Physical Education (P.E.) is a required class among most high schools throughout the USA. However, many feel that P.E. does not provide any sort of positive impact. Within this article, two writers will clash in opinions and you will pick a side!

Lucas Thompson: Ever since elementary school, students have taken gym classes. Oftentimes, we saw this as a second recess. Some people looked at these classes as annoying, pointless, and negative. Has anyone thought of exactly why physical education is required? 

As we grow into adults, our metabolisms begin to slow. While eating healthy food is a huge part of a healthy lifestyle, working out in any type of way helps as well. Workout and diet go hand in hand. Physical education teaches the basic building blocks of exercise, eating habits, and how to be a more well-rounded individual. 

Along with P.E. being beneficial to our physical health, it also improves our mental health and overall well-being. Numerous studies have shown that active movement transmits serotonin to the brain. Even an action as simple as swinging your arms can improve overall mood. As younger kids, we did not understand the importance of mental health and how difficult it can be to deal with, but I believe if we are taught the importance of mental health within these base-level gym classes, kids can use this information for the future. 

Both mental health and physical health need to coincide with each other to truly promote a happy lifestyle. Being physically active benefits our mental health, but gaining mental strength and new ways of thinking can often help with our motivation to push ourselves to be the best we can be. 

Something that has been beneficial to kids’ mental and physical health for years is sports. Sometimes the love for those sports is only found through gym classes which teach the rules and creating positive environments around these games. 

Physical education is already a requirement. I believe it is a good requirement set in place for a student’s own good. If we are required to be well-rounded through academics, why not add mental and physical aspects to our toolboxes? Even just one semester can change a student’s way of thinking as long as the teachers can reach the student on a personal level. The student needs to learn that these skills can be applied to his or her future. P.E. as a class gives us the groundwork to build upon throughout the rest of our lives, so try and take away the best information you can.

Elsa Kehoe: The education system in the United States is a well-planned curriculum, but one aspect of this program is not needed: physical education. This type of education is pushed on students throughout their entire public school career. These classes are seen as a way for students to learn how to better themselves throughout their lives, but are these classes as beneficial as they are said to be?

Although Michigan law does require that schools must offer a P.E. class for students, it does not require a physical education class to be taken by students. Many school districts continue to apply some sort of physical requisite to graduate. These meaningless classes take up space in a student’s day where they could be learning a new skill or taking a more advanced course. 

Here in Forest Hills, it is required that you take physical education every year through sixth grade. At the middle school level, these rules have fluctuated a bit over the years with some classes being required to take only a semester, while others an entire year. There was even one school year, 2018-2019, that the students were not required to take any gym classes at all. So, why need these classes at all, especially if they are being challenged so often? This creates confusion among students and many scheduling errors. 

P.E. is said to be a great way for students to exercise throughout the day, but the students with physical or mental limitations are not taken into account. There are many students that are not able to participate anyway making this class even more pointless.  

Even though physical education classes teach kids how to stay healthy, these skills do not become habits nor are they practiced throughout their lives. One hour a day or a week is not enough to promote a healthy lifestyle throughout the years. With health class already being a required course, why is a physical education class necessary? Health teaches the basics of eating healthy and staying active. With these topics already being covered in a different area of the school curriculum, gym class is simply re-teaching something students already know. 

My experience with physical education has shown me how unimportant these classes really are. P.E. creates an escape from some of the more challenging courses in your day, but that should be a choice, not a forced requirement.