Do you think gym class should be a (manditory) part of school?

[Mightyfire89]

Phys ed should absolutely be mandatory all the way through high school and actually, in a perfect world it would be a period in the morning and a period in the afternoon. I realize this is problematic and probably not realistic, but it would be great. A healthy body can help a healthy mind. People are more engaged when they're more active, and I feel the morale and feeling a part of a team type stuff that can come from participating in organized physical activity is beneficial to other school activities as well as a general sense of well being. Crucial, in my opinion, for development of a healthy approach to fitness for life.

Put it this way, it can't possibly hurt a young person to engage in some sort of physical activity on a regular basis.

[Sr. Mints]

I was the worst athlete growing up, the least athletic person in my class, but I always enjoyed gym and had a blast when we actually got to play sports--any sport. Even baseball! It should totally be mandatory, or languorous boobs like me would hide comfortably behind a book where it's easy and safe.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Gym should be removed and replaced with an hour of a competitive sport, with a full league, division and stats ThunderDome. Your grade will be based on how well you and your team does on if you survive, two students enter one student leaves.

Better idea.

[ma-skis.com]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Gym should be removed and replaced with an hour of a competitive sport, with a full league, division and stats. Your grade will be based on how well you and your team does.

When you come in last or second last, that team should be allowed to trade any 2 players from any other team that they want every year.

Waivers can be held for kids who develop long term injuries, or complications.

Teams that are overly dominant after initial seeding rounds will be forced to play against teams in higher grade levels.

[ma-skis.com]

Originally Posted by DataDoxy

What are your thoughts... Should gym class stay in schools? If so, should all kids take it or should it be a choice?

It should stay, too many studies link neural success with physical activity.

Logistics is your biggest hurdle with this. When Alberta rolled out the mandatory 30 minutes of Physical Activity a day for every student, they didn't take into account that the same number of students would be using the exact same amount of facilities every day but for much more time.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by ma-skis.com

When you come in last or second last, that team should be allowed to trade any 2 players from any other team that they want every year.

Waivers can be held for kids who develop long term injuries, or complications.

Teams that are overly dominant after initial seeding rounds will be forced to play against teams in higher grade levels.

And make it a pre requisite for post secondary education. Canada would have the healthiest population.

[Travis Munroe]

I agree that it should be mandatory and then once you hit HS, there are different gym programs. Create a program for those who are highly competitive in physical activity and create a program for those who perhaps are less likely to choose gym as a class if it were optional.
I actually do not recall if gym was mandatory in HS.

The worst part about gym was the mixed bag. You would get the people who used it as a chance to talk about their day, stood around barely participating and then those who couldn't wait for the physical and competitive side of the day.

My belief is that if those who did not like gym or were not as competitive were put into 1 group, they could participate in different activities and actually enjoy it without feeling left behind. Then put the athletic group in a class and let them play floor hockey, touch football, etc.

I always remember it being the "its just a game, who cares, let it end in a tie so everyone wins" view and then the "even if we have to play a few minutes into our lunch hour, we are finding a winner" view. Putting the 2 together creates separation IMO.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Without a doubt it should be mandatory in elementary and middle school.

High school? Nah. School isn't even mandatory in High School. We're talking about young adults who are legally allowed to drop out completely at 16. They should also have the choice to decide if gym will be part of the curriculum. Ideally, earlier mandatory gym classes instilled in them the proper values to recognize physical activity as important but if we're talking about having to force 17 and 18 year olds to be active, their psychical educators already failed them.

[northcrunk]

Gym should be manditory all the way through grade 12. It's optional in grade 11 and 12 but there are so many fun things to do in those grades even if your not a athlete. Scuba diving, lawn bowling, curling and a camp were just a few of the things we did in grade 11 and 12.

[GGG]

I like the idea of mandatory physical activity combined with extra nutritional education being mandatory throughout highschool. Things like reading a nutrition label could be added as well. Somthing like 4 days a week of activities and one day a week on theory of nutrition, muscle, healthy living, dieting etc.

[Bootsy]

Originally Posted by GGG

I like the idea of mandatory physical activity combined with extra nutritional education being mandatory throughout highschool. Things like reading a nutrition label could be added as well. Somthing like 4 days a week of activities and one day a week on theory of nutrition, muscle, healthy living, dieting etc.

Is there no Health class available that covers all that stuff? In high school we had both Health and P.E. separate classes. Both had 10 mandatory but 20 and 30 were optional.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Bootsy

Is there no Health class available that covers all that stuff? In high school we had both Health and P.E. separate classes. Both had 10 mandatory but 20 and 30 were optional.

When I was in high school (15 years ago) I recall there being a Personal Living class or something like that. They lumped a bunch of topics into that class including some health and hygiene stuff (might even have included some sex ed) budgeting and finance and other related stuff that should have been useful in our adult lives.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Bootsy

Is there no Health class available that covers all that stuff? In high school we had both Health and P.E. separate classes. Both had 10 mandatory but 20 and 30 were optional.

No idea, I know we had an optional nutrition class that no one took and like a 2 week chunk of phys-ed that we did health stuff. I think incorporating theory into physical activity is a good place for it because its hard to convince people to spend the extra time on a mandatory class. So if you can impart small chunks of info over 3 years I think you will be better off than the current system.

[Otto-matic]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Gym should be manditory all the way through grade 12. It's optional in grade 11 and 12 but there are so many fun things to do in those grades even if your not a athlete. Scuba diving, lawn bowling, curling and a camp were just a few of the things we did in grade 11 and 12.

Agreed,

The best classes were the out of campus gym trips.

The selfish side of me enjoyed the non athletic kids dropping out of PE after grade 10. Mainly because Floor hockey would dominate the options for what we would participate in.

[Otto-matic]

Originally Posted by Bootsy

Is there no Health class available that covers all that stuff? In high school we had both Health and P.E. separate classes. Both had 10 mandatory but 20 and 30 were optional.

IIRC we had no actual health class available for students to take, we had Sports Performance, Sports Med and PE.

I took the Sports Performance class - it was geared more towards weights/cardio & healthy eating. Although all of my classmates were athletes involved in either higher level Hockey/Soccer outside of school.

[Chingyul]

Originally Posted by stormwolf

I went to Western Canada HS, and the majority of the IB population stopped taking gym after the mandatory grade 10 one. Unhealthiest bunch I've ever seen (pretty sure not exercising makes the academic stress that much worse)

Physical education needs to be mandatory all the way until first year uni

Couldn't help but respond when I saw this! I was an IB kid at Western. Not only did they not take anymore gym in Grade 10, we really only had half a semester worth since it was split Gym10/CALM course so the Full IB kids could fit everything in their schedule. We called it IB gym
I was lucky enough to have a teacher who treated us like normal kids, but I had friends where the teacher would dumb down all the sports. One bounce volleyball, or capture the flag with field split lengthwise (less running).
Having said that, don't lump us all at lazy, non-active people. It's probably the same mix as the general population.

Looking back now, I do wish I did gym 20 and/or 30. I remember hearing stories about some of the fun activities/sports they got to try.

[CaramonLS]

I hated gym. Truly hated 80% of the classes and activities we did. Our gym teachers had some sick obsessions with dance, ribbon, badminton, volleyball and Track.

There was barely any time spent on what I considered "fun" activities such as floor hockey, soccer or even football.

I think you have to make it interesting for kids. Listening to Cadillac Ranch and trying to learn the moves to "slap leather" for a presentation in front of the rest of the school was one of the worst things in elementary school.

[Stay Golden]

Short and simple yes gym should be mandatory.
The benefits of physical health and fitness and social bonding are lacking in many children and teenagers in today's society.