Should Physical Education Be Compulsory In Schools

For the past couple centuries, physical education, or PE, has been a required class in schools across the nation. First established in the 1820s, physical education has since then been a traditional part of the school day (“Brief History of Physical Education”). During class, students have the opportunity to exercise, play games, and if the weather cooperates, journey outside. Although PE continues to be advantageous for elementary and middle school students, recently, high school physical education’s drawbacks have begun to outweigh its benefits. Today, multitudinous high school students have grown to resent mandatory PE and are currently campaigning for its removal. Though optional physical education should be maintained for those who are interested, the class should no longer be obligatory for all students.
The most problematic effect of the physical education requirement is that it squanders valuable time. Since students at Natick High School only have the opportunity to take seven courses per semester, each one is treasured. Therefore, it is completely absurd for PE to misemploy one of these …show more content…
Eliminating the physical education requirement would have ample positive effects, including enabling students to enroll in additional classes and alleviating some of the intense stress they feel. Furthermore, since PE fails to make a significant difference in student fitness, the class has proved to be utterly profitless and should hence cease to be compulsory. Although some small issues would undoubtedly arise from the removal of this requirement, these hiccups could be solved with relative ease and simple compromises. It is therefore critical that Natick High School take action to withdraw the PE requirement, because this decisions’ innumerous benefits and altogether lack of drawbacks, makes it an undeniably salutary