Remove the Physical Education requirement for PEI graduates

You’ve all heard the story; you are to be stranded in the near future on a deserted island, and are only permitted to bring the three most important things in your life with you. You are warned that any attempt to transport more will fail, as your bag will only allow three. Try as you might, that bag will not close if there are any more than three items…That bag is much like the course loads of high school students today; limited in capacity, yet capable of including a wide range of choices.

I am currently a grade 11 student at Kensington Intermediate Senior High in Prince Edward Island, and received my Phys Ed 401 credit about this time last year. I am part of the French Immersion program at KISH and an avid athlete. The PEI government and school board agreed to add to existing graduation requirements two years ago. Among changes was the inclusion of a PED401 credit on the list, a grade ten physical education course. Adding another mandatory course to an already lengthy list of obligations for grads was not necessary, and there were other ways of resolving the problem of activity levels in students other than this.

Course schedules are busy as is during high school, and always have been. Most students are preparing for university or college, and ensuring they will have the proper prerequisite credits to be accepted into the school and program of their preference. High schoolers are also looking at graduating as part of diploma programs, such as Travel and Tourism or Agriculture. Both of these programs require specific credits to be awarded certificates on graduation day, and further limit the course selections of students. Students who are part of a second language program, such as French Immersion, must be taken into consideration as well. These students have yet another set of requirements to graduate with a second language diploma, making it nearly impossible to fit everything in. Adding another year of “gym class”, a course which has already been taken over years of school, puts too much additional stress on schedules and forces students to make tough decisions about the courses they choose, and secure the credits they require.

The main purpose of this course was to ensure that students are being taught how to lead healthier lives, but once a teen reaches high school it is effectively too late to be starting this process. They are well on their way to becoming their own individuals by the time they reach grade ten, and have already had more than enough time to make unhealthy lifestyle choices. This decision will not be “developing” healthy living, but rather trying to change unhealthy living. As we all know, the majority of human beings do not respond to change as well as they do learning.

Finally, when taking the course last year, I found it difficult to interpret what we learned to how I could really take advantage of resources to keep up a healthy way of living after I moved on from KISH. Too much of the class was focused on too much of the same sports and games, much like during younger grades. Far too little time was taken to present students with simple strategies, examples, or resources they could implement in their daily lives to promote physical or mental wellness. There were the odd productive days in the term which taught us some of these skills, but it was a lot of the same of what we had done for the past 9 years of school gym class already.

The school board made an honourable decision in this situation, but was definitely hindered by their execution of these choices. However, the situation could be easily improved. The easiest way of fixing these issues is to cut the credit from graduation requirements, but then the school board would be back at where they began in 2015. To allow the proposed benefits to take effect at the same time, Phys Ed classes should be putting a bigger push on watching healthy habits for the mind and body in much younger grades, when students are at a younger and more impressionable age. To cement these ideas in students’ heads, less time should be spent playing games and more should be discussing their health strategies, and assignments should be required to evaluate their understanding of this concept.

This change in the school curriculum was brought into light by the results of the SHAPES PEI 2012-2013 survey data, stating that only 45% of students in grade 5-12 on PEI were actually meeting physical activity levels for their age, and 20% of these island students were overweight or obese. This issue definitely needs to be of concern for the government and school board. When looking at the study though, the members need to realize that it is not simply high school students that are being found to be less active; children as young as 11 years of age are included in the study. Given this information, it would make much more sense to start the process of health and wellness in life outside of school at younger ages rather than attempt to implement them in years down the road.

With these slight changes all of the projected benefits would still be possible, but with fewer complications for students. They would learn at a younger age that a healthy lifestyle is key in leading a happy life, and be taught strategies to improve their wellness before being given the chance to develop too many of their own detrimental habits. This gives a better chance of the information clinging to the minds of young students, and in turn a better chance of them continuing to use the strategies taught into high school and university years. This also keeps another one of their precious course blocks free for an elective during high school, giving them another choice of a course that could aid them in entering post secondary education or in receiving credits required for certificate programs.

On an end note, I would like to clarify; I do not oppose to the initiatives taken by the PEI school board, and am in fact impressed and proud that I live in a province which wants to take action on pressing issues. Students need to be more aware of how to lead and maintain healthy lifestyles, and these skills would definitely help them later in life. However, the actions taken could have been different, and the effectiveness would subsequently improve along with the lessened stress on students with a subtle revision of the choices and curriculums. Thank you for listening, and stay healthy folks!