When athletes are putting in at least eighteen hours of practice a week to represent the school, why are we making them walk around the gym or toss a ball during PE? Instead of tossing a ball, we should be giving them a study hall to boost grades and mental health.
Some states allow exemptions for student athletes, but New York is not on that list. Why is that? New York State Education Law Section 803 is a law that requires students to take a PE class every semester in order to graduate. This law was introduced in 1916 and has only been slightly modified since then.
Illinois was one of the first states to exempt PE for in-season athletes. Now, more and more states are reconsidering how helpful gym class is for students already playing sports. Student athletes have about fifteen to twenty hours a week of athletics, including practice, intense matches, and travel back and forth to and from games. A study titled “Prevalence of Stress Amongst High School Athletes” found that ninety-one percent of high school student-athletes report some level of stress associated with balancing sports and academics.
Sleep is the most important thing in helping to heal your body, so if an athlete has to stay up late doing homework, they are hurting their play and their health, not to mention their education.
Also, athletes typically significantly far exceed their recommended daily exercise already, so that more exercise in the form of PE can raise the risk of injury. A fourty-seven-minute study hall in place of PE would recover almost two hours of homework time during the week for student athletes, allowing for the students to complete more of their work during the school day.
A regular student finishes their day at about 4 PM and can start doing homework; athletes get home at about 7 PM or even 9 to 10 PM when there is a game. Why is New York putting its athletes at a huge academic and athletic disadvantage compared to the other schools across the country?
Now, picture a student athlete playing in a rival championship game, putting in everything they’ve got to represent their school and to get them the win. They come home and have to make a whole US history timeline, but their mind and body are extremely sore and tired. Now, picture them at 2 PM doing this timeline in their study hall, focused, alert, and ready to get this done. A student-athlete needs to succeed at both being a student and being an athlete, and right now, this PE requirement is putting them at a disadvantage.
You must be thinking: How do so many other states do this so easily? There are actually many different ways other states do this across the country. For example, Illinois exempts PE class for athletes who are specifically in season. So if they play football in the fall and basketball in the winter, they will be exempt for the first semester and half of the second semester. However, they will be put into PE right when their seasons end.
In states with exemptions, these athletes have big advantages in trying to get into college or in winning scholarships because of the extra time the school gives them to study and complete their work. There are additional benefits: By implementing a study hall in place of PE for student athletes, it is likely that athletic performance at competitions and games will improve as a result of the students’ ability to get more sleep.
Overall, athletes on average aren’t improving their health from gym class. In fact, they might even be hurting it. PE forces student athletes to waste time when they should be focusing and using their brain. People who practice athletics intensely benefit from rest and recovery, so a study hall as a replacement for PE would enable them to relax, to get their work done before practice or a game, and to be a better student. Our high school will benefit from this change because it will improve GPAs, raise graduation rates, and increase the chance of winning a title.
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