We’ve all seen or been those students having to sit out for P.E. because of a broken or fractured bone, or some other mysterious reason. People running a mile or playing indoor soccer send jealous glances to the sides where those students are waiting or walking. The problem is, if they are out for several days, weeks, or months, those students have to make it up some time later.
Unlike other classes, the only way for one to make up for a day of lost P.E. time is to go to office hours and walk or run a mile. There is no other way to make up a P.E. period during lunch or any other time during school hours, meaning that for every day lost, a student has to use another day with office hours to restore their grade.
Essentially, it reciprocates the time they lost, which is terrible if they cannot participate in P.E. for a long period of time. If one misses eight weeks of P.E. due to a broken leg, after those eight weeks are up and they are medically cleared, they have to spend another eight weeks at office hours walking laps.
The problem with this is that students have other classes to go to to ask questions or do other work, such as finishing up a test or asking a teacher questions on an assignment. Students have to choose between walking laps around a track, or benefiting a grade on a perhaps more useful assignment. Also, if it is near the end of the school year, students may not have enough days to make up for their days lost, resulting in a worse grade in the class simply because they did not have enough time.
An anonymous contributor fractured one of their leg bones, and had to sit out on P.E. for a week because of it. When asked about their thoughts on P.E. make-ups only being available during office hours, they came up with a way for students to make up their work faster.
“I think it’s stupid,” they said. “Honestly, I feel like I should be able to [make up P.E.] during lunch, because it’s not like it actually takes me forty minutes to eat my food.”
Having P.E. make ups at lunch as well as office hours would give students the chance to make up P.E. in half the time they missed if they go to both office hours and lunch. It might not be the best solution, but it is better than one having to risk their grade in P.E. due to time constraints.
Missing a few days of P.E. is fine and easy for students to make up, but once it hits a certain point (going on four or five weeks) it gets a little absurd. A student who has a long-term doctor’s note — that is, a student whose doctor clears them from any physical activity, including P.E., for a certain length of time because of a medical reason — should not have to make it up later.
Freshman William Smith has been out of P.E. this year so far because of a very real possibility of him injuring his knee when he runs; this leaves him with 12 weeks to make up so far, totaling 48 days of office hours.
“I believe so, [that I have a long-term doctor’s note].” Smith said. “I’ve asked my PT and they still don’t want me going to PE because they don’t want me reinjuring myself.”
This produces the conundrum that making up P.E. is impossible, as students who have a doctor’s note cannot do their make ups until their note expires.
“The P.E. coaches said that you’ve got to make it up, but I’m really hoping they’re just not going to do it,” Smith said. “I would definitely not rather have to make up twelve weeks of missed PE.”
As anyone can see, it can be out of the question to make up P.E. when under a medical notice, yet it is required for people to be able to get an acceptable grade for it. This problem must be resolved, and the only solution is for P.E. coaches to let students with long-term doctor’s notes not have to make up all of their missed P.E.