Imagine waking up at 4 a.m., running a 5K and then attending school for seven hours. Once the final bell rings, your day is not over, it is time to change clothes and get to practice. It would be nice if your participation in after school sports counted as a PE credit.
“Juggling both a fall sport and all honors classes was a heavy load! Practices were everyday after school, Monday through Friday, sometimes until 5:30 p.m. [and meets were on Saturdays]. At times, practice began even before school started! I really enjoyed it, but as the season progressed, it grew more tiring physically, and it was harder to manage my time,” freshman Anna Chen said.
Chen believes she should not have to take two PE classes when she spends multiple hours daily practicing for tournaments.
“Cross country surpasses PE by far, when it comes to how much effort we put into the sport,” Chen said.
The numbers vary from one student to another on how much work team members devote towards their sports, but the average practice from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (120 minutes) is longer than a blocked (105 minute-long) PE class.
“Being a softball player myself, I have to go to gym class and do all these exercises and wear myself out on top of going to softball practice after school and doing the same thing plus more makes me exhausted. Not to mention the loads of homework I have to go home and do after softball,” freshman Samantha Gaddis said.
Gaddis also believes that since she puts more energy into her sports, she should be given credit for her time spent in sports versus her time spent in PE, due to the fact that she is more inclined to work hard at a sport she enjoys.
“Playing sports is an amazing opportunity! I love sports. Working around sports and school is really hard because sometimes I get home from a game at 6 p.m. and I still have an hour of homework. Having that count towards gym credit would be awesome; I take two more classes I’m interested in instead of taking an entire semester of something I don’t care about,” freshman Katie Spillman said.
PE credit is unavoidable. All students must have passed one full credit of PE class in order to graduate. Would you rather earn it playing tag and racing on floor scooters, or scoring a State-winning goal?