As a new school year begins, freshmen all across the school are getting their first taste of high school P.E. As a not particularly athletic person, one of the hardest parts of my freshman year was gaining the motivation every other morning to run the mile knowing full well that by the end I would be ready to go back to bed. This undue stress and exhaustion made the day so much longer, and the worst part, I didn’t even choose to take the class. Although P.E. classes are mandatory by state law, students should have the choice to take the class later when it better fits into their schedule.

The school offers tons of great opportunities like debate and foreign languages all of which I think would have had a more lasting impact on my future. Freshman year is the time to figure out what you want to do with your time at Mill Valley, so it makes more sense to try a little bit of everything and learn what you really like.

I know I spent a lot of my freshman year taking prerequisite classes for future years. The problem was between activity classes and foreign languages I didn’t have enough room in my schedule to take many prerequisites. Without P.E., it would have been easier to take the courses I wanted.

Overall, I think P.E. is a great class for many freshmen. But between the toll that P.E. takes on some freshmen schedules and the better opportunities that the school offers it just makes more sense to not make P.E. a requirement freshman year.