Argumentative Essay On Gym Class

I had P.E. first term of my junior year in high school, and I thought it was a waste of class time. However, I looked at my grades for first term compared to my grades during my other terms when I did not have a gym class. My grades and scores during my first term were better than my grades and scores of the other terms. I had not realized that I performed better in the classroom when I was able to be physically active during the day. Not only did I perform better, but observations have been made suggested that other students experience higher grades as well when having a gym class or participating in other physical activity during the day. Gym classes are beneficial to students and help them not only physically, but academically as well.

The cases show that gym class helps students do better educationally and personally. A study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine had fourth- and fifth-grade students run around or exercise by other means for at least ten minutes. While those students were running and exercising, other fourth- and fifth grade students stayed in the classroom and sat quietly. After the ten minutes, all students took math exam. The group of students who exercised or ran for ten minutes before the exam did noticeably better and scored higher on their exam than the group of students who sat inside quietly before the test (“Gym Help Students”). This study shows that physical activity during the school day goes hand in hand with doing better and receiving better scores. Another study has been conducted to try and prove or disprove if being fit from gym class has anything to do with doing better in school. This study was published in the Journal of Pediatrics and was conducted with children and students from Nebraska. 12,000 students participated in the study. Each student’s physical fitness was measured using things such as a timed run and the student’s body mass index. Then they measure each student’s academic achievements in English and mathematics based on the state’s standardized test scores. Being in better physical shape was linked significantly higher test scores. However, the body size of a student didn’t seem to have any influence over whether or not they did well on their tests. Students who were overweight but still fit and physically active had higher test scores than students who were of lighter weights but were not fit or physically active (“Gym Help Students”). When students are able to pass more fitness tests, they seem to be able to do better on standardized and general tests. Students