Should Student Athletes Use P. E. Credit?

U.S. News reported “that 55.5 percent of all high school students play a sport.” Students only have a few free class periods to choose what classes to take because of the number of required classes built into schedules. One of these required classes is Physical Education. Allowing student athletes to count the extracurricular sport they play as a P.E. credit will give them numerous advantages. This change will positively affect over half of high school students’ lives. Extracurricular sports should be counted as a physical education credit because sports are not only more beneficial than P.E., but it would allow student athletes to be less stressed about homework due to an open class period. This will enable students to perform better in school and in their sport due to less stress and better focus.
Opponents argue that deciding what exactly constitutes as a sport is too time consuming and difficult to allow P.E. credit to be given for sports. However, allowing student athletes to take a physical fitness test to determine if they are physically fit allows for fair judgement on the issue. The opposition argues that “administering a tracking program for that level of detail of activity, especially if independent of an organization
Students will be allowed to take classes they previously couldn’t because of P.E. or take a study hall to complete homework before getting home. Extracurricular sports also provide the same, if not more, benefits as P.E. class to students, especially since P.E. is proven to provide less than 20 minutes of physical activity per class. By allowing student athletes to receive P.E. credit for participating in an extracurricular sport, schools will cause students to be less stressed and have more focus due to less homework and more open