Mandatory Physical Education

[Randomologist]

I was about six foot tall, last time I had a proper PE lesson. There were two other guys of my height and general build in my year, one an asthmatic who would last about 5 mins before becoming dizzy, the other had learning difficulties and rather than throw a ball would slam it into the ground to see how high it bounced. When PE was available to take as an option, the compulsory classes degenerated into endless games of basketball while about half of the class "forgot their kit" and were sat talking on the benches.

Yeah. Compulsory PE was a complete joke, and any increase in discipline led to a huge increase is passive aggression. Woops, where'd the key to the sport supplies go?

 

[Bassik]

So many hatred towars PE here... it was one of my favorite classes in high school tho, and yes, it should be mandatory, especially in the USA. Have you seen the size of some of dem kids?

 

[Da Orky Man]

If you are in America, The theory is that the majority of our youths are idiots and will be morbidly obese without forced exercise.

Well, if you look at the trends...

 

[BlackStar42]

I hated PE until Years 10-11, when they let us start doing karate instead of pointlessly running around. Our teacher for that was great! Plus, we invented karate basketball, quite possibly the most dangerous game allowed in a school.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

There are plenty of reasons for a school you are already forced to go to forcing students to engage in some form of physical activity. Aside from the obvious health benefits, there is a significant body of evidence that suggests physical activity helps people learn new skills and ideas. Beyond that, there are the various social skills and personal skills that are often best improved in a setting that fosters competition. Sports have been an important part of every society in recorded history for good reason after all.

 

[smithy_2045]

Despite being a nerd, I always enjoyed PE at high school. Pretty fun, not too competitive, and a nice break from sitting around not paying attention to teachers.

 

[Phenakist]

Well no, it shouldn't, I didn't do it in school for my last... 4 years and I was never fat, just a bit unfit, I walked to/from school everyday roughly 2 miles, so 4 miles of walking each day? that's plenty to keep healthy, particularly if that's on a daily basis, obviously not gonna be running marathons, but keeps the man bra away.

More recently, due to the holidays, I've taken to offroad mountain biking and have a daily routine going with that, so you know, half an hour to an hour each day (depending on how many laps I want to do) of intense exercise, that gets you pretty damn fit pretty damn fast, and doesn't take up much time. Oh and a few weights and sit ups.

I'm no health freak, it's just strangely addictive and hey, I'm sitting around all day, gotta keep a balance right?

So I guess what all that was trying to say was, it doesn't need to be inforced on students, if they care, they'll do something about it, and if they're too ignorant to listen to anyone about the dangers of being wider than they are tall, their fault. Not hard to get some kind of routine going.

 

[StBishop]

Hey, I'm studying Education at uni currently. One guess as to my Major...

Ok so did you guess HPE? If so you're correct.
If not, that was kinda silly, unless you thought it was a trick.

Anyway, the idea behind HPE (in Australia) is that, through sport and physical education, students can be given opportunities to learn skills that are valuable in society (teamwork, self management etc.) and also learn about how to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle once they are finished high school and are no longer able to rely on their teenage metabolism and lack of time consuming responsibilities to keep their body in a healthy state.

If your teacher is simply making you do physical training, I hate to say it (considering they are experienced in the field and I'm merely a student) but they're doing it wrong.

The idea of HPE is to educate you on how to be and stay healthy and give you opportunities to learn to love exercise.

 

[Zantos]

I used to really like my 3 hours a fortnight PE. I'm not fit, by god I'm not, but it was a nice break from the usual slog.

Before you get to PE though, there were quite a few mandatory subjects I think could take the axe.

 

[Bigsmith]

As much as I hated PE/ Games/ whatever you want to call it I know that that's what stopped me from becoming a total fat ass. That was until I started cycling to school.

I don't think it should be optional, but I think we should get more choice of what we can do and by that I mean things like cross country racing...

God I HATED that.

 

[Dalek Caan]

I think that PE should be a choice, but maybe involve the parents. I always hatted PE in my school. It was just soccer over and over again. I find that the time is better spent doing homework than running up and down a court kicking a ball of leather.

 

[MCrewdson001]

You should be able to have full choice over how much and what physical exersize you do

 

[DSK-]

I liked PE, up until the point where we'd play Rugby on a field covered in dog shit, and in the last years of secondary school we'd just play 5-a-side it just got boring.

Apart from that I enjoyed PE.

 

[freddi91]

its mandatory in high school simply because people with authority are looking at the supposed NEET (not in employment, education or training) problem more sternly, and because its good for your health. At elementary its mandatory to fight obesity.

That being said, while fitness/weightlifting is the better option, like you said none of it matters, at least on an evolutionairy scale. No matter how hard you train your babies will come into the world as scrawny and unmuscular as you and will have to repeat the training on their own to get similar results.

 

[PhiMed]

You live in America, where 35% of the population is obese, and 60% is overweight.

Yes, physical education is a good idea here. Yes, it should be mandatory. No, I don't care that you're slender.

 

[bluepilot]

I really hated P.E in school. I was quite fit because I did kickboxing outside of school but I hated the PE programs because the choice was so limited. There were competitive team sports, weights and running. None of these are my favourite so I grew up hating them. I only found out that I liked running when I was older.

PE can be quite humiliating when forced to do something that you are not good at or don't like. There are so many different types of athletes and I think that my PE curriculum offered a very poor excuse for sports

 

[Shirokurou]

It's awesome... WHEN DONE RIGHT!

But honestly, I bribed my way out of PE in the Uni (as did 70% of the other students)
Not cause I was too weak, I went to the gym in my own free time. But our Mandatory PE was horrendous. We'd be stuck wasting time with nothing to do and suddenly out of nowhere... A TEST APPEARS! Throw this dummy-grenade the demanded distance or you don't get a pass.

 

[Ren3004]

I hated PE, and really don't think it works to fight obesity, at least not the way it was here. I never learned anything and I ended up being teased because I sucked at sports. But I don't think it's too different from any other subject. Some people are going to follow a career in sports, and some people like PE and will end up taking up exercise or playing a sport as a hobby. It's just like having to learn, say, Physics when you want to be a lawyer.
It could work better if we had some choice. Like, the school has a deal with some gyms, sports clubs, etc., we get to sign up for an exercise plan or classes for free, and at the end of the year they certify the school that you actually went there. This way, at least you get to choose something you like and you just have to go there and do something to get your credit, you don't have it valued exactly the same as any other subject like I did.

 

[katsumoto03]

There should be a mandatory TWO credits in PE. Hell, you should do some PE at home even!

A strong body leads to a strong mind!

Are you religious? If you are you must support the idea of mandatory prayer too.

I honestly think that no classes should be mandatory, especially one as trivial as PE.

 

[Sgt. Dante]

I never cared for football, which was the only thing the class would pick, but quite enjoyed it when we did other things. (except cross country running, no deal)

So long as youth obesity is a problem I think that a little excercise can only be a good thing, but they should try and make it more fun/engaging to try and build an interest instead of putting people off the physical side of life.

Are you religious? If you are you must support the idea of mandatory prayer too.

I honestly think that no classes should be mandatory, especially one as trivial as PE.

Ermm... Yeah, things like English and Maths should be bloody mandatory, without trying sounding confrontational no child should get to pick what classes to opt out of, cause they don't know what's good for them.