Ah, gym class; probably one of the most dreaded periods of the day for many high school students. Because honestly, who likes to get all sweaty and gross during a school day?

Recently, there has been some debate around whether or not it’s necessary to make-up gym classes if you miss a day. Of course, most of the students are on the side of not making up the classes, and as much as I want to be on the same side as the student body, I completely disagree with taking away the makeup policies for gym classes.

Students tend to make a joke out of gym classes, making fun of the teachers and activities that we do. Obviously it’s fine to have some fun during gym, but I think there’s a big difference between having fun during the class and making fun of the class. Although gym class isn’t necessarily as “hard” as all your other subject classes, it’s still considered a part of your curriculum.

The reason why a lot of students are complaining is because they believe that when we miss a class, we don’t have to make it up.

“So far, we are debating the issue in Student Government ourselves,” said senior Stephanie Knorr in an email that represents the opinion of student government. “On one side, gym is a lab grade, and you can miss some days without dropping a letter grade. On the other hand, if you miss a math class, you don’t have to make up a 42 minute math class…”

I completely disagree. When you miss a class, you’re missing a day of the curriculum. You have to make up the work done in class, any tests or quizzes and probably meet your teacher during a free period for any type of extra help. And, just like you miss the curriculum for other classes, you miss it for gym too. This is why we have to makeup the classes after school. I know a lot of us are lazy, and don’t want to spend our time in the cardio lab after school but I could say the exact same thing about other classes. I don’t want to spend my after school time in the testing center, or extra time at night making up worksheets I missed.

Although it’s sort of annoying to go out of your way to make up a gym class, you do it for every other class. I know this is hard to believe but the gym teachers/school aren’t against you. They aren’t trying to torture you by making you make up gym class, it’s just in your best interest. Remember that.