Emily Erikson, Alessandra Lupo, Cormac O’Day, Lynn Rodriguez
For years, students of Fairfield Warde have been dreaming of a day when there would be no more gym or health. Starting in 2018, this dream will be coming true. Fairfield Public Schools has decided to scrap Physical Education and health classes from students’ schedules.
One of the main problems that students and faculty found with the gym periods was that they were too short, not leaving enough time to actually be physically active. Furthermore, they investigated the health curriculum only to find that every year, health classes cover the same topics, boring students.
Soon to graduate senior Bari Lipper says, “I wish this would have been implemented when I was a student.”
This change will now allow students to take an additional class and therefore look even better on their college applications. Gym and health have not positively impacted students’ grades at all, as all they do is show up on the transcript and not contribute to GPA. They simply were a cause for students to come to school, when they could be at home watching Game of Thrones, which is all the sex education students need. “This will make my senior year the best one yet! I am so happy with this decision,” says Yasmin Schrom, a current junior.
Two current seniors, Cormac O’Day and Sean Stewart, are upset they will never be able to reap the benefits of this new change. “Gym gets you sweaty during the day after you shower in the morning. Making it an elective is a good idea, but I’m sad that it didn’t happen sooner!” said Sean.
Students have so much stress from their classes that impact their GPAs, that they do not need the added stress of a non-graded graduation requirement. Many people will be upset about the loss of gym, however there will be new half-year electives to choose from as replacements, including but not limited to, Badminton, Yoga, and team games. These courses will be fun, and will give an easy A+ that can help boost students’ GPAs.
For those students now fortunate enough to experience life without graduation requirements such as Computer Information Systems, Gym, and health, this will make the Fairfield Warde experience that much better.