This is a repost from another magazine I write for – you can find the original link here.
California high school graduation requirements mandate that all students complete two years of Physical Education (PE). This requirement has brewed lots of controversy about whether PE should be mandatory. Even though PE has been associated with a plethora of health and education benefits, critics argue that poorly structured PE promotes inequity, bullying, and time wasting. However, critics are missing essential parts of the debate—the answer to these issues isn’t removing PE, it is improving it and making it more effective. Recognizing PE as a core part of education rather than an addition to it is vital to create more well-rounded students and a more complete educational experience.
Those who argue that PE is a waste of time in school curriculum are in short saying that promoting healthy habits is a waste of time. PE is especially important for teenagers as it helps regulate hormonal and physical development. For example, activity can help reduce inflammation and hormonal imbalance that drives acne, and improve bone mass and strength. Furthermore, PE encourages improved flexibility, stamina and endurance, hand-eye coordination, motor skills, and several other essential abilities. Implementing good habits and conditioning early in life is key to sustaining these habits and promoting good health even into adulthood. Students should be doing at least 60 minutes of physical activity at school. Unfortunately, estimates suggest that only about half of US kids meet the government’s physical activity guideline. This is especially problematic because most of a kids day is spent at school where they have the greatest potential to complete such activity.
If kids were doing lots of physical activity outside of mandated PE, this might not be a big problem. In fact, PE exemptions exist for children who play varsity sports. The issue arises when PE is the sole intense physical activity a child gets in a day. If this time is misspent, a child is lacking the necessary healthy level of activity.
As a society we’ve always hated PE, so another critique is that kids are disincentivized from doing activity in the future if it creates a negative environment. While this critique is somewhat valid, it is less a critique of PE itself and more about how it is implemented. People don’t need to run laps every day and do pushups till they kill themselves, vigorous physical activity can be achieved in other ways that can be adapted to children. However, not liking physical activity is not a reason to not do it—sometimes tough love is essential. Several people don’t like math, science, english, history, and the list goes on, but they are mandatory requirements in school because they create the foundation for a holistic education—why is PE any different? If anything, learning healthy life habits is even more important.
Sometimes teachers feel like PE takes away from their time in the classroom, and see their subject as a better use of time. What they fail to see is that PE enhances their students ability to process the information they teach. Children respond faster to cognitive tasks after participating in PE. In fact, when physical activity is used as a break from academic learning time, postengagement effects include better attention. Along with this, after-school physical activity programs have demonstrated the ability to improve cardiovascular endurance, and this increase in aerobic fitness has been shown to mediate improvements in academic performance, as well as the allocation of neural resources underlying performance on a task requiring memory. Furthermore, schools have become academic pressure cookers that are suffocating students, and stress levels are at an all-time high. Involvement in sports, recreational activities, or other forms of physical fitness provides a proven method of stress relief and acts as an outlet for releasing tension and anxiety. All in all, good physical activity is linked with better students—that on net means less class time doesn’t matter if it means children are more engaged in the material they are learning and more readily able to process it.
Another issue that is often brought up is bullying in PE and inequities created through students’ different ability levels. First, this is again an issue of implementation of the program, not an issue with PE itself. Second, if implemented correctly, PE actually has benefits that uniquely decrease inequities. PE is a unique opportunity to come together to create school spirit and camaraderie that cannot be achieved in other classes. Sports encourage and enhance communication, team building, school spirit, and the skills required to get along and cooperate with students of varying personalities and backgrounds. Kids who have access to high-quality PE programs are taught life skills that can be used forever. Sports encourage goal setting and systematic improvement and growth that can be applied more broadly, as well as discipline to stick with stuff even when it gets hard. People bullying in PE is a symptom of a poorly regulated class. However, PE can be an opportunity to empower students to reach new heights and bring their fellow classmates along in the journey.
Unraveling the nuances of the PE debate is controversial territory, yet as I see it, it’s pretty simple. The benefits of PE are undeniable—from a health and physical fitness standpoint, from an educational and academic quality standpoint, and from a socio-emotional standpoint. It’s clearly one of the most holistic educational tools that schools have. Society might hate PE and continue to in the foreseeable future, and undoubtedly there’s always room for improvement and adaptation, but flat-out dislike for PE is not a reason to limit it and continue and apply a double standard. PE should be treated as any other class is—that means creating an engaging and enforced curriculum, and goals that are taken seriously and truly enhance the educational experience.
Sources:
Ca.gov. (2021). High School Graduation Requirements – CalEdFacts (CA Dept of Education). [online] Available at: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/hs/cefhsgradreq.asp [Accessed 6 Mar. 2023].
Uwhealth.org. (2016). Exercise and Acne – How to Balance the Breakouts Exercise and Acne – How to Balance the Breakouts. [online] Available at: https://www.uwhealth.org/news/exercise-and-acne-how-to-balance-the-breakouts [Accessed 6 Mar. 2023].
Nih.gov. (2018). Exercise for Your Bone Health | NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases National Resource Center. [online] Available at: https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/bone-health/exercise/exercise-your-bone-health#:~:text=Like%20muscle%2C%20bone%20is%20living,the%20third%20decade%20of%20life. [Accessed 6 Mar. 2023].
Hellmich, N. (2013). Report: More PE, activity programs needed in schools. [online] USA TODAY. Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/23/physical-education-schools/2351763/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2023].
Mathews, J. (2022). What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement. [online] Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/05/physical-education-classes-schools/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2023].
Kohl, H.W., Cook, H.D., in, and, F. and Institute of Medicine (2013). Physical Activity, Fitness, and Physical Education: Effects on Academic Performance. [online] Nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK201501/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2023].
