Should physical education be mandatory? No way. Physical education is fine for some people, but others may have serious problems with it. In this article, I will discuss why physical education should be optional.
Teenagers With Health Problems
While many teenagers in high school may enjoy running and participating in sports, others may not be able to do it as easily. Asthma and other ailments plague many of these teenagers.
As for the physical instructors or coaches they usually don't care if a student has asthma; most of the time they will tell you to suck it up and deal with it. It's rather difficult to suck it up when you can't breath. Literally.
Why should these teenagers have to suffer through physical education? It's pure torture for them. More than likely, these teenagers who are forced to participate in physical education will hate exercise all the more. And once these teenagers are out of high school they will simply stop exercising, which can lead to problems down the road such as obesity or heart problems.
Yes, there's medication for asthma. Unfortunately, the medication usually tastes horrible and sometimes it can contain steroids. And sometimes the medication has side effects, or you might accidentally overdose.
Bullying is also a problem when it comes to having asthma. Asthmatics are generally seen as weaklings in the exercise world. Thus, many asthmatics will have to deal with a lot of name calling and other issues. It's not pleasant.
Teenagers Who Simply Dislike Sports
As for the people who simply find physical education distasteful; they have every right to feel this way. And these individuals will find a way to avoid physical education for the most part.
They'll hide from the coaches, skip the physical education class, or walk instead of run(when the coach isn't looking). All of this lowers their grade of course, but these kids don't care. They hate exercising, remember?
Alternatives
If there was an alternative to physical education then these teenagers who dislike exercise might be more inclined to participate. Something that doesn't involve running would be a nice start. Asthmatics would definitely appreciate that.
How about exercise that is less stressful such as archery, tai chi, yoga; etc? Or for people who really can't stand any type of exercise, you could simply substitute a different type of class. Something like a business class where teenagers can learn about finances.
Physical education should not be forced onto people. No one appreciates that and in the grand scheme of things no one will benefit from that type of atmosphere. All it does is fuel discontent. And that doesn't help anybody.
My High-School offered Yoga, Weight Training and Dance as alternatives for the Physical Education Credit.
I'm asthmatic I know what you mean, but I enjoyed Phys. Ed. It thought me the proper way to exercise, and lose weight. Also, the teams sports where fun and allow me to compete against the bullies that bothered during the rest of the day.
Our classes where also graded on effort not performance, which would be completely unfair due to athletic performance varying from person to person.
The only people I ever remembered actually skipping Phys. Ed. Where people that skipped other classes as well.