Physical Education

Some would argue that it has no place in our schools and doesn't contribute to learning. And in times of strained school budgets, physical education could be a luxury we really can't afford.

On the other hand, obesity is a massive problem and encouraging healthy lifestyles has other, if non-educational benefits. In this modern era, physical education classes might be the only significant way of doing physical activity for most youth.

Should physical education (continue to) be compulsory? Is it a limitation of the right to do with our bodies as we wish?

P.E. is important but what annoys me is how much money P.E. and extra curricular sports get in comparison to the arts. At my high school for example the P.E. program made enough money to host banquets and crazy fun stuff while my art teacher had $80 per class for her ceramics classes given to her for supplies. If you know anything about supplies they're hella expensive. She often took stuff out of her paycheck to get better supplies.

Our ignorance of the importance of art is really gonna bite us in the ass one day.

While I agree that obesity is a growing problem, I know that PE classes (at least the ones in the public school system where I leave) will do nothing to help combat the problem. Physical Education where I live is definitely not education and could hardly even be called physical. I'm not sure what the state requires for PE in terms of curricula (if anything), but I believe that it needs to be revised. I would be in full support of PE classes if they actually taught things about healthy living, such as eating and exercise. I've actually taken two PE classes, one online and one in real life. The real life course just required me to walk around campus for like 40 minutes, and if I wanted to, to jog or do intervals. While this was nice as it gave me a time to exercise, it did not require it. And if there are overweight children out there who are not intrinsically motivated to do things to help themselves, they're going to take the easy way out. On the other hand, the online PE class provided a rather large amount of written material with a ton of information about how to eat and exercise in a healthy way, and why it is necessary to do so. The online class also required 90 days of exercise, which was basically on honor. Even though the online class did not have someone overseeing that I exercised, the information it provided and the moral guidelines I live by motivated me to put in the 90 days for the course. I actually was able to lose 85 pounds due to the online course, and went from being obese (BMI 35.7) to a healthy weight (BMI 23.8).

To sum up my point, I don't thing that PE as it is now should be compulsory (and I didn't even mention how it conflicts with the arts..). However, if it were able to be changed into an actual educational class, I think it would be a great tool to combat obesity.

I firmly believe that PE should be taken out of school curriculums. PE is not encouraging a healthy lifestyle, it's enforcing one. Exercise should be encouraged, not enforced. Besides how much good can that one hour once or twice a week do anybody? The only lesson PE actually teaches is a lesson to the fat and uncoordinated kids on how to deal with bullying.

I like PE personally. I've always been a sports person and I think it's fun. However, what they need to do is make it an elective like it already is. However, you should actually have to apply for that elective instead of getting placed into it.

My gym does absolutely nothing 95% of the time cause no one wants to do anything. It's really stupid.

Physical health is something that is great for you. When you are exercising it triggers off something in your brain to make you more awake and focused for after. However, no one should have physical education forced onto them.

I strongly recommend some sort of physical activity, but it's not for everyone.

I do think that PE takes a lot out of things like the Music and Art classes. People who want to be in those classes end up getting stuck in PE and I'm sure if that was me, I'd hate it.

For some people PE seems to be unnecessary and just a waste of time, and would rather spend time on subjects like music, english, drama etc. Or subjects like science or maths. But for somebody like me PE is the best part of the day, (besides lunch, duh), because I really want to be a runner or do something in that topic. I care less about art subjects and science and maths.

PE is important because otherwise a few people wouldn't get any chance to have any exercise throughout the whole week, which is just as bad or even worse than not being able to play Mozart or whatever, it's school, it's just a public service, and unfortunately cannot be catered to everybody's specific needs. But I do agree that funds should be given to each subject appropriately, like some subjects are bound to be way more expensive than others.

I believe that a physical education style course should occur in grades/middle/high school, not exactly as a "Let's find a game we can play to fill time" type course but as a multi purpose course. One that has a bit of information on nutrition in it (classroom section), some information on human physiology (classroom and gymnasium), information on exercise, how to get it, why it's important (classroom and gymnasium), and some time in a gym where you're getting crash courses in a few sports/activities (activities should include things such as yoga, forming your own gym routine, running/cardio outside, etc). The gym course should be geared towards both educating people on the necessity of exercise and physical activity but also giving them information that is useful in a classroom type setting like physiology, human processes and nutrition. Many schools have access to recreational and competitive sports outside the classroom, although some require fees and commitment not all student can make students are provided with more than enough options to keep active in relation to their education. I strongly believe that some information regarding keeping fit and the bodies response to their environment/intake needs to be presented to students. I do not think that an hour a day, or several hours a week should be completely devoted to putting a bunch of student in a gymnasium and making them do a bunch of physical activity, it should be a healthy mixture!

PE rocks, everyone knows that a healthy lifestyle is the most important thing you can do for your body and should, in my opinion take up 1/5th of your time table at school. However the teachers need to be extremely passionate about what they do, it should be more activity based on getting fit rather than learning about the sports. People are overweight due to their own choices, not living a healthy lifestyle, these are the ones who always back out of sport because they don't eat well or exercise at home.

The Artist Formerly Known As Shining Raichu said:

PE is not encouraging a healthy lifestyle, it's enforcing one. Exercise should be encouraged, not enforced.

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If a young healthy and active child is too lazy to do 2+ hours of sport per week then they've been enforced into a unhealthy lifestyle. If a child is too lazy to be active then it should be enforced, it's unhealthy not to be active.

Besides how much good can that one hour once or twice a week do anybody?

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It is extremely good, I feel you have no idea on how good for the body exercise is, it's not just about one hour of doing something it's about putting someone in the mindset to be active.

The only lesson PE actually teaches is a lesson to the fat and uncoordinated kids on how to deal with bullying.

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Being fat isn't healthy, if the kids were healthy they wouldn't be fat. If a child is too unfit or lazy to do one hours physical work per week, keep in mind that's 1 out of 168 hours of the week how on earth will they be healthy in their life when it's not enforced. It's about being in a mindset.

Silais said:

I'm conflicted on this. On one hand, I believe that other programs, such as music and art programs, are more important than P.E. because they enrich the mind with material needed later on in life. On the other hand, it's important to emphasize physical education for children because of the obesity problem we have in our country today. There doesn't seem to be much of a good answer to this.

I guess the best-case scenario would be to increase spending on education by decreasing spending on "defense", pump more money into the schools, and allow for P.E. AND art/music classes to exist together in the curriculum. The problem really is that we are not spending enough money on educating our children and as a result they learn less of what they need to when they enter the adult world, including a fitness regime/healthy eating. Look at what we feed our children in schools! Some of the pictures I've seen of school meals are not only disgusting but unrecognizable as food. We are not teaching our children how to take care of themselves.

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PE is important for our health. We can learn art and other creativity skills when we are older. But PE is best practiced now, since it would be too late when we are 60 and obese.

Where I go to school it is good. Everyone learns new soils and if you don't want to play just muck around and ar out all of the grass. I personally goto the gym every day of school and I know we aren't learning stuff. We play the same sports over and over and there are kids who can't participate or keep up because they can't run fast or just can't run for very long before losing breath and they get marked down because hey your trying but your unhealthy have fun failing because I have better things to do like yell at people who aren't doing anything wrong.

The Artist Formerly Known As Shining Raichu said:

I firmly believe that PE should be taken out of school curriculums. PE is not encouraging a healthy lifestyle, it's enforcing one. Exercise should be encouraged, not enforced.

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Well, what about all the other subjects required in school? Isn't their inclusion in the curriculum "enforcing" one to take notice of them? If we removed PE tomorrow, what about the kids who might only wish to engage in physical activities and not learn about the arts at all -- don't they deserve encouragement rather than deprivation?

That said, our current approach to PE leaves much to be desired. Playing random sports with children of all different physical fitness levels/coordination isn't going to teach anyone anything. More of an emphasis should be put on what goes into fitness, why it matters, and how certain physical activities can help one achieve it. When it comes to actually performing said activities, I think there ought to be multiple "stations" where kids can decide what they want to try and be a part of.

Silais said:

I'm conflicted on this. On one hand, I believe that other programs, such as music and art programs, are more important than P.E. because they enrich the mind with material needed later on in life. On the other hand, it's important to emphasize physical education for children because of the obesity problem we have in our country today. There doesn't seem to be much of a good answer to this.

I guess the best-case scenario would be to increase spending on education by decreasing spending on "defense", pump more money into the schools, and allow for P.E. AND art/music classes to exist together in the curriculum. The problem really is that we are not spending enough money on educating our children and as a result they learn less of what they need to when they enter the adult world, including a fitness regime/healthy eating. Look at what we feed our children in schools! Some of the pictures I've seen of school meals are not only disgusting but unrecognizable as food. We are not teaching our children how to take care of themselves.

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You deserve a cookie!

But since I moved schools this one has better food, surprisingly great lunches. And I think pel.e
Is okay simce I took it (knda fat over here :/) and was nearly as good as the skin prick athletes in the class. . . . I felt better because it was every other day I would be sweating a river and for all my life I can eat healthy amd exercise but still look fat as hell and stipl weigh high.

Gexeys said:

PE rocks, everyone knows that a healthy lifestyle is the most important thing you can do for your body and should, in my opinion take up 1/5th of your time table at school. However the teachers need to be extremely passionate about what they do, it should be more activity based on getting fit rather than learning about the sports. People are overweight due to their own choices, not living a healthy lifestyle, these are the ones who always back out of sport because they don't eat well or exercise at home.


If a young healthy and active child is too lazy to do 2+ hours of sport per week then they've been enforced into a unhealthy lifestyle. If a child is too lazy to be active then it should be enforced, it's unhealthy not to be active.


It is extremely good, I feel you have no idea on how good for the body exercise is, it's not just about one hour of doing something it's about putting someone in the mindset to be active.


Being fat isn't healthy, if the kids were healthy they wouldn't be fat. If a child is too unfit or lazy to do one hours physical work per week, keep in mind that's 1 out of 168 hours of the week how on earth will they be healthy in their life when it's not enforced. It's about being in a mindset.

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Sooooooo yeah, we get it, you LOVE PE, but think... What about people that arent as good as you/the media of the school? Like me, for example. I have never played Soccer right, in fact, i hate it. Also, thanks to some acrobatic stuff we did last year my knee dislocated and now I cant skii or do thigs like that. So, why should I be FORCED to play a game/do stuff my physical/psychological condition doesnt let me to? Thats not "learning healthy habits", I can learn healthy habits MYSELF without needing some stupid teacher to force me to play a game i CANT play.
Also, obesity/being fat isnt just about being a lazy, Burger King addict that doesnt do excercise. As someone explains very good in this video, it also involves genetics, illnesses, etc tec tec
Aaaalso, every excess is bad for your health, even excercise. If you push your body to veeeeery far limits, it can break like a wet piece of paper.
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Aaaanyway, it shouldnt be a curriculum asignature, because there are people that do physical activities better than other ones. Luckily, here in Spain isnt a curriculum asignature -.-

The 11th Celebi said:

Sooooooo yeah, we get it, you LOVE PE

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You shouldn't so rude because I have a valid opinion. Hell, I'm not good at PE, I wasn't even in the top group, I just wasn't lazy.

I have never played Soccer right, in fact, i hate it. Also, thanks to some acrobatic stuff we did last year my knee dislocated and now I cant skii or do thigs like that. So, why should I be FORCED to play a game/do stuff my physical/psychological condition doesnt let me to? Thats not "learning healthy habits", I can learn healthy habits MYSELF without needing some stupid teacher to force me to play a game i CANT play.

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That point you made about your knee is pointless, if you think you're being forced into it wrongly go see a doctor and get a note to show you teacher, that's really basic stuff. Also the reason why you can't ski is because when skiing a bunch of strain goes on your knees, you can't expect to pitch a baseball with a bad arm can you?

Also, obesity/being fat isnt just about being a lazy, Burger King addict that doesnt do excercise. As someone explains very good in this video, it also involves genetics, illnesses, etc tec tec

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Yes, yes it is, without being harsh here it really does spiral from laziness, the human body is designed to run and move by a process of millions of years of evolution. It's small amount genetics do affect your body you're right, but anyone with a bit of ambition can easier surpass it, baby's aren't born overweight, genetics don't count towards that much.
Well it's true you can get ill which can stop you being health to an EXTENT, but you know what type of people are less likely to get ill in the first place? Yep, you guessed it, being healthy is actually good for you.

Aaaalso, every excess is bad for your health, even excercise. If you push your body to veeeeery far limits, it can break like a wet piece of paper.

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Sure but no one with a right mind pushes themselves that far when it comes to being healthy, but there is a huge number of fat people who push their body to the limit. That's because doing things in excess that are good for you is a lot better than people who do excess bad things.

Aaaanyway, it shouldnt be a curriculum asignature, because there are people that do physical activities better than other ones. Luckily, here in Spain isnt a curriculum asignature -.-

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Yeah people do well in different things, that's how it works, should people who aren't at art be demanding it being taken of the curriculum? No, it's just lazy people.
It seems like you're producing a lot of excuses without a valid argument, just saying.

I agree that physical activity is really important and that exercise is crucial to a healthy lifestyle. A lot of the people that complain about P.E. are just lazy and don't want to get off their butts and get active to be honest.

At the same time, physical activity isn't the same thing as PE. PE is just really ineffective and isn't doing anything toward our obesity problem. I remember spending at least 90% of every class just changing in and changing out, going over rules for a certain sports game, and just standing in a corner to talk to friends. No one actually runs the mile, they just walk it. We're not graded on how athletic we are (at least my school isn't, otherwise it may be different) and everyone got a 100 for effort. It's not effective and honestly the class time could be devoted to something more useful.

Moogles said:

this just in: according to pokecommunity user Silais healthy skills learned in PE aren't needed later on in life yet "art and music" somehow are.

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Everyone has their own opinion, dude.

I think physical education is a perfectly valid and beneficial subject. It wasn't my favourite subject (mainly because I wasn't very athletic) but it still taught key knowledge and skills such as how to eat right, how to set up you're own workout schedules, how the body worked; its inuts and outputs. It also develops one's teamwork skills, communicative skills, stamina, gross motor skills etc.

Sure, these things could easily be googled, but so can aspects of other subjects. Sure, some kids may have felt embarassed by their weight and felt vulnerable to bullying, but bullying can be just as prevalent in other subjects as well.

It shouldn't be required to graduate at least. And they should not force people to participate in things either. If people can only get exercise from P.E at school, then there's a lot of problems with that. It doesn't take much effort to go outside and at least walk. I can understand if they have some problem that's like an injury or any health related issue. But if the person is perfectly capable of doing stuff, then there's no excuse.

But making people take P.E classes and forcing them to do things they don't like? Especially swimming? Not the best way to get kids to learn. Especially if they force someone who can't swim or is afraid of water to get into the pool against their will. That's just mean and not needed.

Mara said:

But making people take P.E classes and forcing them to do things they don't like? Especially swimming? Not the best way to get kids to learn. Especially if they force someone who can't swim or is afraid of water to get into the pool against their will. That's just mean and not needed.

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Swimming is VERY vital and important. I can easily understand if one has a phobia, but simply not wanting to do it is no excuse. It's not like learning the basics would require much, so what reason would anyone not want to swim, aside from laziness?
I was "forced" to do swimming years back myself, despite not wanting. I was really lazy back then, and even frequently bullied for it, but I had to do it anyway. Know what? I'm very glad I did. I can't fathom skipping swimming classes.

I think P.E is very important (certainly not less than art and...music), but I'm not exactly sure the system we have right now is any good. It's really easy to just...do nothing. Which is annoying and not beneficial at all, since I can't count how many times me and some of my friends actually wanted to play but the others just weren't trying. Boring. It's really fun and educational when we actually do play or when we do exercising tests though, which unfortunately isn't that often.

Also I don't see what's wrong with forcing someone to do P.E. It's not any worse than forcing anyone to do Maths or English or whatever. If you have an injury or are sick, then obviously you'll be excused anyway, but not wanting to do it because you're lazy? That's no good.

Education, and in extension life in general, is about facing and overcoming challenges and fears. If all we did was let fears control our lives and didn't do what we are 'forced' to do, then we would not be learning very much. Whether it be swimming or PE or any other skill (as Spino and others have pointed out) these are things that may challenge us, but will also benefit us. There's no reason why somebody /shouldn't/ do or learn how to do physical activity. If they're self-conscious or are unconfident about their ability to perform, that's even more reason to do it in the first place. If people are being bullied for their 'unsatisfactory' PE skills, then change the bullies or the victim, not the education.