Should Fat Kids in High School be Required to take PE?

[Aceshigh]

Everyone should be required to take PE, regardless of size. Physical activity is good for body and mind.

[Kujako]

Should dumb kids in high school be required to take math?

[poogle]

It was mandatory every year in Australian public schools when i was there, pretty sure it still is, and you only sat out if you had a legit medical reason.

I think far more important is mandatory 1+ years of Home Ec. - learning proper nutrition & how to cook for yourself would also make a big impact. Or at least fold that info into PE classes during winter or something. I know at my highschool they had to stack class groups in the gym due to timetable constraints, and with 4+ classes at the same time there were too many students for any sports so we had to do line dancing >.< Wouldn't have hurt to put some of that time into theory classes instead.

Or at the very least teach them things about how to look after yourself, not just kick a ball around & jump on trampolines.

[welcome2life]

Wish we had dodgeball, we had a choice of football with the boys or netball with the girls. I always went with netball as I hate football.

We usually got a choice of what game we wanted to play after doing some warm up exercise so that nobody pulled any muscles. We only had one injury ever, and our class was graded on attendance. I can't believe some people were actually given C's that really sucks.

[Adam Jensen]

No.

But all kids in high school should be required to take PE.

My school didn't have PE so everyone had to join a sports team of their choice for 2 years. Good players went varsity, bad players (me) went JV.

[blackone]

As long as it isn't completely medical, like some people, then yes.
Fitness needs to be promoted, it's just not good for humanity if exercise isn't promoted now that fast/fatty foods seem to be the number one hit this era.
I will be promoting sport and exercise to my children in the future.

Forcing high school kids to do something is pretty much the opposite of promoting it. 16 year olds hate everything, but they especially hate everything their parents/teachers make them do.

[K i s u]

"Fat Kids" only? No. In mine it was required to do one semester for a credit, though always felt it should have been mandatory for one in all 4 years.

[Destruktion]

Every kid in high school should be required to take PE. Good physical health is important for everyone, not just the overweight kids.

[Deleted]

My PE teacher hated girls and kids. I always managed to get C's in gym, all the girls got crappy grades except a few very athletic ones. Then mysteriously in grade 7, I started to get A's despite not caring or trying anymore.

Did you feel like you deserved the As? In regards to getting high body temperature and not sweating that usually happens with people who have poor physical conditioning and with your BMI being in the underweight range I can probably see why excercise felt horrible for you. But overall PE should contain both nutritional education, education in regards to training as well as actual training. It is literally good for everyone. Though of course the level has to be set appropriately for each individual.

[Deleted]

dno how it is elsewhere in the world but here in the UK (at least where i went to school) not doing PE wasn't an option. 7 years of primary school and 7 years of secondary / high school PE. don't get enough exercise nowadays if im honest tho lol.

[Netherspark]

In the UK at least, PE is not optional and it shouldn't be either.

When I was in school we did gym, rugby, football, cricket, softball, badminton, squash, tennis, track running, weight training, shot-put, discus, javelin and swimming among other things. We even once did circuit training.

I was overweight in school and I would not have wanted to opt out of PE.

[Rhodair]

I absolutely do not agree with forced PE for anyone in grade 8 or higher. I dont believe in forced PE for any child over grade 6 if they have decent enough medical excuse to get out of it. I do not think kids should have to go outside for PE either.

I remember throwing up and spraining my ankle numerous times during gym. My body temprature runs hot all the time, and I barely sweat. Some kids arent physically built for activities, forcing people to do it is just stupid, cruel and counter productive. Oh and before anyone calls me a fatty, my BMI is 16.1 (female)

Kids are still developing through every single high school year, and good nutrition and regular physical activity are essential life habits worth promoting during this time. Obviously if someone has a valid medical reason, they're not going to be forced to participate. This shouldn't be a "decent enough excuse", however, it should be something they can provide some kind of documentation for - I'm not saying hand over your entire medical record to the school either; just a legit letter from your doctor.

It doesn't matter whether someone is fat or skinny. Way too many people baby their bodies, and it's really not good. People get hurt, it happens, but if you get hurt regularly doing anything physical and you don't have a medical condition, then you need the exercise more than you realize. There are people who give up because, for example, their knees hurt. The truth is it'll hurt or be sore because you're body's not used to being worked there, which means you need to work that section of your body more! Running is another great example. Running is one of the greatest ways to really know what's going wrong with your body. For example, if your shins hurt, it could be you didn't stretch or warm up enough or need better shoes. The majority of the time it means your legs are weak. How do you solve this? Running more, pushing through it, working out your leg muscles, etc.

Additional notes: If you're not sweating much, you're either not working out as hard as you think, have anhidrosis, have way fewer sweat glands than others, or are not drinking enough water. If you're spraining your ankle repeatedly, you're likely not warming up as well as you should or you have bad form with whatever it is you're doing. PE teachers often don't focus enough on proper form, which is a shame. I did situps wrong until I was 27. It always looked like I was doing them right, but I was actually using my back instead of my core for great number of exercises until a couple years ago. Lastly, I don't see anything wrong with outside so long as the person doesn't have allergies that would impact their health.

[apepi]

FOr mine we got 3 years of pe for high school and one we did not. But if you were an athlete you had to take pe.

[Rhodair]

Should dumb kids in high school be required to take math?

Ha! That's a pretty good line. (I'm assuming it was witty sarcasm. If it wasn't then, um, this is awkward...)

[Coffer]

There has been quite a lot of debate on obesity lately, so I thought I would ask this simple question:

Should fat kids in High School be required to take PE all 4 years if they fail to pass some basic health / physical standards?

Wouldn't this help promote good health and physical activity if they were required to take it all 4 years?

So in 9th grade they would be required to get a physical to find out if they will be required to be in PE during High School.

Are you telling me it's not required in the US already? It's mandatory here.

[Hiricine]

If we have a gym program it should be mandatory.

We probably shouldnt though. We have kids taking middle school algebra in college. If we can't teach kids basic subjects we shouldn't be spending money on a much lower priority.

[Vynestra]

People make choices on which classes to take, my school was mandatory for 2 years of PE. Which year you took them was up to you. Well you had PE 1 PE 2 then senior PE which is one quarter. So

[This name sucks]

Everyone was required to take it up to and including grade 10.

After that it was optional.

---------- Post added 2013-03-01 at 01:06 AM ----------

If we have a gym program it should be mandatory.

We probably shouldnt though. We have kids taking middle school algebra in college. If we can't teach kids basic subjects we shouldn't be spending money on a much lower priority.

by middle school algebra you mean shit like 5x=125?

[Olianda]

PE was an elective for me. Although you had to take it two out of the four years.

Realistically, it didn't help me gain or lose weight. In fact, I got used to eating more to compensate for the sports and stuff. When I stopped playing, I gained quite a bit.

Teaching kids to eat better and such is great, but I'd say the biggest problem is the parents.

[Rhodair]

Are you telling me it's not required in the US already? It's mandatory here.

It's always been required in the US, but some schools only require it for 1 year, others only 2 years. OP was asking people's thoughts on whether it should be required for all 4 high school years.