ENC students who are not varsity athletes on campus but are still involved in physical activities should be given PE credit. ENC’s PE classes only last for half a semester and count for just 0.5 credits. For some, that class can quickly become an unnecessary inconvenience, especially if they already are involved in other athletic activities. Further, the class can easily interfere with academics.
Intramural sports should count for PE credit. Students playing intramural sports end up putting in about the same amount of time—and probably even more effort—as students enrolled in PE courses.
Weight training is a course that is barely supervised. The only requirement is to show up at the scheduled time and sign the attendance sheet. But what about students who already have an exercise commitment? They end up putting in double the exercise time.
One of my friends recently finished training for a 5k race. Her original PE class was scheduled for 8 a.m. Unfortunately, she is not a morning person, so she would accomplish nothing for the class and need to go back to the gym at night to get in a good workout. The PE class ended up being a waste of time. She should have just been able to get credit for training and completing the 5k.
At my high school, students were given the option to record the hours they put into a sport outside of school to get PE credit. I took advantage of this system since I was already actively involved in dance. Every other week, we were required to hand in a sheet that had our hours of practice signed by the instructor or supervisor. With a few alterations, this system could also work well for ENC and would certainly benefit busy students.