Every week in physical education (PE) is the same routine. Monday is game day, Tuesday is cardio, Wednesday is Wolfpack walk, Thursday is another game day, and then Friday is free play. Except that game day is soccer without fail, and the options for free play are limited, especially when there is not enough equipment for all the students. Then, the next week and for every week to come, the same routine repeats. PE curricula that once promoted health, excitement, and learning have now become a routine with little variety and limited choice. Classes that once taught different sports, exercises, and lessons on our bodies became dull and repetitive.
Freshmen PE has changed greatly since middle school. In El Roble, there was a much larger variety of games and equipment that they offered and had students play, which kept students excited and engaged. There were more than just three types of ball games, and they provided plenty of equipment so that everyone had something to play with. There were units where students learned different things in a classroom, such as muscles, bones, and even drug safety. Even in summer school PE, students did a greater variety of exercises and activities, such as following workouts and a choice of cardio. Additionally, students had to complete a research project despite regular school-year PE never including lessons. Essentially, summer PE was able to have more variety than the actual school year class.
Despite PE being mainly for freshmen, it is an important developmental class. The curriculum can switch up the class more, instead of soccer every other day and a jog-walk for each cardio day. Simply providing different or more equipment would help contribute to the student’s enjoyment. Thu-Nhien Tran and Isabella Plunket are two freshmen at Claremont High School, both taking PE.
“For freshman PE specifically, the class is very repetitive, and the rotation of activities is expected every week,” Tran said. “Since the beginning of the year till now, we haven’t had anything new introduced to us, and we haven’t really been taught anything regarding physical fitness.”
“I think that an issue we have is that by doing the same stuff, the students aren’t really learning any new skills, and everyone seems kind of bored,” Plunket said.
When Tran was asked what they should change, she gave a suggestion. “If I were to choose what should be changed, I’d say to just make it more enjoyable,” Tran said. “They should give more options for other sports instead of just basketball or volleyball, integrate actual learning material to make the class more interesting, and just allow students to have more say in what they do.”
PE can be improved through integrating health-related lessons and offering more options for physical activities. Once students’ interests are taken into consideration through a better curriculum, people will be able to find PE as something new and enjoyable again.
