By: Magdalene Ko; News Editor
The mile run has always been disliked by all students. A recent Thunderbolt article explained the disadvantage of the mile, as well as complaints students have had. To their credit, it seems the school administration read and took the article to heart, for a significant shift in fitness requirements has been announced: the mile will no longer be required.
The administration stated they had not realized students were so unhappy with the mile requirements. “We had originally decided, in conjunction with our P.E. teachers, that mandating improvements on every mile would encourage students to focus and work hard during their classes. It seems this was not the result” came the public statement. The letter continued on to explain the details and psychology behind setting goals and working towards them. An analogy of the mile was valid: “Like in your English class, you’d want to get better on each essay, so at the end of the year, you can look back at your improvement”. Students need to push themselves to improve, and setting goals with repercussions and rewards are good motivators.
However, it is too much pressure for a student to push themselves to the max every single week. The unnecessary stress when students worry about their grade can even affect their performance in other classes. “I’m so happy the rules are changing, but I’m kinda disappointed I had to deal with it dragging down my entire GPA” said a sophomore. “It was annoying when we were focusing on a specific sport that week, and suddenly had to run a full mile despite warmup laps” explained Ryu Ohnogi. Most students enjoyed learning skills such as badminton and tennis. Katelyn Lam described her P.E. experience “I was never good at sports, but Ms. Tiziani spent flex helping me improve.” Although dedication and perseverance are necessary to improvement, such teaching is what helps students learn and grow.
The P.E. teachers-Mr. Moss, Ms. Mughannam, and Ms. Tiziani-have been dedicated to finding alternatives to the mile. They commented that although the mile definitely is not the best option, they have yet to find a suitable replacement. The mile is used as a measurement of physical fitness, so focusing only on sports wouldn’t have the same effect. As an added problem, many students would be at a disadvantage if they are compared with others, since the mile was just a competition with oneself. Some options are testing more heavily on skills during different units or increasing requirements on other physical activities, such as pushups and sit ups. Focusing specifically on workout routines, like during distance learning, is another option, probably the best one so far.
P.E. courses like PLT4M are geared specifically towards a classroom setting. For those who haven’t used it before, PLT4M provides routines of differing difficulty for students. It also includes videos explaining how to do each exercise, and is designed to help students slowly improve their physical fitness. Participating in these routines as a class will allow teachers to ensure students aren’t slacking off, as well as give tips and encouragement. Students will have access to the proper equipment and be able to discover workout mistakes easier. However, using PLT4M would limit time spent on other normal units, like wrestling and weight training.
This rule change has been joyous to students and incoming students alike. Since rearranging one of the most crucial parts of class will take some time, Mills is expected to take some time to try new options and discover which works best. The mile will still be run for at least a year, but the trial of replacements will be started as soon as possible. Good luck to all the students who have yet to take P.E.!
