Pro– Dawson Skree
Should people be able to get P.E credit without actually taking P.E.?
Yes, they should. Since band members get a P.E. credit for three years of marching band, athletic teams should have the same opportunity.
If you play football, soccer, golf, badminton, swim, etc., you should get your full credit of Physical Education because you’re practicing after school, before school, and sometimes even on the weekends. In P.E. you play for about an hour a day only on the weekdays.
If you’re in marching band, you come to school early in the morning and practice.
Because you do more work for a sport than you do in P.E. anyway, you should be able to get a P.E. credit if you play that sport for a year or more. It should count because you technically are doing physical education.
In band, you are working out daily by marching and holding up instruments at practice and by performing at Friday football games, sport events, and other competitions for three years. This is a lot of exercise.
So sure, you’re not switching it up and doing a different thing every week, but you are doing the same sport for more than an hour and you may even spend time on the weekends practicing your sport or instrument. P.E. is only on weekdays and requires no extra work or practices aside from what is done in class.
Students should get a P.E. credit because they practice more than people in one year of P.E., it takes up their weekdays and sometimes weekends, and overall probably do more work than in a students one year of P.E.
Con-Alice Pratt
Physical education is a requirement for every high school student in our district, and it is puzzling that people who do not take the class can still get the credit.
After I tried out for Spiritline freshman year, I had only begun to understand just how much work high school athletes do. It seems to me there is something wrong here: marching band students who stick with it for at least three years get their P.E. credit, even though the main focus of marching band is music; and athletes who stick with their sports for at least three years do not get that credit.
Why not push for athletes to get their P.E. credit for a certain number of semesters playing a sport? However, few consider an alternative way to create equality… what if neither athletes nor marching band musicians could get P.E. credit without taking P.E.?
P.E. students are exposed to a variety of different types of physical activity—they learn how important the balance is between cardio, aerobic, and strength work, and once in a while are required to do writing assignments.
Although most of the class is indeed “doing” (as opposed to classes where a lot of time is spent listening or taking notes), there is a purpose to P.E. It’s a mix of physical activity and education that it was created for.
An activity that is meant to be extra should not replace what the district considers a fundamental requirement. If district officials want people to understand that P.E. is indeed an important class just like any other required credit, they should keep that requirement consistent across the board.