Having The Freedom To Choose The Sports Done in P.E.

I take the position that middle school students should be allowed to choose the sports we do in P.E. While kids get the required amount of physical exercise with the variety of sports given to us, middle school students are not enjoying P.E. classes because of the sports they don’t enjoy or are struggling in. The UWCSEA P.E. department should allow the freedom for middle school students to choose their own sports units in the P.E curriculum, because firstly, middle school students are starting to not enjoy P.E classes, and are pushing themselves to do things they don’t want to. Secondly, students’ self esteem is becoming lower because of how uncomfortable they feel when they’re doing the sports they’re not good at.

One critical reason middle school students should be allowed to choose their P.E curriculum is because students are starting to not enjoy P.E classes, and P.E classes are meant to be fun. Penelope Trunk, author of the article “Forced Gym Hates Exercise”, says: “Kids who don’t have any gym yearn for exercise during the day and they generally know what they like, team sports or individual sports, rigorous or methodical... Kids who are forced to do a certain type of exercise generally dislike exercise in the same way that kids who are forced to learn a certain way that’s not appropriate to them start to hate learning.” (Trunk, 2013). This is important to notice because that quote summarizes what I feel like in P.E. class. I don’t usually like the way we are being forced to learn the sports that we don’t take any sort of interest in, and I find myself become quite tense. I think the author’s intention was to tell P.E. coaches and parents that kids that have to follow the system of P.E. units get tired of doing forced sports. A study conducted by the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF) interviewed 1,500 kids and found that over half (51 percent) of girls are “put off physical activity by their experiences of school sport and P.E. lessons.” (Alamy, 2012). This is significant because 51 percent is a lot of girls that don’t like sports just because of their experiences, which is saddening because kids should be able to enjoy sports without any obstacles in the way.

Another crucial reason middle school students should have the right to pick the sports they do in the P.E. curriculum is because kids’ self esteem is decreasing because of how unconfident kids are feeling when doing sports they’re not good at or not fond of. I have personal experience. I really find myself engaged in some sports that we do, such as basketball or badminton. They are really fun, interesting sports which I wouldn’t mind doing in P.E. classes. I feel I strive in these sports and really like them. However, I feel that P.E. units I have such as touch rugby and volleyball are really challenging for my abilities, and I dread P.E. and feel uncomfortable when attempting to do the sports. Furthermore, I know some people like my classmate Piper, that really like touch rugby and volleyball, and some people that despise basketball and badminton. This is important to notice because I feel this can relate to everyone, even outside of the P.E. subject. You can be really talented at humanities, but struggle in maths. It’s exactly the same for P.E. units. Also, Sarah Harris, contributor to the Mail Online, found a research at that was conducted at the University of Bedfordshire in the UK. They found that almost half of middle school teachers (42 per cent) say that their students don’t enjoy PE lessons, and that thirty-nine per cent of children across the UK have a negative attitude towards being physically active by the age of 16, according to a survey of 400 middle school teachers. This shows that many middle school students’ interest in P.E. is decreasing, because it says that by the age of 16, the children have lost their attention towards P.E. At this age, children are going through adolescence and while we’re going through this transition, we start to make many decisions that usually stick through to the end of adolescence. P.E. is a subject in school that shouldn’t be ignored, and is crucial to our health, but with people losing interest in it, it’s not gonna benefit their mental health (e.g. feeling better about your body) if children are not interested at such a young age.

I do agree that their is no need to change the system of the current P.E. units. In the survey I conducted within my mentor class, most if not all the respondents generally said they didn’t mind the P.E. sports we had in school, and 12.5% of the peers said no to changing the sports curriculum. The P.E. units we’ve been having have been quite successful throughout many years and there have been no complaints. Also, I do understand how painful organizing everyone into these sports would be, let alone organizing middle school students into different P.E. classes. But don’t we want all kids to be comfortable, confident and contented when they’re playing sports? Isn’t that what sports are meant to be doing? Offering this opportunity to select what sports we can do would help achieve this goal.

Middle school students should be able to have the rights to choose the sports they want to do. I take the position that while middle school students stay fairly fit with the P.E. units given to us, we are having to follow the system of sports that some kids aren’t eager to do. The UWCSEA P.E. department should provide the rights for middle school students to choose their own sports units in the curriculum.

I do understand that it’s gonna be very chaotic to organize the sports for 620 students. Also, most kids still like the P.E. units. However, there are kids still struggling out there. I’m proposing an idea which can help solve this issue. We can treat P.E. class as a health society; kids who are keen athletes can have the opportunity to sign up for hardcore sports, and other kids who are less eager to do tough sports can choose ones they want to do so they feel better about themselves.

Homework: How much is too much?

Homework is very useful in helping children to learn and schools have been using it effectively for many years but have teachers ever thought about how much homework is being given? Too much homework can be detrimental, and children will benefit from homework only when the right amount is assigned. Some people may say that the more homework children get, the more they learn, but I say that too much homework can cause stress, impact a child’s freedom and can cause them to lose faith in teachers.

First of all, homework can cause a lot of stress for children. Just having homework does not cause enough stress to cause an impact, but having too much can cause more stress than children can handle. Clifton B. Parker, a social sciences writer at Stanford News, says “Students in high-achieving communities who spend too much time on homework experience more stress, physical health problems, a lack of balance and even alienation from society.” (Parker, 2014) This shows us that too much homework can cause great impacts on children in their early years, which may affect them later on in life.

Second of all, too much homework can cause them to lose faith in teachers. Teachers are expected to help children in their learning. They are being helpful by assigning homework, but usually, they do not know how much they are actually assigning. According to Prad Vongpusanachai, a student at UWCSEA, there is a difference between the amount of homework teachers expect children to do, and the amount that is actually done. If children receive too much homework from their teachers, they may start to lose faith, or dislike them. As assignments get harder and children become more reluctant to talk to teachers, it can heavily impact their learning.

Lastly, too much homework can impact the amount of free time children get. The more time children have to spend on homework, the less time they have to spend on their passions. John Buell, an author of many articles and books relating to homework says “Free time plays a key role in fostering both creativity and emotional development, factors just as basic to long term success as an academic gains.” (Buell, 2000) How much homework is the perfect balance between learning and free time? According to a survey done on students in 7ELy, they think that approximately 1 hour of homework is the most effective balance between learning and recreation. Adding on to that, how serious is this problem of reduced free time? Well, out of 118 7th grade students asked “How much homework do you do each night?” Only 52 students said they do less than 1.5 hours of homework each night. On the other hand, 66 said they do more than 1.5 hours of homework each night, with 16 saying they do more than 2.5 hours of homework each night. This shows that the problem is quite serious, and impacts a lot more than half of the student population.

In conclusion, Homework can be very important in helping children to learn well in school, but too much can cause stress, less free time and less faith in teachers. Children with too much homework may still do well in school, but may have less benefits later in life compared with children that have less homework. This may not seem too serious, but in reality, it impacts more than half of the students at school. All of the effects may start to snowball, and can heavily impact the future of many children. This is why I think that teachers should reconsider the amount of homework they give children, so that children can have a better time in school, and live a better life.




Parker, Clifton B. "Stanford Research Shows Pitfalls of Homework." Stanford University. N.p., n.d. Web.

Buell, John. "Back to School: Why Homework Is Bad for Kids." Alternet. N.p., 22 Aug. 2000. Web.