Pros And Cons Of Mandatory Gym Class In Public Schools

It is a topic, often discussed about amongst students and school all across America. “Should PE be mandatory?” students and teachers often debate on whether to make PE mandatory. Although many students claim that PE is a fun way to exercise, some students think otherwise. Many students say that PE is a waste of time, is more torture than it is education. Even though some students are against PE, PE classes are shown to help students develop fine motor skills, cooperation, teamwork, and reduces stress and improves self confidence and self esteem. Regular physical activity can also help prevent future medical issues. Without regular exercise, it may be more difficult to practice self-discipline and develop healthy exercise habits as adults. PE …show more content…
The article “Pros & Cons of Mandatory Gym Class in Public Schools” written by Grace Chen from publicschoolreview.com makes a statement. The article claims that according to the National Association for Sport & Physical Education, “Physical education classes help children develop fine and gross motor skills, learn cooperation, teamwork, reduces stress, and improves self confidence and self esteem.” This means that PE classes do, in fact, do more than make students run and sweat. PE classes can help students develop fine and gross motor skills, which means that it helps children learn how to do small things, such as picking up a ball, or using a pencil, which uses smaller muscles, like fingers, wrists, or toes (fine motor skills), or things that use bigger muscles such as sitting or jumping (gross motor skills). This means that without physical education, students may be slower to learn or develop the motor skills necessary for everyday life. As can be seen, physical education should be mandatory, because PE helps develop skills needed in everyday life, such as fine/gross motor skills, cooperation, teamwork, and also helps relieves stress, and improves confidence and self …show more content…
Some say that PE should not be mandatory, because physical education classes take time away from other academic subjects. People also say that PE does not only take time away from other academic subjects, but it interferes with the scheduling and sharing of the gym, used by the entire school. The source that supports this is the article “The Pros and Cons of Physical Education in Schools” from the website edubabbling.com written by Dean, which was published on March 2, 2014. The article states, “One of the most common arguments against providing physical education in schools, is the time it takes away from the other academic subjects such as language and math. Content and demand are greater than ever in these subjects and every minute of instructional time should be earmarked for the academics. Also, many will note that not only does physical education take “time” away from other subjects, but it interferes and conflicts with timetabling and scheduling due to the need to share the gymnasium. This in turn will often “break up” solid blocks of literacy and numeracy time.” But undoubtedly this can be challenged, because even if PE takes time away from other classes, and interferes with gym sharing schedules, physical education is still a big part of the needed exercise and and education needed by students. Physical education does not only teach students about sports, but they also