When I was a young and simple freshman, I accepted the fact that P.E would consist of my stepping on and off of rectangular blocks to the beat of music, or aimlessly hitting volleyballs that barely crossed the net. Now, an old and seasoned junior, I still stay at school on Wednesdays and Fridays aimlessly swatting birdies with a mini racket across a net.  

I am an independent athlete. I take dance classes between 15 and 25 hours per week, every week, throughout the school year.  This is a lot of exercise, and a lot of time, and I often wish independent athletes like me could get the same treatment as students who join Parker athletic teams: exemption.  I wish we could take advantage of an extra few hours a week to get our other obligations done.

Many of the school’s independent athletes– rowers, ice skaters, gymnasts, rock climbers, and other dancers–share my frustration.

During my first gym period of the year, I confidently strode through the Athletics hallway, ready to make the rational case for my exception. My request was promptly denied by the Chair of the P.E department.

In the winter of 2014, my freshman year, Student Government passed a proposal that allowed all Upper School students “participating in a Varsity or Junior Varsity Parker sport [to be] excused from Physical Education classes for the duration of their respective seasons.”  Today any student involved in Parker athletics, no matter their grade or stature on a team, is allowed to miss gym class. But I, with my double-digit weekly hours of classical ballet, do not get that same privilege.  

Here is the reason why, as I was told by a P.E. teacher last year: Asking to be exempt from gym is like saying that since you take a math class outside of school you should not have to enroll in math at Parker. Since Parker offers dance, I cannot substitute a class offered from a different institution. Even the independent athletes who participate in sports not offered at Parker, the teacher added, can only be exempt from gym for a single semester.

Really? I enrolled in Parker’s Intro to Dance my sophomore year to get a better sense of this argument. While it is true that I enrolled in an Introductory class as an advanced dancer, (perhaps for the dual art and gym credit), it turned out to be a great class. We built strength and learned technique- even put on a show in the spring.

Even with the skill and experience of the teacher, however, the 50-minute class hardly accomplished the same purpose as the three hour session that I then scrambled to as P.E. was finishing at 3:50 on Friday afternoons.  Students who take the Continuing (more advanced) Dance class at Parker also agree that their out-of-school regiments could not be interchangeable with the Parker course.

If the point of physical education classes in school is to assure that students are getting exercise, then the current policy doesn’t make sense. I am getting my fair share of exercise, certainly as much as a varsity or junior varsity athlete, and yet I am still required to take gym.

It seems to me there is another argument to be made in favor of insisting that all students P.E. classes. The once densely populated step, volleyball and floor hockey gym classes are now sparsely attended, a meek seven of us currently in badminton. This feels different from the cross-grade melting pot that I walked into my freshman year.

According to P.E teachers, gym is about more than staying fit- it’s about getting exposure to new types of exercise, and it completes the well-rounded character that the Parker student is supposed to be.

Some line has to be drawn regarding who is exempt from P.E, I understand, or there won’t be anyone left taking gym class.

The point is this: We have created a two-tiered system where some school athletes get a few extra hours in their week to get everything done, and some don’t. In the interest of fairness, the school should revisit their current policy and make P.E. exemption available to all qualifying athletic students.  Or perhaps we should go back to requiring all students to take gym.  I actually enjoy swatting birdies for a couple of hours each week.