, exercise, unlike many other healthy things and unlike many things that we are forced to do, is actually fun and even addictive.