Negative Effects Of Physical Education

In the early 1800’s schools started to introduce physical education into their daily routine. In 1855 California was the first state to pass a law that students were required to exercise twice a day in public schools. These were the days when men’s basketball shorts were shorter than ever. Since then, physical education has taken the back burner to the main studies of mathematics, science, math, and history, time and time again. In more recent years, most schools have adapted to a schedule where physical education is only mandatory once or twice a week instead of daily. Now, it has become a more recent topic in education if schools should continue to have physical education as a required class for graduation, or if it should stay in existence

Physical education is an expensive class when you take into account all the equipment needed and care of the gymnasium that is needed. For schools in low income areas this may be especially important because, this may be an important deciding factor of whether or not the school should keep involving physical education in their schedules. This is due to that fact that if the school already starts off with a low budget and physical education takes up a decent amount of that budget, then there is little left for the main subjects of math, science, history, and English, the other extra curricular classes, and sports.

Another negative effect of physical education is that it leaves the student with no choice. Since physical education is a requirement, it restrict students. It is hard for physical education teachers to cover the interests for all the students when their curriculum to cover includes a broad range of material and each students has something different they are interested. This is especially difficult for the students who are more interested in academics and not

However, considering the pros and cons listed I believe that there could be changes made to the physical education program. The first change that I would make to the program is to get rid of the physical fitness test. This test categorizes students by putting all people of the same age and gender together, which is not accurate. Two girls may run completely different mile times but they both may be happy and healthy. One boy may only be capable of doing five pushups when the “correct amount” for his age group may be forty-two, but he still might be completely healthy. I do not understand how there can be one number that a certain gender and age is suppose to be able to reach to be considered healthy or in shape for their age and gender. Another thing that I would change in the physical education system is to offer more options of different types of gym classes. I know of some schools who offer different kinds of physical education classes such as dance, weightlifting, sports, or different games. With these different types of classes it might get more people interested in participating in physical education and exercising. Although this may up the budget of physical education it makes it more accessible to the students which is worth it in the end because as stated before it is very crucial to the mind and body for students to receive their exercise. Also, I know that in some schools