Physical Education: loved by some, dreaded by a lot. Many students at Garfield waive PE, but if you have an open slot in your schedule, you should give it a chance.
Garfield PE teacher Ms. Purcell explained that “PE is a wonderful opportunity for students to break up their academic workload throughout the day.” The class is not only about working out, but it is also, “a place for students to go for an hour of their day where they can unplug from their other responsibilities,” Purcell said. In PE, students not only work on their physical fitness but also, “their stress, whether it’s emotional stress or physical stress,” as well.
Garfield counselor Mr. Lee added PE is a great space for “people to be active and get their heart rate up every day,” he said, “sitting in a classroom for seven hours a day is not good.” “There’s so many studies that highlight the negative impacts of sitting all day,” Lee explained, “[I’ve] seen studies that have shown that sitting for most of the day is actually worse than smoking or eating really unhealthy food.”
Lee believes that there’s value in, “being physically active and being aware of how your body operates and functions and how to maximize your health.” He stands by that, “personal fitness, the basic entry level PE class, should be a requirement.” “[PE is] very crucial to your functioning as a human being, let alone a student that needs to focus on academics. So why would we not require that if we were requiring all these other things?” Lee said.
Many students at Garfield may not know, but PE comes in a variety of different classes where you can choose the class that best fits your wants and needs. “In addition to personal fitness, [Garfield] offers other sections of PE such as lifetime activities, team sports, and weight training,” Purcell said. “Team sports is more for upperclassmen who have taken personal fitness. They know how to play traditional sports and they’re ready to play at a more competitive level.” On the other hand, weightlifting is a class that has, “really grown into a place where students can challenge themselves to really work on their own individual fitness goals while working out with other people. So it’s an extremely social environment where they’re tracking their own individual progress.” But if none of those seem appealing, instead one can take lifetime activities which as Purcell explained, is a PE class set in a “non competitive environment where it’s more of a relaxed environment, not to say it’s not challenging, but it’s for people who want to work on, maybe their mental health right?” Through lifetime activities, you are able to “work on meditation and breathing and mindfulness and all of those things are equally important as the physical components.”
PE is a requirement in Washington with the intent to “have students be active and engaged during the school day and not just sit in classes,” Lee said. “But even if students don’t take PE, students should be active. They should be playing a sport or they should be walking their dogs in the neighborhood or doing something every day to get out of the house and not be sitting down.” If you have the chance, take PE. Your physical health is just as important, if not more, than your academic excellence.
