Getting out of that second year of P.E. may feel impossible for many students, but I know it did for me. I struggled my junior year with choosing classes because I knew that I would have to give up a period to get the remaining 10 credits of P.E. that I needed to graduate. Giving up a period that could be filled with a CP or even AP class for a period of P.E. is not what many academically minded students want to do, and for students who care less about academics, filling a period with P.E. is essentially an incentive to skip school.
Unfortunately at AHS, 20 credits (or 4 semesters) are legally required to be able to graduate. Students are encouraged to be athletic, and athletes are encouraged to be good students, but many policies put in place by the school and the state make it difficult to balance both.
“I don’t think taking P.E. classes is beneficial to me personally,” sophomore Bellamy Nofsinger said. “I need a lot of exercise, and I don’t get that fulfilled in P.E.”
Many teenagers do not find their athletic passions within the school’s boundaries. Nofsinger is a surfer who is out on the water for over 20 hours per week.
Arcata High hosts a plethora of surfers, weightlifters, dancers, rock climbers, and more. These students often spend more time outside of school participating in their hobbies than not, and unfortunately for them, they are given zero recognition for this inside of school. Traveling for tournaments or preparing for performances for non-school sports are not considered acceptable reasons to miss school, even though soccer, football, and golf players miss school and tests throughout their season and are excused without question.
It is also out of the question that an athlete who participates in activities that are not school-affiliated can get a year of P.E. waived, no matter how seriously they participate.
I spend most of my free time outside of school at my dance studio, not only dancing but also working out and stretching, I feel that due to the amount of physical activity that I do outside of school, I do not need to do more “physical education” during my school hours. It is an unnecessary depletion of energy that gives me no real benefit.
While I understand that P.E. is important for some students, I believe there should be better policies that allow student-athletes to fill that period with an academic class or a free period. Not only does this benefit the students, but it will also help the school. With the recent increase in truancy consequences, the state board of education should know that P.E. is the number one most skipped class in high school, especially for upperclassmen.
Ultimately, school is supposed to make students’ lives easier, not harder, so would this change that benefits everyone is so difficult to implement?
