dont worry aninvertedlove - I feel the exact same hate for PE as you do. I had to take it all through elementary school and then since I was in band, I only had to take it for a semester in sixth grade. I didnt have to take it again until I got into the ninth grade and (since I was no longer in band) I had to take a 9 week running course. I hated it because I had to take it from August - October (one of the hottest times in FL) and the class was from 10:45- 12:45 (the hottest part of the day). Even though I like running, I hate being told how much and when I could stop. It just so happened that by the end of the class, we had to run for 20 minutes straight without stopping - something that I could do but hated doing it.

After the running class, I had to take a 9 week recreational fitness class. All this consisted of (to me) was standing in the back of a pit of sand for volleyball, watching the macho guys attempt to show off. Then, once we played football, it consisted of me standing in the back, talking to my friends who were equally uninterested in the game. For all the games we played, I was never forced to play because my teacher could care less, and I didnt learn anything about sports that I will never play again.

After that grueling, boring semester, I [thankfully] longer have to take PE classes while I'm in high school. The school does offer "club sports" classes if you love playing awful games in the hot sun. I personally will spend my time learning things that will actually be beneficial in the real world.

This upcoming year when I will be a sohpmore I will not be particinpating in PE. I loate Pe too but I admire those who are fit to do it. In our schools our physical education teachers are either "too fit" or "fat". Since I cant do pe due to bulimia I have to do something else to count as a physical education class. I will keep posted on what they decide for me.

quote:

Originally posted by bluedemocrat:
Excersise is really, really important. If kids aren't excersing in sports or independently at home, than they need to do it at school. Obesity is a huge problem. Requiring gym for "non-active" students would be a great starting point.

While I agree that exercise is important, there are several things I would like to point out:

1. My school requires only one semester of gym out of 8 semesters in your entire high-school career. That is 1 class out of 32 for an hour and a half of 90 days that you will spend in 720 total days of school throughout high-school. This is the way it is in the majority of schools that I have heard of. Therefore, this does nothing to help the obesity problem.

2. Most gym classes do some good warmup exercises (stretching, crunches, push-ups, jumping jacks, etc.) for about 10 to 15 mintues and then run/jog for the next 10 minutes or less. Then they play some kind of game/do some kind of activity that requires little physical exertion, especially if you don't wish to do it in the first place. So, even if gym is required, it is still useless at helping obesity.

3. Most gym classes simply humiliate overweight kids, not help them. It shows to their peers their greatest weakness to the forefront and exploits it, making them even more susceptible to taunts than usual. In this case, it harms obese kids more than it helps them.

4. If an obese kid does not wish to exercise, there are several ways around it in a gym class. You can forget your uniform for a couple of days, ask to sit out for feeling sick and do a written assignment, forget your shoes, etc. Or, as stated previously, it is very easy to slack off during the exercises at the beginning of class if you're careful and even easier to slack off during the games since the teacher is more than likely paying more attention to what's going on in the game - not whose staying out of the limelight. Most overweight kids do not want to participate in gym for a number of good reasons and will find away around it. Again, this does not help the obesity problem.

I thought that after sophmore year, you were free from PE? Don't you only need two PE credits?

quote:

Gym should not be required for those who do not participate in sports.

They have that for seniors at my school. They are exempt from PE for that season of which the sport is taking place.

But you have to realize that those who hate PE and are forced to endure it for years and year from elementary up to sophmore year are probably going to avoid anything like it for years to come.

I'll admit I'm totally biased because I can't swim and I can't dribble a basketball, which it seems everybody can do. I don't have the hand-eye coordination needed. The point is that PE has been absolutely hell for me.

And there are so many courses I would rather be taking than PE. Not only does the class take up a chunk of my day better spent elsewhere, it adds unneeded stress because we're required to do projects and write papers in the "Health" section of the class and do graphs for our heart rate monitors.

Gym only encourages the kids who do well to be more active - and if you're one of the slowest kids in class, you aren't going to be getting a very good grade and that's never a very good self-esteem booster.

I second Worth's idea of marching band replacing PE for the PE credit. Unfortunately, there are no places to march in the streets of Shanghai, but it's a much better idea all the same.

Excersise is really, really important. If kids aren't excersing in sports or independently at home, than they need to do it at school. Obesity is a huge problem. Requiring gym for "non-active" students would be a great starting point.

No.

I go to school to learn.

I go to the GYM to work out.

There is a grand difference. PE was created to save idiot students whose brain seems to reside in their biceps.

Gym should not be required for those who do not participate in sports. I think that gym is extremely important for people who do not excersise regularly.

I agree that P.E. (or gym as we so lovingly call it here) isn't needed.

If I had not been forced to take gym my freshman year then I could've taken environmental science (a required course at my school). In turn, I would not have had to suffer through the AP version last year and could've taken pre-calc instead. In turn, I could be taking calculus next year instead of pre-calc and stats AP.

Gym is useless. It's not fun for everyone. It doesn't teach you anything (not even the health part of it). And it left me with some of my most humiliating moments in high-school thus far, including an event in which I start hyperventilating and had to get water ahead of everyone else and then b*tchy girls got mad.

In short, kids should definitely not be forced to take gym and furthermore, if the school board feels it is absolutely necessary to take some type of gym/PE/health course, then classes that are about health and nothing else (no physical activity involved) should be created and marching band should suffice for PE credit, if you are a member.