by Sam E. Jones

Created on: September 16, 2010

While a lot of adults have bad memories of gym class in high school, they likely forget the more positive stuff; things such as learning how different sports work, or what it feels like to work together on something as a team; or even how nice it was to sometimes just get out of the classroom and do something else for awhile.

These are all good reasons to have gym class in school and why it’s important for it to continue.

With more and more children growing up out of shape and overweight, it’s almost criminal to think about taking away gym class as well. Kids need to move around occasionally; they need to learn how their bodies work, and to find out if they have any physical abilities. They need to get out of the regular classrooms too, because kids can only be expected to sit listening to someone else talk for so long.

Gym class is important because it’s where kids learn how different sports games are played, what the rules are and how to enjoy watching them just as much as playing them. This is all a part of growing up and becoming part of a society, rather than growing up as a person that spends their time alone doing things apart from everyone else, which is what kids are finding is their easiest option more and more often.

Gym class is also important because it gets kids to interact with one another in positive physical ways. They learn to work together, to touch each other in appropriate ways, to communicate in effective ways and finally, to truly understand the concept of winning and losing. Without gym class, many kids first learn about touching someone else either through fighting or in intimate ways with members of the opposite gender. Neither is a really suitable means for providing teaching kids how to function well in the world.

It’s also important that kids learn about winning and losing, because these are things they will see often throughout their lives; thus, it’s good they learn about how to deal with and react to both while still in their formative years.

And finally, gym class is important in schools because it lays a strong foundation for young people to learn about how to respect their bodies. In gym class they learn what exercise is and what it can give them; they learn how diet impacts their ability to do what they want to do, and how learning to make better choices can help them to lead better, more productive and happier lives.

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