Mandatory Physical Education Classes

Physical Education classes, should they be mandatory or optional? Growing up, Physical Education classes, which are also referred as P.E., were an quotidian activity. This class gave every student a break from the stresses of the classroom and the annoyance of other students. This is where you were allowed to be a kid, have fun, and forget about your worries for an estimate of forty-five minutes. Furthermore, one will become additionally physically fit. While, there are advantages, there are disadvantages. Hence, some students have abundantly authoritarian academic demands, needing them to direct their center of attention on advanced coursework. Along with that, some school-board members have come to the conclusion that P.E. necessities should be able to be optional for those with time-consuming classes. Including, mandatory P.E. classes can limit freedom to a student to choose where he or she wants to invest their time in (Tucker). Dr. Thom McKenzie, a Ph.D. Professor at San Diego State University stated that P.E. is the main source of physical activity for children during the school day, including, that parents, school board members, and even teachers, play an important role to make sure we have regular access to physical activity and education. Not to mention, children are in school for six or more hours a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for thirteen or more years. During that time all are forced to sit. Reasons, why most or all students are not able to obtain enough P.E., includes an inadequate schedule, limited equipment or space, lack of certified P.E. teachers or there is no specific curriculum included in the school. Nevertheless, there are ways to aid this by diagnosing if the minutes allocated for the P.E. class and recess at the school are reaching the set national standards. Moreover, confirming if the existing P.E. program, (if you have one), is a quality one and if the program uses and activity-based curriculum. If not, go for an evidence-based program (Chen). As for this, John J. Ratey wrote in his book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise in the Brain, that “Exercise creates the best environment for memory retention and learning functions to change, grow and work better together. The results of research clearly suggest the exercise will actually help children focus and learn better as opposed to the contrary” (Dean). Considering this, not all physical education in schools has been about just fun and games, this exercise has proven beneficial for brain development. If one included all the wide variety of studies that has taken place, revealing that exercising benefits the brain in a number of ways, one would be truly astonished. Results showing P.E. will actually assist children with focusing while in class equally to learn better. On the other hand, a healthy body equals and healthy mind. Sadly, obesity has become …show more content…
On the other hand, scary and intimidating. Other schoolmates can feel as they are not as skilled as their peers surrounding them, embarrassed about their bodies, especially if they are overweight, or bullying; keeping them from exercising or even completely avoiding P.E. classes or sports ("Advantages & Disadvantages of Mandatory PE in Schools"). Moreover, the MSNBC analyzed a major study about the physical education programs. On average thirty-seven thousand high school students responded to this survey, showing that a majority of students do not believe that gym class is anywhere close to effective. Actually, adding even two hundred more minutes to each gym class a week, would not produce any changes. Boys, out of the forty-five minutes would only engage in the activity for seven and a half minutes, while girls, only eight of the forty-five minutes each week (Chen). To tell the truth, academics come first. Instruction time and the budgets for the school are extremely limited. The Center for Public Education says that most states require either one-hundred seventy-five through one-hundred eighty days of classes per the academic year. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education, also know as, NASPE, reported that when schools are going through budget cuts, the class often targeted included P.E. when the reductions are needed. P.E. is not considered a core academic subject ("Advantages & Disadvantages of Mandatory PE in