By JONAS MILLER
Staff Writer
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When I started applying to colleges during my senior year of high school, people kept asking me what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to study. I would tell them I didn’t know, and they would respond with, “Well what’s your favorite class?” They acted as if they were going to solve all of my problems by learning what my favorite 45 minutes of the day were.
Even though I knew the conversation was going nowhere, I humored them, and always replied with “gym.” They would laugh, but it was understandable; we were all so sick of high school at that point that anything that you didn’t need a pencil for was considered fun.
In reality, gym was my favorite class, and always had been. I’ve always been a very active kid, and I say kid because I feel I’m thankfully still below the cusp of adulthood. I like to run, jump, skip, and most of all sweat. I was put on this earth to participate fully in gym. Yeah, I’m that kid. I’m what people refer to as a “gym class hero.”
There are several reasons for this. First of all, that’s just how I am. I cannot stop myself from putting 110 percent into everything that I do. Life is just more fun if you give it your all.
Second, I love sports. Any sport. Go ahead, pick one, I will play it to the best of my ability. I’ve never played cricket, but I promise you I’d like to. I think it’s partly curiosity, but mostly I just love being active. There’s something about working up a sweat that just makes me feel good.
Last, but not least, I absolutely love winning. Winning feels good, does it not? Seriously, have you ever met someone who says they don’t enjoy winning? No, because that kind of person does not exist. Whether it is baseball, or kickball, or checkers, or Go Fish, winning always feels better than losing.
At this point you’re probably asking yourself why this kid is going full Charlie Sheen on this article, but I assure you, we’re getting there.
Bringing it back to gym class, I’m focusing on it because lately I’ve noticed something, and it’s been upsetting me. It seems that recently, physical education has been a lot more education, and a lot less physical. Gym class in grades K-12 was my favorite part of the day, but gym class here at college is nothing short of the worst hour of my week.
I actually dread going to it, and honestly, it’s because I just don’t have fun. It’s not dodgeball, or pickle ball, or even freeze tag. In my gym class, the main focus is filling out the dreaded portfolio. If you have not taken a gym class yet, you’re certainly in for a rude awakening.
Since when is community service something that should affect my grade in physical education? Don’t get me wrong, I love helping people. I do it every chance that I get. It is my opinion, however, that it does not belong anywhere near any gym class, ever.
Gym class is supposed to be about getting out your energy, staying active, and having fun. Instead of that, I find myself looking up research articles, and talking with my “support group” about how active we all were this week, and I think that’s wrong.
I agree with the fact that gym class should test you mentally, as well as physically, but college, more specifically our college, just seems to be going about it the wrong way.
In my opinion, the best test of both physical and mental strength is dodgeball. If played properly, dodgeball makes you run, and jump, and duck, but it also makes you think. You can’t just run up to the middle of the gym like Rambo and expect to take out the entire other team with one throw. In your head, you realize that it’s not just a free-for-all; it’s a methodical game that can easily be won with a little bit of strategy.
I’ll admit I’m a little biased, as dodgeball was my favorite part of any given gym class. Even when I got to high school and they started calling it “marshmallow fluff,” because I guess “dodgeball” was too aggressive for public school.
I’m asking you to really think about this. Compare push-ups to community service, which is what this school seems to think is physical education, to the incredible and freeing feeling of walking out into the fresh air and playing a nice healthy game of kickball.
I don’t want to sound too ridiculous, but I feel very strongly about this. It really makes me mad to have to spend my weekly hour of gym class in a classroom the size of large living room. To add insult to injury, a gym class is one credit. One.
What makes a writing intensive English course worth four credits, and weight training worth one? Gym class keeps you healthy, and young, and lively; a writing intensive course makes you rethink coming to college as you struggle through the third page of your ten-page research paper that both you and the teacher know will never make it to ten pages.
My point is simply that higher education schools, and society in general, has lost sight of what gym class is really about. It’s a small portion of your writing, reading, and learning-filled day dedicated to just being free.
Running around, laughing, and having fun are parts of our day that seem to get lost now a days. Everything is so serious: You have to go to class, you have to do your work, and you need to be successful in order to lead a happy life. False.
Live a little. Go outside, run around for an hour, or even just lie in the grass and let the stress of life go. That’s what gym class is for. It keeps us sane. It provides us with a break, however brief, from the rest of our lives. At least it used to…
