Over the course of my high school career, I have taken a regular gym class up until my senior year. Gym class for me has always been a class where I felt like I should be doing something more productive with my time. Although I understand that exercise is important, doing the same gym activities such as wallyball and 2-ball always kept me disengaged. After every gym class period, I was left feeling like I could have utilized that time studying or doing homework. With all of this being said, I am currently doing Contract PE.

Contract PE is a course where students independently work on an article at home and complete an exercise log once a week. It offers students the opportunity to fit more important classes in their schedule and to do exercises that benefit the individual student. The only requirements for students is to write a summary/reflection based on a small, health-related article (which usually takes me 10 minutes to do) and work out five days a week for 40 minutes. These things are due every Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Even though doing work outside of school might turn people off from taking this class, I would pick it over gym class every day because you don’t have to worry about changing, running the mile, and being put in a class with an assortment of students from 10-12 grade. 

All and all, I feel like everyone should consider taking Contract PE especially if you are someone who doesn’t like gym class. It has given me a class period where I got to pick another class that I enjoyed and it keeps me motivated to work out week to week. The only downside is you can only take Contract PE once, so I would recommend waiting until your senior year to pick this class.