PE Requirement Extended to 4 years

Thegraduation requirement for Physical Education has been extended from two years to four after a vote conducted by the district. The San Mateo Union High School District Board (SMUHSD) shared the news last week and released some information regarding this decision. Board members have reportedly unanimously voted in favor of this rule change, claiming these extra two years of PE will greatly benefit students.

This change will go into effect immediately. Current Freshmen and Sophomores can expect to see PE on their course schedule for next year.

Current Juniors and Seniors will be expected to attend summer school PE classes in order to complete all the credits necessary to graduate.

This of course means that the 220 credits previously required to graduate have now become 240, and current seniors won’t be given their high school diploma until they complete the summer courses and meet the credit requirement.

Frustrated senior Joana Almohtaseb shared, “I just don’t understand how they could have made this decision so late into our high school years. It’s not fair of them to spring these required classes on us just a few months before we were set to graduate.”

The SMUHSD Board has released details on what these two years will entail. New units will be added including cricket and curling. Skateboarding, scootering, and rollerblading will also be added to the curriculum, putting the skate park to good use. Additionally, hula-hooping, jump-roping, and hopscotching units will be taught, promising to reconnect students with their child-

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The Mills Thunderbolt hood hobbies. Lastly, this extension of classes will allow PE teachers to expand on prior units. The previous time slotted for swim unit only allowed students to learn the basics of swimming, now, students will also receive lifeguard training and swim lessons from Micheal Phelps himself. Similarly, previous first-aid lessons gave students the chance to be CPR certified, now teachers are planning to use these extra two years of classes to allow students to receive medical degrees.

Students don’t seem excited about these new units with the general agreement on campus being that they’re pointless and tedious. Sarah Lam (11) shared, “I’d been looking forward to taking artistic elective classes next year, but now I need to worry about meeting this new credit requirement instead. The PE courses don’t really include anything that interests me and I’m not looking forward to it at all.”

There has been a different response from school administrators. Since the news was released, many other schools in the country have seen the wisdom in the decision of the SMUHSD Board and followed its lead. College Board itself has also adapted to this new, popular change and they’ve announced a new AP class, Advanced Placement Physical Education, or simply AP PE. Fourth-year PE students will be permitted to take this class and although all the details haven’t been sorted yet, College Board gave some insight on what taking this class will look like. They seem to believe that AP PE will take students from a school-sports-team level to an Olympic-level in 30 different sports. The AP exam will consist of a 50page written essay on pickleball and competitions for different athletic feats and sports. A full grade of 5 will only be granted to students who can run a mile in under 4.30 minutes It seems everyone is looking forward to these new PE classes except for the students required to take them. Unfortunately for them, the SMUHSD Board seems dead set on this decision and there’s no getting out of it. So Juniors and Seniors better dig out their old PE uniforms!* .