Each year around registration time, the topic of not wanting to take gym seems to always circulate around. At FHN, students are required to take one full year of gym to graduate, but many people think that is not necessary. Gym classes offer a time to socialize with friends and get in needed daily exercise, yet it takes the place of a class could help a student with their future career. There should be a multitude of options for students to take advantage of, so that they are able take more classes of their choice, while getting necessary exercise.

In Idaho, Texas and Indiana, they have come with the idea for people wanting to take classes other than gym is that the student must prove they exercise in their free time for at least an hour, about the time of a class hour, at a minimum of five days a week. We have a summer school class where students can do this and some online options, but there should also be an option for students who play sports. According to the gym teachers the reason this is not an option is because the Board of Education has not approved it as an option. Extracurricular athletes could count one season of their sport as one semester of gym credit.  In all sports they are putting in a lot of hours of constant exercise which adds up to more physical activity than most of our gym classes offer. Also, if a student takes a recreational sport or class for a year, they should be able to count that as a semester of gym.

From endorphin boosts to longevity, exercise has many benefits, and it needs to be part of students’ lives to be healthy. Many people say they are not athletic or they just do not enjoy exercising, but if the students could find something they enjoy doing more, they might exercise and try more. Also, this option would make it so students are more likely to continue exercising because the extracurricular class or activity might last past the time a normal gym class would.

Gym classes should not be cut; however, students should have more options. Gym classes are still needed, but for some students it would make more sense to just count the sport they already do, and take a class more interesting to them. Now the students will not learn all the rules of different sports or what each apparatus in weightlifting does, but they may find something they will want to continue the rest of their life and end up living a healthier life this way.

Some form of gym should be a requirement for students to do by the end of high school and this option should only be available to high schoolers because it is built into middle and elementary school schedules. There could end up being some students who take advantage of a program such as this. However, if students would take these programs seriously, then this could become a very beneficial program. A program along these lines would still have the normal benefits of gym, plus would free up students’ schedules, reward students for participating in sports and the student could find something they really enjoy and continue doing after the required amount of time.