Should P.E. Be Mandatory?
By Stephany Meyer
Benefits
- Provokes high test scores.
- Some kids don't get any exercise other than physical education at schools.
- Raises endorphin levels and reduces stress.
- Teaches self discipline, cooperation with others. leadership, respect, and goal setting.
- Strengthens peer relationships and self esteem.
- Helps build and maintain healthy muscles, bones, joints, and more.
- Athletes are more likely to attend college.
- Provokes team sport participation and encourages students to partake in other extracurricular activities.
- Provides the release of energy that students with special needs such as ADHD need
-Prevents them from acting out.
- Helps drown out distractions
- Physically active students are less likely to miss school, have risky behavior, and commit suicide.
Why it is Disliked
- P.E. doesn't give you college credits, so some think it is useless.
- Parents keep their children from physical education because of concussion risks.
- Many students drop out because they were just taught things that they already knew.
- Some believe it takes away from the "education experience."
- Some physical education classes just focus on improving the athletes, and the non-athletes are left behind.
Support
- 95% of parents and 72% of student leaders believe that physical education should be mandatory.
- The CDC warns that 1 in 3 kids born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes.
- Many college students expressed that they would have loved to take P.E. but never had the opportunity. They never learned many of the games that all of us know.
- In a study in France, one school had their students take a 1 hour class of P.E. daily. In the other they didn't have P.E. The first school noticed better behavior, and test scores going up. The second school didn't have results near as good as the first.
- In a study at a college, many of them said they wouldn't have dropped out of P.E. if they had learned new and fun things such as golf, weight lifting, bowling, and more.