Gpa Score

Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses in school, and deserve to be graded fairly on their knowledge. However, when one is assessed and given a score on something that they cannot help, it can lead to lowering their GPA. A grade in P.E. based on physical capabilities, rather than mental, should not have an affect on a student’s GPA which determines many outcomes of their adult life.

A coach could give a student a bad grade for not being able to do a certain number of push ups or being able to run for a certain amount of time. Not all students are star athletes and they should not be penalized for this. It is not fair for a child to be penalized with a score for the way their body is or their capabilities with it. If an intelligent, hard-working student’s GPA is lowered significantly because they are not able to keep up in P.E., how is this fair? This student worked hard to get As in English and math class, yet is doing poorly in gym because he is not athletically inclined.

A grade should be a result of knowledge, not physical capabilities.

School is about learning academics and perhaps developing a special art or skill. But, if developing athletic abilities isn’t your strong suit, this could be a major setback to your grade. Imagine you had As in all of your classes except gym and as a result, you weren’t on the A honor roll. Student Joshua Davies was put into this exact situation and his mother spoke out on the matter. “It was not exactly a career-threatening setback… but, it was the principle of the matter,” Susan Davies said. Though this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal in the long run, it shows how this grade can negatively affect one’s future. Having a lower grade based off of physical capability can also make a student feel disappointed in themselves and embarrassed that they can’t perform a certain act. One would feel upset because they work so hard in all of their classes, but cannot seem to do well enough in P.E. no matter how hard they

try.

Some people may argue that a student’s P.E. grade reflects the amount of effort in that class and should therefore be a valid grade to go towards their GPA. But programs such as FITNESSGRAM which many gym classes use require students to perform different exercises, and then one’s grade is reflected off of how many sit ups, push ups, or laps across the room they can perform. A student’s GPA is a major factor of how their future will turn out, especially regarding college. If a student’s grade in gym goes towards calculating their Grade Point Average, how is that an accurate representation of how much they’ve learned or how hard they’ve worked? Colleges might think that a student is less smart than they actually are just because a bad grade in gym lowered the only number they can see.

Though being healthy and active are good things, a grade resulting from physical activity should not have a lasting result on how a young person’s life turns out. Bad grades in gym class counted towards GPA could potentially keep as student out of their dream college. A GPA should show how much knowledge a student has, not their athletic abilities, for that is what school is all about.