Must take and pass fitness class to receive degrees from college?

[MsLeFever]

I think it's ridiculous that they are measuring the body mass index to determine if you have the class as a requirement or not. Why not see which students smoke or test them for drug use or alcohol and have them take a 'get healthy' class as well?

It's one thing to have everyone take a class and another to single out people for it!

Excellent point!!

 

[Callie]

My college requires a class, but there are so many options! I'm taking a Jazz Dance Class, theres also a walking class, swimming, basketball, or a sit in the classroom and learn boring class. Yes you do have to pay for it

 

[The Mystery Machine]

In our public schools, one takes PE class every year till graduation. It's requirement to take it 5 days a week for half a year. It however is combined with Health, so 1 marking period might be PE and the next Health (or something along those lines anyway). I always thought it would be better to not have it daily for half the year, but to go 2 to 3 times a week for the entire year.

I guess this is just easier to work it into the schedule though.

I agree that it should be an all or nothing requirement at the school. I'd prefer for it to be ALL rather than none. Everyone could benefit.

Wow that blows!

I think PE should be wiped off the map, so I don't share your level of enthusiasm for it.

OK...it should be optional for those that enjoy sports.

 

[Mysteria]

Fitness/health/nutritional classes should be taught in public/jr high/high school. It shouldn't be mandatory by the time you get to college. Especially not only for a certain group of people. That's absurd!

 

[minkydog]

My only problem is that it should be required for every student. It was for the university where I was on faculty.....and we made entire schedules around that requirement when advising because we new they had to have it.

I agree. Only requiring it of overweight(or obese) people seems discriminatory. When I was in college we were required to take 3 phys ed classes. I chose softball, tennis, and golf(bleah! I was terrible. I should have held out for health & fitness.) I would have hated to be forced to take, say, football or basketball. I don't think anybody should be forced to take a fitness class that they don't want to take. If the requirement is that they have to take a fitness class, I don't see why they could do weight training or aerobics as long as the requirement is for everyone, not just a select few(selected by their college!)

 

[disykat]

I think it kinda of irrelvant to a person degree

What on earth is a "person degree?" I thought you made a typo until two people responded like it's a real thing. Can you explain?

 

[Carys]

Sounds pretty whacky to me, I wouldn't be taking out thousands of dollars in loans to pay for a law degree which included credits as irrelevant as how to make a salad and throw a ball. General education is for high school not a University/tertiary academic qualification.

 

[golfgal]

We had to either be on a varsity athletic team or take 2 semesters of PE to graduate. I wonder if it is required of everyone and the article just points out that it is geared toward those that are overweight because if it is only required for those that are overweight, can you say lawsuit.

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

I had to pass 2 PEs and a SWIM test back in the 80s.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Sounds pretty whacky to me, I wouldn't be taking out thousands of dollars in loans to pay for a law degree which included credits as irrelevant as how to make a salad and throw a ball. General education is for high school not a University/tertiary academic qualification.

last i looked, law was not undergrad. any good liberal arts school degree enhances the chance of getting into a good law school. and most good liberal arts school have a p.e. requirement. I just did a quick look at about 10 of the top 100 and they all do.

as i said, if you want vocational school go to vocational school.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

What on earth is a "person degree?" I thought you made a typo until two people responded like it's a real thing. Can you explain?

I assumed it to be a misspelling of "person's." Could have been wrong, of course.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I have to say that this is an interesting thread regarding college requirements for PE. I would have never thought that so many colleges required it.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Every student at the college I went to was required to take a fitness class. However, it was EVERY student, not only overweight students, which is what caught my eye in the article.

I don't think it's right to require only overweight students to take the class; it should be for all or not at all. Personally, I thought it was a way for my school to get more money out of us.

 

[Cindy B]

I was required to take 3 credits of health/gym.

You could take a bunch of 1/2 credit or 1 credit gym classes or a 3 credit health class.

I took the three credit health class online! (I still had high school gym horrors in my head!)

 

[Carys]

last i looked, law was not undergrad. any good liberal arts school degree enhances the chance of getting into a good law school. and most good liberal arts school have a p.e. requirement. I just did a quick look at about 10 of the top 100 and they all do.

as i said, if you want vocational school go to vocational school.

It is in my country

 

[LisaR]

It is in my country

You can go to undergraduate school for four years and walk out as a lawyer in your country? How long is med school? 2 years?

 

[eliza61]

No problem with it.
I graduated from the university of Pittsburgh. We were required to take gym and pass it in order to graduate.

 

[taximomfor4]

not cool. My child with too-high BMI has always been that way (her weight is on target for her age, but her height rarely is even on the chart) eats less, makes healthier choices, and gets FAR more exercise than ANY of my other kids. My oldest (tall on the charts, and underweight) is by far the laziest and eats the most, makes the worst food choices.

Any class they give my high-BMI child will NOT "fix" her "weight problem." If it were fixable, it would have been done already.

About PE Requirements, I DO think they are just a way to make extra money for the school. My brother took Golf. He never showed up, meant to drop it but forgot to. Lo and behold HE GOT AN A!!!!! He was thrilled.

At the very least, for schools requiring PE credits, do their football players have to take PE? SILLY. THose guys are working out like crazy. Do, say, competitive figure skaters (on the world circuit) who attend that college have to take PE? SILLY. They are getting crazy amounts of exercise already.

 

[TwinsinCA]

I have to say that this is an interesting thread regarding college requirements for PE. I would have never thought that so many colleges required it.

Me either! I have a B.A. from the University of MN and we were not required to take PE in any form. Thank God! It was bad enough in high school.

And I do not believe that the vast majority of people eat poorly out of ignorance. I think nutrition classes at the college level are a waste of time.

 

[iggbees]

i think this is a little ridiculous singling the kids out like this. at my college it was a requirement that EVERYONE take 6 gym credits. there were tons of different ways to do it, i took self defense, ballroom dancing, and squash, but there was also that fitness for life program that they talk about in that article. except at my school everyone had the option of taking it and some people (even the normal weight people) loved it because it was nutrition based. i hated the fact that i had to take gym, but now i kind of miss it. i wish i had that access again to take a class a learn a new sport. my friends and i used to play squash together on the weekends, which was totally self motivated, after we learned how to play in class. i think singling kids out will not motivate them to lose weight at all. if they learn along with their peers, it might be a different story, but then again, they might get discouraged because they can't do what their normal weight peers can do.

it might be better if they have an optional class that overweight people can sign up for that would make them feel more comfortable in group of people who are at the same activity level that they are. if they don't want to take that class, they can sign up for a class with the normal weight students. (kind of like a regular gym, versus going to curves, some women feel more comfortable without men at their gym, and that's OK!)