A physical education class has the same amount of class time as a core class, such as math. It also has the same weight in overall grades as a student’s core classes. This means that a student’s GPA can be highly affected by their P.E. grade.
South Lakes’ Freshmen, Iris Yi, said: “We do a lot of stuff that gets graded on effort rather than how good you are at the sport and the teachers sometimes don’t grade you fairly.” It’s very easy for teachers to misinterpret how much effort someone is putting in, especially when there are so many students to grade. Teachers don’t always know the full story of why a student might not appear to be putting in a lot of effort either.
“A lot of times it might look like you’re not doing anything because in sports there will be times where there is nothing to do.” Iris’ class is currently playing soccer where there’s not always something to do. For example, there is only so much to do when the ball is on the other side of the field. Iris also mentioned that learning a new sport can be confusing so you might not always know what you should be doing. In other cases, students might not be feeling well or could be hurt from a sports practice. However, students need a doctor’s note for it to be taken seriously as it’s hard for teachers to tell when a student is being authentic.
Students spend the first 30 minutes of P.E. doing a warm-up and stretching. This can be a process running around the basketball court for a minute, followed by a one minute walk around the court. Warm ups can also be exercises like jumping jacks. The rest of class is spent doing exercise for the current unit. Students only spend around 30 minutes doing the activity for the unit. The other 30 minutes of class time is normally getting ready in the locker room or listening to the teacher’s instructions. Overall, students spend about an hour doing physical activity.
“I would understand if P.E. was 30 minutes just to get some physical exercise.” Anya Crevits, another Freshman, said. She thinks that P.E. is not the best use of time for students.
“I feel like I could be doing my homework or studying for a test and make that time useful.” Anya also feels that she shouldn’t be required to exercise in school time when she is already getting enough exercise through school sports. She gets 8-10 hours of exercise a week by playing on the JV Field Hockey Team, which exceeds the recommended hour-a-day exercise from the CDC.
“I feel like I’m overworking myself.” Anya said, about P.E. She feels like P.E. has her already tired by the time she gets to sports practices or games. “If someone’s on a sports team, then why are they doing P.E.?” She thinks that people on Sports Teams shouldn’t be required to take P.E. since they’ve already received the required amount of vigorous exercise.
On the contrary, not all students have time outside of school to get exercise or participate in a sport. Exercise is important for teens as it keeps them physically and mentally healthy. Being physically healthy can help students improve grades in classes correlating in both their mental and physical health.
Most students can understand why P.E. is necessary, but that’s not to say that P.E. is favorable to students. There are a lot of changes that would need to be made before students can find it enjoyable and beneficial.
