by Sofia Garrigo
Many student athletes believe that they should have the option to be excused from their gym class. This has caused controversy between parents, students, coaches, and administrators. Physical Education classes have been part of the average student’s schedule for many years. But with the new shift in academics and changes being made into student’s schedules, student athletes can’t help but wonder if they could be part of their own change.
Student athletes have to take on twice the burden of the average student. The burden only gets heavier as the student enrolls in harder and more rigorous courses. These athletes go through the usual eight-hour school day, then move straight from academics into their sports for one to three more hours. After all is said and done, they then have to head home and find how they are going to do their homework, study, eat dinner, and get eight hours of sleep. The average day would include eight hours for school, two hours for their practice, maybe two hours for homework. An extra hour for studying, an hour for dinner, also adding an extra hour for the wake up time to get ready for school and packing their sports bag. That leaves the student with nine hours, which seems like a lot, but must be taken with a grain of salt since the mathematics didn’t include the time driving to and from their games and practices. The mathematics also eliminates all sorts of other variables, such as the student completing their before-bed routine, any volunteer work, and if they have any house chores. This limits the student with around five to six hours of sleep on average. Having to complete this chaotic schedule is detrimental on the student’s mental health and grades.
These student athletes are expected to do a lot. Having them participate in a gym class when they are going to complete physical activity after school is wrong. They work hard for their grades and practice hard for their teams. It’s these students that are making Irvington’s sports teams not only popular, but powerful. They need the time to rest and recharge. Making them complete a gym class gives them even less time to focus on their sleep schedule and their well-being. Many of these student athletes are also honor and AP students doubling their time spent on homework and studying. Giving them the option of not having a gym class would help them drastically. They could have an extra period to do homework, or be able to have some time to relax and study. This extra time would potentially even improve their playing in their respective sport.
The major argument against this change is that the gym class is a mandatory class that must be completed for the credit to graduate. By having the student skip the class they wouldn’t have the necessary credits to graduate. However, it is impossible to allow the work they compete in their team to count for their physical education credit, as it has been seen in neighboring school districts. This would provide the athletes of our school the opportunity to not worry about their after school schedule as much, socialize more, and have the time to maybe enroll in some tougher courses they wanted to join but just didn’t have the time.
By providing the students with the ability to opt out of gym classes, student athletes would reap many benefits. The school has the ability to lessen student’s struggles, so they should use their power to modify the Physical Education mandate in favor of the students.
