Twice a week, I have to attend the most boring class of all: PE class. In the PE classes I have attended, students in the same class do the same activities, and everyone learns the same content as the curriculum dictates, regardless of their athletic ability. 

As a student who is bad at sports, PE class is a waste of time for me because I don’t get enough practice or exercise. Also, I have classmates who repeatedly get hurt or feel sick after PE classes. To make sure every student gets something out of PE classes, schools should open different classes based on athletic ability.

Having different levels of classes would help students avoid injuries

First, students with less athletic ability get hurt more easily in PE classes.

Exercise intensity should slowly increase during training to avoid sports injuries. However, in PE classes now, students with less athletic ability are forced to train with kids who are more skilled or experienced without time to gradually improve.

Last year, one of my friends who doesn’t run very often pushed herself too hard during a running assessment. After class, her waist hurt so much that she had to go to the doctor. She wasn’t able to exercise or join PE classes for weeks after and had to do rehab for months. Even now, she is injury-prone while exercising.

Sports injuries mean students get less exercise and can cause chronic pain and other health problems. This makes it even more impossible for students with less athletic ability to keep up with their more athletic classmates. 

Students without experience hardly get to participate

In PE classes, the teacher demonstrates one skill of a sport, and gives students five to ten minutes for practice, then moves on to harder skills.

However, this method only works for students who already know how to play the sport. For students without experience, five to ten minutes is way too short a time for them to learn a new skill.  

In sports, the lack of basic skills makes it harder to learn advanced techniques. For example, in table tennis, you can’t learn to hit a spin ball if you can’t even hit the ball back normally. This dynamic makes it hard for unathletic kids to keep up with the class. Furthermore, students have to be tested at the end, so not being able to keep up is stressful.

Unathletic kids don’t have a chance to compete and play

In PE classes, there are also times when students play against each other. However, during the games, athletic kids do 80 percent of the playing while the less athletic kids often don’t get a chance to join the game.

Some kids need more practice with basic skills and shouldn’t be forced to play in games they can’t perform properly in. Others are afraid that if they don’t do well, their teammates will be mad at them. They’ll not try to perform and hope to be substituted from the game if they are forced to play.

As a result, when experienced athletes are competing, novices often have to wait or do other jobs like keep score. So, kids like me end up not getting a chance to exercise or play in class, which defeats the purpose of PE. In other words, it’s a waste of time.

Benefits of learning with classmates at the same skill level

If there were different levels of PE classes, when practicing, students without experience could get more practice with basic skills. At the same time, those who already know how to play can learn harder skills or play games. This would make PE class more fun for both kinds of kids.

Furthermore, teachers of less athletic kids could pay more attention to helping students with their physical fitness, leading them to improve and practice at an appropriate pace.

Also, during games, if every team member is at a different level, the strong ones don’t have strong enough teammates to cooperate with. Playing games with rivals with similar abilities can give everyone a chance to participate.

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PE classes now are not fulfilling their role in helping students get enough exercise and improve their physical fitness. Therefore, different levels of PE classes should be implemented to make sure all students can get enough practice and play in quality matches.