Essay Sample: the Faults of Mandatory Gym Class

One of my friends was tired of being taunted by classmates for being bad at sports because of her asthma. Let’s say her name is Mya. Mya came to dread Pe so much that she made a habit hiding in the locker room every single class until a teacher discovered what she was doing a month or two later. As an alternative, Mya actually started hiding out in the bathroom by the gym for the duration of each gym class, all because she thought it was better than spending another Pe class being demeaned by her more athletically inclined peers. This is just the start of the problem that mandatory Pe classes cause. While the class should be a good way to get inactive kids to exercise, they end up not exercising as much as the special is designed to make them because the kids who are actually athletic end up dominating everything. Physical Education should be a choice, not a requirement. It lowers kids' esteem, the other specials aren't mandatory, and gym class isn’t even doing it’s job of giving kids much-needed physical fitness.

The issue at the nub of one of Physical Education’s main problems is that it heightens the insecurities of many students. This school is very focused on being a positive space for students and it works. Most of the time. Only when adults are present. But the locker rooms don’t have adults supervising them for a large portion of the day. It makes sense that adults wouldn’t be in the locker rooms when they have an entire class to teach, but it allows an anxiety inducing room to thrive. When teachers don’t have a class to teach, they end up sitting in their locker-room-adjacent office. Even then, supervision is very minimal. The teachers are so dedicated to finishing their lesson plans for upcoming classes that they become nearly oblivious to the world around them. Combine that with the blinds that are always blocking out the view of the locker room and it’s like the teacher isn’t even there. The bullying doesn’t stop when students leave the locker room either. On multiple occasions, I have actually been criticized by my peers for how bad my aim is. I’ve seen it happen to other students as well and it’s always the same people putting others down. I’ve also heard those same kids getting mad when they have a ‘bad’ team for activities. There is no humiliation like overhearing more popular kids telling their friends that they’re stuck on a team with you. Are we really supposed to subject children to an environment where they constantly feel inferior and inadequate? But this barely scratches the surface of the dilemmas included in the package of mandatory Pe.

The problems of Pe go beyond dejected children. After every Pe class, no one is completely satisfied. There is no happy medium for challenge level of each class. In Pe, there are things that some students are better at than other things, but if a student doesn’t play sports on a regular basis, then they’re immediately at a disadvantage. Often, it’s not a matter of practice through organized classes because that student is so far behind in the basic skills needed to do the activity. This leads to ridicule, lower self esteem, giving up, and eventually plummeting grades. On the contrary, the kids who do play sports regularly have a huge advantage. An advantage that some would say is too big. The athletic kids become bored as they believe they are the only valuable members of their teams and end up doing everything by themselves for a challenge. Whenever we split into teams, they complain that they have no friends on their team due to the gym teacher having to balance teams’ skill levels. Almost every class ends with unsatisfied kids, either overwhelmed by the challenge or annoyed by the exercises being too easy.

It goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyways: Physical Education is the odd one out when it comes to specials. It’s the main special kids often seem to dread. Let’s list all of the specials at KRMS: FACS, art, Spanish, French, world languages, band, general music, chorus, tech ed, and physical education. Every single one of these, a choice. Not a requirement. Everything except for gym. My question is simple to ask, but the answer is complicated. Why? To help me answer that, I have a smaller question. What is the definition of a special? According to Merriam-Webster, it means ‘being in some way superior’ but that is not the definition I’m looking for. A synonym of the type of special I’m referring to is elective. Searching Merriam-Webster again yields the definition of ‘Permitting a choice: OPTIONAL’. If an elective is a choice, then why has Pe become an obligatory class? Perhaps it would be less of an obligation if we provided a choice, such as the choice between general music, chorus, and band. This would provide children with at least some decision on the matter while still getting the exercise PE is designed to give and kids are surrounded by peers who have close to the same skill level as them, causing the false sense of superiority to mostly be eradicated in Pe. Is there a reason as to why Pe is mandatory? Yes, there is. That reason is child obesity.

The main argument against optional Pe classes is losing control over America’s child obesity rates. According to the CDC, one in five kids in America are overweight. A lot of people think mandatory physical education is a perfect solution. I, on the other hand, do not. Don’t get me wrong, physical activity is a great way to manage your weight, but not if kids don’t actively participate. Whenever I catch a glimpse of the spreadsheet that tracks activity times of students through pedometers, I see unvaried data. The kids who already exercise get around fifteen minutes of activity, and the ones who need physical activity get around five minutes. That isn’t nearly enough activity to make a difference in a child's weight, so is it really worth it to make Pe mandatory if those who physically need it only get five minutes of exercise? If the school must have a program that ensures everyone is exercising, at least let kids choose between team sports, most commonly played by more athletic kids (ie. soccer, basketball, or tennis); and life sports, more commonly played by the kids who aren’t as excited about sports (ie. pickleball, badminton, or even tag). This allows kids to have a class more catered to their abilities where they won’t get humiliated and provides a choice. So when it comes down to it, the main argument defending mandatory Pe isn’t actually valid.

By now, hopefully you see eye to eye with me on why Pe should not be forced. And if you don’t, at least think about it, keep and open mind. This issue shouldn’t be ignored. It’s a problem because this generation and generations to come are shaped by their experiences. Pe can be a bad experience for many students and when someone has enough bad experiences, it can lead to some dangers. I know many kids have skipped school to avoid Pe, sacrificing their learning to avoid those bad experiences. If the school changes to optional classes, or at least provides a choice for students, it helps them avoid those bad experiences without missing other classes as well. If the school had optional Pe in the first place, then kids like Mya wouldn’t have to choose to hide in the bathroom. Of course, if Mya had never hid in the bathroom, I might have never written this essay.