At Los Osos High School, and all high schools within the Los Angeles County Public Health, Physical Education (PE) is required for at least two years if you are not participating in a sport.

PE should not be a required course for everyone in high school because it is not always beneficial to everyone.

Of course, I do not mean to trivialize the importance of the extra exercise to certain people, but to others that already participate in sports or any kind of physical activity outside of school, extra exercise can be just a waste of time and effort, as they do not wish to go into any kind of sport professionally. 

There are a couple of reasons why students are required to take PE in high school. Either they don’t participate in any sports, or they do sports outside of school. 

The benefits of PE are an increase in physical activity and better health overall. At Los Osos, PE includes three-week rotations through different sports like basketball, hockey, tennis, etc. 

Undoubtedly, it could be beneficial to introduce new sports to students, but the problem of the class is the severity in which the students are graded.

Some PE teachers grade their students based on skill, which is not fair to the students. Students are given only three weeks to practice a certain sport before getting evaluated, and it is extremely unlikely that they ace the test, especially if they are beginners or new to the sport, in which the majority of the class are beginners. 

Even if PE is required, students should be graded based on participation and effort, instead of on skill.

For beginners, no matter how hard they try in a sport, it is simply impossible to be great at it in the short period of three weeks. It would relieve the stress of students if the rotation periods were extended by a few weeks, or if teachers could grade effort-based instead of skill-based.

Nevertheless, I still think that PE should be optional for certain people. Some might argue that PE is the only form of exercise for students, and the absence of it will cause their health to decline, but schools do not take into account that people can do sports outside of school, like gymnastics, ice skating, or other forms of exercise. 

Even junior varsity dance members at Los Osos are still required to take PE. 

While doing extra physical activities won’t hurt, it takes time away, a whole period, from students who want to take another elective that will benefit them even more. 

Since PE is only required to help students with exercise and physical activity, students who are already active outside of school should not be forced to take double the amount of physical activity necessary if they do not want to. 

I believe that PE should not be necessary for people with outside-of-school physical activities, and even if it is required, it should be graded based on participation and effort.