To many Korean high school students, Physical Education (P. E.) class is a rare chance to exercise and relieve stress. However, because P. E. is one of the easiest subjects to pass, students tend to lose discipline during the class. Even schools underestimate the importance of P. E. and reduce the amount of time assigned to the subject or poorly organize P. E. curriculum. Therefore, P. E. is losing its compulsory status in many Korean high schools.

Students tend to think of P. E. less seriously than they think of other subjects. Doyoun Kyung (18) said she does not worry about her P. E. score, because “P. E. is not one of the main subjects necessary to get into good colleges” and she can “easily get an A.” Junghwa Ryu (18) added students “can pass P. E. even if they get scores deducted in several tests,” because the subject has high “given score,” which students can earn by coming to their class on time.

Even if some students are willing to eagerly participate in P. E. classes and think P. E. is crucial in their curriculum, schools assign too small amount of time for P. E. classes. Daeun Lee (19), who, as a class president, encouraged her classmates to participate more actively during P. E. classes, said “two hours of P. E. per week is too short for students to learn new sports.”  Hyunji Seo (19) said her school should “increase the time allocated to P. E. classes to more than three hours,” because “without P. E., students would have to sit and study all day.”

The lack of time devoted to P. E. is not the only problem. P. E. classes tend to be inefficient and disorganized compared to other classes. Inhui Hwang (19) said her P. E. teacher “needs to prepare a variety of sports” for his students to play, because practicing jump rope and volleyball all year, she could not learn any other sports. Supporting Hwang, Kyung said she lost interest in P. E., because her teacher “made his students play badminton the whole year.” Uninspiring curriculum is not the only issue; Ryu added P. E. teachers give “too much free time” that some students do not even play sports.

As students prioritize academic subjects over P. E. and high schools replace P. E. classes with “important subjects” colleges pay attention to, the value of P. E. is often overlooked,

권호정 (Hojung Kwon)
Grade: 3
한영외국어고등학교 (Hanyoung Foreign Language High School)