Should PE be compulsory in every high school

(YES)

I am currently in the first grade of high school at a public school in Slovakia. PE is compulsory both in
middle and high schools here. I have been attending PE twice a week for more than 10 years. PE has
taught me and my classmates a lot of useful skills. It helped us to get to know new sports and try
them out. Another very useful thing is that I got to know my classmates much better, the team spirit
of our class has improved significantly and a lot of my classmates learned to be disciplined. A big part
of my classmates does not attend any extra curriculum sports and the best way to keep these
students fit is to keep PE compulsory for all high school students.

Moreover, PE is one of the key things that keeps high school students fit. The fact that students are
still in the process of developing means that we need to provide beneficial activities for their health
and body. Exercise not only improves overall body condition but also allows us to have a better
quality of life, and be more efficient which means studying harder. With exercise, our body is
prepared for any type of physical activity, our stamina improves and our body is protected from
basic injuries which occur in everyday life. However, even more dangerous than basic injuries is
stress. Academic stress has been linked to a variety of negative effects, including ill health, anxiety,
depression, and poor academic results. “Academic stress same as normal stress is one of the leading
causes of heart diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity.” Harvard Health Publishing.
These are one of the most serious problems that often ruin one’s life so, if we do not treat them
immediately, they could ruin the lives of young students. However, “Exercising 120 minutes every
week reduces stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, and it also stimulates the production
of endorphins.” Harvard Health Publishing. PE remarkably reduces all of these health issues and
replaces them with positive effects.

In addition, exercising does not only improve health but also brings new opportunities for students
to exercise. The fact that PE is compulsory leads to a high number of students who attend these
lessons. However, if PE was not mandatory the attendance would immediately worsen and the
group of students would be very small so they could not play a lot of sports. This would impact new
possibilities to play sports that require more players and PE would slowly lose its point. On the other
hand, with more students it is much easier to conduct miscellaneous activities, students will have
bigger possibilities to try out new sports, and maybe even start doing some of the sports actively
because it is fun in PE lessons. We would not only accomplish our plans to make students exercise,
but we would also motivate them to start exercising actively.
Moreover, the next thing you could gain from PE besides being healthy and having new
opportunities to exercise is the skill to work in a team. As we all know teamwork is one of those skills
that are a must. I know that in high school it is not a priority because mostly you work alone.
However, in universities or even in our upcoming lives this skill is something that would be of great
benefit to have but a great disadvantage not to master. But how is PE connected to the development
of teamwork? So, the whole idea of PE is to exercise, more specifically to play sports. Most of them
are team sports so the skill is developed in a fun way. The fact that it is fun speeds up the
improvement of the skill. Moreover, it raises the team spirit of the whole class because students
need to cooperate in order to win and this leads to getting to know each other better. These things
that PE teaches them are very important because they lead to better cooperation between students
and mainly the improvement of teamwork.

Concludingly, compulsory PE improves high school students' skill to work in a team. Affects their
health plus prevents before diseases, obesity, and diabetes. Their attendance motivates other
students to join them and maybe even start being active in sports. Finally, the impact of leaving PE
compulsory has far more benefits than, if PE was not compulsory and that is why PE should be
compulsory in every high school.