Mira Costa should modify its physical education program to focus more heavily on specialized athletic topics, rather than general requirement PE topics.
All students attending a California public high school are required to fulfill four semesters of PE to graduate through participation in either a sport or PE class. In addition, all students are required to pass the state-mandated fitness test once in their high school careers, regardless of their choice of sport or PE class. While this system attempts to ensure fitness for every students, a more specialized approach would maintain the same standards of fitness training while keeping kids more attentive and interested at the same time.
The requirement to test students for their physical abilities with a series of athletic examinations is a necessity to ensure the health of high school students. However, many active students can pass the test without any guidance from a professional. Those students should, therefore, be offered a wider variety of PE courses to either hone their skills in a certain athletic topic, like strength training, or develop an interest in a new topic.
Unlike conventional classes whose curriculums advance based on knowledge gained each year, PE curriculum does not vary much from year to year. Because of this, students who are consistently physically healthy often do not learn new information from these classes.
PE teacher Theresa Tower started specialized PE classes, yoga and weight training PE two years ago, and she said the popularity of these classes has increased dramatically. There are now more students wanting to take Yoga PE then there is class space. The most popular and successful classes have been these specialized classes. They are an entertaining and wise use of resources and also fulfill the state requirement. This would allow teachers to advise students on healthy habits while students achieve mastery of a single topic.
PE courses on specialized athletic topics also offer a middle ground for a large group of students who don’t play on high school sports teams. New courses that would be made available, for example basketball PE, would offer students who can’t make the team a chance to progress athletically in a specific topic. Instead of being put in a general PE course that would leave them disinterested, they could invest in a sport or topic they would enjoy and benefit much more from.
Tower believes this plan to add more specialized courses is extremely realistic and easy to achieve given that students are willing to take specialized courses. They could be offered as either year-long or semester-long classes.
Within the guidelines of state requirements, Costa should adapt specialized athletic courses to instill interest in students.
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