“YOU are ATHLETIC P.E. YOU are an ATHLETE. Which means YOU will be held AT A HIGHER STANDARD.” Mr. Ellis’ blaring sergeant’s voice filled my ears as I cowered in the corner of the weight room. It was the seventh-period P.E. class of my first day of high school, and I could tell right off the bat high school P.E. was no square dancing and badminton games.
Over the course of the next few months, I was pushed to run faster, row harder and lift heavier weights. By 3:15 on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I was a hot, sweaty mess and in a crabby mood. What ticked me off even more is that my friends in third- and fifth-period P.E. could get an “A” by getting an 8:30 mile time, whereas I had to run 30 seconds faster.
But when swim season came, and I was more or less pushed into the water to swim for two and a half hours every day, I became suddenly grateful for seventh-period P.E. My weight training had paid off in the form of more muscles and all the running had increased my endurance level. I realized that without the difficulty of my P.E. class, I would have basically drowned within the first week of swim practice.
The main reason seventh-period P.E. standards are higher than those of other P.E. classes is to prepare students for their sport season. Higher standards force athletes to take P.E. seriously, and this is good for lazy bums like me.
Additionally, most athletes can pass regular P.E. standards with little or no training. Raising the standards, and giving grades based on these higher standards give athletes an added incentive to continue training even on the off season.
I myself will admit that my grade in P.E. was a huge incentive for me to keep fit. In order to receive an A in P.E., we could only fail one assessment, which meant by the end of the semester I had to either be able to do a pullup or do a 500-meter row in two and a half minutes.
Because I didn't have a rowing machine at home, I decided I would go to Argonaut Elementary School, where there were bars I could practice pullups on. After lots of kipping practice and arm strength exercises, I was finally able to master the pullup.
Without my grade being dependent upon it, a pullup bar would be the last place you would find me on a Saturday afternoon. So, in ways, having a higher standard in P.E. really did help be to become more fit.
Many seventh-period P.E. students argue that having different standards for the same type of P.E. class is unfair. This is untrue because by signing up to play a sport, a student is essentially enrolling himself or herself into a harder P.E. class.
Just as students pick their elective class, they also choose whether or not to play a sport — and therefore choose their respective P.E. class. And, just as the difficulty level of a Ceramics 1 class and a Ceramics 4 class are obviously different, sports P.E. and regular P.E. are held at different standards.
So, to all of you freshmen who — as I had — are complaining and whining about the unfairness of seventh period P.E., suck it up. Because in the first place, it's your own fault you're in the class; and secondly, sport season is going to be 10 times worse.