Gym class was required all throughout middle school, but when I got to high school it was only required for freshman year. Was it required for you all throughout high school?
Gym class was required all throughout middle school, but when I got to high school it was only required for freshman year. Was it required for you all throughout high school?
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Freshman year with optional electives in the following years (sometimes you could only do these if you had already completed other pre-requisites in other subjects).
I only did it for freshman and sophomore years.
I think we had to do 4 semesters. When those semesters were didn’t matter. Usually people did two freshman year then two senior year, so they could have an easy senior year.
My school only required it for 2 years
I had to take it all 4 years but at some point around my Junior year they gave up. We just walked laps for 40 minutes.
Not through all of high school, no. It was an option, but you didn’t have to pick it. I think there was maybe a required class early in high school, but it’s been a while since I was that old, lol.
I think I only had it the first couple of years. I don’t remember though.
I never had to take gym class in high school.
It was a graduation requirement to pass gym (that is, show up and put on a uniform) for all 4 years of high school. Some people could not bother to even do that. This was early 2000s.
We had to take one full year of gym sometime during high school. It was common for people to take a half year during freshman year and a half year during sophomore year. Rarely, someone would take a full year during freshman year. Even more rarely, someone would put it off and be stuck taking it during junior or senior year.
If you took enough other classes to fill your schedule it wasn’t required, but if you had an open period you were required to take PE. I hated PE so I made sure to always have a full schedule.
First two years of high school, but one quarter freshman year was Health and one quarter of sophomore year was driver’s ed.
I was in high school in the 60s and we had it all four years.
We had to do two years of PE but if you did a sport it fulfilled that requirement
If you didn’t play a sport you had to fulfill sports credits other ways. It wasn’t called gym tho like it was in elementary school
We only had to do 2 years in high school. It was optional junior and senior year–they offered classes like weight training and all sorts of other physical education classes that were all pretty fun
57, NJ-yes (I think the graduation year and the state matter for this)
In New Jersey, gym and health is (or at least was when I was in school) required for all 4 years. Usually it was half a year of each, with the topics in health changing each year.
In Illinois we did, but I moved to Texas during high school, and they didn’t. My kids are in Kentucky and they have a rotating week each of gym, art, music, and stem. My son is in middle school and gym is an elective, but he’s in band and the gifted program, so he doesn’t get any additional electives.
When I was in high school we did four classes for the first half of the year and another four classes for the second half of the year.
If I remember correctly we had gym every year but only for half of the year.
Or maybe I chose to take a gym class every year. It was 20 years ago, things are a little foggy.
A year and a 1/2 of gym then that other 1/2 of the 2nd year it was a health class.
Yes, gym was required every year of school.
Yes!
Bowling at the Bowling Alley down the street, cross-country skiing, swimming, gymnastics, etc.
A few years ago. When we hosted a ln exchange student from Helsinki, Finland, we were shocked to discover there are 0 extracurricular activities at the school, no sports, etc.
She did not know how to ride a bicycle, how to ski, or how to play any musical instruments or sports.
Yeah, all 4 years, but that was 50 years ago.
Illinois requires all 4 years.
Same experience. Only had to do freshman year, they had sex ed tied in to the same class.
The county I lived in also required a specific type of medical class where you would learn CPR and other things. I grew up in FL.
I think I had it 9th grade and half of 10th grade. I don’t remember being in gym after that.
10th and 11th grade I had it but I don’t think I did in 12th.
My school offered other options. Marching band and ROTC (a military-based leadership class) both counted as half a physical education (p.e.) credit (of which, I cant remember how many we needed to graduate). Since I was in both all 4 years, I had more than enough p.e. credits to satisfy the requirement (iirc, we only needed 1 credit for the 4 years)
Sports classes were considered different than just “gym,” so those were naturally counted as well. It was broken into p.e. and Athletics, the latter being a generic class for whatever sport was being focused at the time, be it football, soccer, basketball, baseball, etc., while the former was… well, im not sure what it was exactly. A class to meet the requirements for those uninterested in the other options, I guess
No just two.
My school required 4 semesters, so most people did one semester per year. I was able to take two semesters in my senior year so that I could fit in an extra class during my junior year.
I think we could also fulfill the requirement by playing a varsity sport, but I don’t know the details of that policy.
(This was in Connecticut, and I graduated in 2017.)
Yep. All 4 years
Yes
Ages ago, I had to take it all four years and that school district still does.
My kids did not even have to take gym class in High School.
Yes. Had to take gym all four years.
Just had to do 2 semesters of it. It didn’t have to be freshman year, but most people did it their freshman year.
Freshmen were required to take general PE. You needed another year that could be in a particular activity. I did track.
I was only required to take one semester in high school.
IIRC, I think we had to take it 3 years. Most folks took 4 because it was an easy A and didn’t have homework or tests to study for.
Yes. All four years despite being in HS sports.
My boys do not have to take gym class as long as they are actively participating in a HS sport that semester.
i had to only do two years of pe
No. We had to take it freshman and sophomore years. Freshman year also reserved one quarter for health class. Sophomore year reserved a quarter for health class and a quarter for drivers education (just the classroom portion).
My school offered “advanced PE” for upper classmen but it was an elective.
My kids are in HS now and they don’t need to take it all 4 years. They can even take summer PE so they don’t need to take it over the school year, but it’s difficult to get into due to the demand. My daughter was also able to get out of a semester of PE because she played a sport.
That last part would have been nice for me, as I played 4 seasons of sports per year.
First 2 years I think. Gym space and replaced with an elective.
We chose six half-quarter long sports that would be our classes. Two were required freshman year, then you could do the other four whenever.
Yes and it fucking sucked and I hated it.
We call it P.E.
2 years, and you did not receive a grade (there was no academic content).
It was Go/No-Go based on attendance.
There was some requirement for a certain number of semesters of gym, but there were a bunch of ways to satisfy it. You could play a varsity or JV sport. You could cheerlead or do drill team or take a dance class or do marching band too. I think hardly anyone actually did a PE class when there were more fun options for both people who liked sports and people who liked more artsy things that involved movement.
Yes, all four years. I graduated high school in 1976. A physical education class was required my first two years of college.
When I was in HS, the state law required a couple of PE credits. Those could be fulfilled by athletics, ROTC, Marching Band and Cheerleading.
At my school, I only had to have two years of physical education. I was on the precision dance team for one year and then for one semester I was in the band. finally, I worked in one of the coaches offices for gym credit.
Yes. But half the year was gym and half was health class. And health was basically beginning biology.
3 semesters only were required. But a lot of kids took more as electives. You could take general gym, yoga/pilates, aerobics, and weightlifting as electives.
I took gym half a year in high school. Most people do it their freshman year but I did it sophomore year because my mom really wanted me to take band in addition to choir and French my freshman year (last chair don’t care)
No, but I went to Catholic school (late 90s). If we were in a performing fine art (marching band, choir) it was waived. Marching Band was a very big deal at my school. I was in choir.
It was legally required in public schools at the time.
It was required for all 3 years of high school. High School was 10-12 grade; even if we were in sports.
No, I took sociology in place of the gym requirement in high school.
There is often a sports exemption. If you are playing sports after school you don’t need to take PE.
Southern CA – 4 semesters but it didn’t have to be traditional “gym class”. Freshman year I did dance PE and sophomore year I did yoga lol
Yes, late 2000s, it and health class were required for all four years to graduate. In my school, 70 was the passing grade for all subjects.
I didn’t take gym at all
I switch schools halfway through. At a private school they didn’t require or have a high school gym class but they required you to spend 2/3 of the year on a sports team, with one option being weight training if you didn’t want to do any other sport. And then at a public school they required gym every year but only for half the year. The other half you had health.
We had to do two full years. Thankfully marching band counted as PE and Fine Arts as long as you did all 4 years.
I did marching band all four years of high school, which counted as PE credit, thank god.
We had to do three semesters. I did one semester freshman year, and then summer PE which was actually way more fun and interesting than regular PE, which got me out of it my sophomore year.
I was supposed to take 4 semesters, but I took one and waived the rest through sports
My school only required 1 year.
no I think I just had to take it in 9th grade. but high school was 20 years ago so I could be misremembering.
Yes.
No. It was required every day in elementary and middle school but when you got to high school, there were activities and classes that could sub in for your physical education credit. These were things like team sports, marching band, dance, and show choir.
They’re still was a gym class, but most people tried to find an actual activity so they didn’t have to go.
Only freshman year and we could do it the summer before school started instead of during the school year.
We had to take 3 semesters
Was required every year when I was in HS. They had gym cards to take attendance. I quickly figured out that if I pulled my card from the stack at the start of the semester and put it back on the final day I would be recorded as absent only on the first and last day. So I never went to gym.
One of the gym teachers figured this out in my final year but he found it amusing and didn’t report me.
We had to take 2 years but you could take a sport instead and they were fairly generous with their definition of sport.
We did take it in middle school but it was actually really fun, they had a lot of creative units. I remember we did a few international dances, a circus skills unit, track/field sports like high jump, and there was some random historical stuff like they did a medieval unit.
High school it was a joke though. We just sort of hung around outside in gym clothes. Once a week we had to “run” a mile which meant under 20 minutes. In practice you could walk it with your friends as long as you occasionally broke into a light jog but every week there were people that didn’t complete it, not because they physically couldn’t but because they just didn’t give a shit. And I will admit that one of our friends had a physical disability accommodation that meant she only had to do a half mile and we would just walk off with her sometimes and no one ever said anything.
PE all four years required by state law then
If you did a sport, then no.
Yes, and pass all four years.
No. I didn’t take gym in high school at all, I did one year of band instead.
Bay Area of California in the 90s it was required for all four years – unless you were graduating early. Also required that we could swim for a certain amount of time and float for a certain amount of time.
Gym was optional my senior year.
Where I grew up in Virginia we needed two semesters of PE and two semesters of health
I went to a charter school with a focus on the performing arts, so instead of gym I had dance, but yes. I was also required to do art, choir, and theatre, but thankfully I was able to drop band for a second art period.
4 full years. I almost didn’t graduate because I was short a semester of PE.
It’s required in Illinois to have PE until graduation. I got an exemption my junior and senior year because I had a fall and spring sport.
Only had to do one semester I got out of it by tripping in gym with a substitute and braking a bone! Got enrolled in an online version that I lied my ass off in cause I physically couldn’t walk for most of the semester let alone do intense physical exercise
High school in the seventies in Iowa and PE every semester was a state requirement.
We had to do 2 semesters, there were different options you could choose from One was required to be swimming unless you passed a swim test. And marching band could count as your PE credits
I grew up in East Tennessee and you either took gym for four years or you were in the band, which was a class that replaced gym. I have no idea to this day why this was seen as a 1 for 1 replacement for gym class but it created a stark divide between people in the band and everyone else. The band was also huge, about 400 strong in a school of 1,000.
Yes. One nine week class a year.
Not for my high school. However, if you played a sport during 9th and 10th, you had to attend class which would usually take place before practice. 11th and 12th could do whatever tf they wanted as long they showed up to practice, which would count as their attendance.
Yeah but I think it was elective. Advanced PE and/or weight training.
My high school was 10-12th, and gym was required every year. We had a six day schedule so for example 1-3-5 would be gym and 2-4-6 would be something else. M1 T2 W3 Th4 F5 M6 T1 W2…
Yes, all four years.
I had 1 semester of gym freshman year & sophomore year and a weightlifting class for 1 quarter.
I did it for 2 years, freshman and sophomore year
Don’t remember if they were required those 2 years or if people just knocked those 2 years out then. Probably the former since I recall most people in there being in my class.
We only had to have 1 year of required gym class but I played football all 4 years
I don’t know if it was required all 4 years, but it was an easy A so I took it all 4 years.
I also took woodshop from 6th grade through 12th, not only for the easy A, but because I loved it.
Mine was only 3 years. My last year, I took my last period off, so I could leave early, but I had to go to the nearby community college for additional classes.
We had to do a full year freshman year that was general gym curriculum (swimming, basketball, weight training, etc) and then one semester that was an elective of whatever we wanted. I did the bullshit one all the lazy kids did, “recreational sports”, which included high-octane activity like croquet, bocce ball, and badminton.
We only had to do 1 year
Yes my state requires PE all four years. You can get waivers for medical reasons or being in marching band or a few other alternatives.
I think we had to do 1 year of gym or 4 of marching band?
Yes. At my high school it was required but they offered electives that counted toward the requirement and usually near the end of the day. I took Yoga my first year which would consist of stretching and end the school day with quiet relaxation led by the teacher. The next year I did tai chi, then weights, and and hiking the next. The last year I scorekept for baseball so I got credit also. I went to a prep school.
Other options had sports teams (with tryouts for some).
Freshman year only, but as a small rural high school in Nebraska our sports participation levels were very high as it was the only way to field teams.
I only had to take 2 semesters which equals 1 year. Frankly they were a joke and didn’t teach anything about basic physician fitness. Instead we had to learn the rules of and play games like badminton, bowling, and basketball
Yes but if you were in a varsity sport or if you had a health exemption you got out of it and got to just do study hall. Sophomore year we had one semester of heath class that replaced gym but other than that I was in gym all through school
College prep school, 0 gym class. Wasn’t even available. Everyone was expected to do a sport but wasnt required. Did 1 year of swimming (had done YMCA swim team from 6->12). But that was back in the days of LOTS of chlorine in the pools and I just couldnt stand the chlorine anymore, so just the 1 year… A bunch of started lifting weights in 2nd year though.
Yep. Late 60’s/early 70’s. Even had to take summer school in it after i got hurt in the gymnastics session and hed to spend 2 hrs per day for 3 weeks in summer school doing gynastics. Our children in the aughts got to pass on gym class as they were all varsity athletes.
I think it was 3 yrs. I don’t remember doing it my Senior year.
We had to do 1 semester but I took it as an online class. This was in 2006.
There wasn’t much choice. Had to take it every year. In fact when I was a Junior in 1977, I was taking 6 academic classes, so I had to take gym with the Freshman, which actually worked out pretty well, with the ex-Marine gym teacher treating me like an assistant, and though I was never a great athlete, I looked pretty good with the Freshman, and that helped me meet a bunch of Freshman girls on decent terms.
Did two semesters my freshman year then there was a summer school for PE you could take before sophomore year so you wouldn’t have to take it during school
2 were required and 2 were optional
We were required to have after-school sports all through high school. Club soccer was really popular.
I can’t remember if we needed one or two years. I took it freshman year and then joined the swim team sophomore year (and remained on the team through senior year) so I graduated with 4 years of phys ed credits.
We had to take 1 semester of Health and 1 semester of Fitness. And the fitness requirements could be waived if you were in marching band or athletic sports.
Only freshman and sophomore years.
nope. I took one semester.
Yes
But my senior year we did 3 days of PE and 2 days of health class for those 2 semesters
No, we just had to get four physical education credits to graduate, which really only equated to two credits per semester. Freshman year was required, so those credits were easy. After that, there were a whole bunch of classes you could sign up for to get the other two. I did indoor and outdoor recreation classes simply because they were fun (archery, swimming, canoeing, etc ).
both high schools i went to it was only required for one semester.
I remember being in gym all year, for all 4 years. I also played sports year round.
It was sort of sex segregated as in the boys got to actually play basketball or whatever and the girls just got to walk in circles or something-The 90s.
I also had a few semester requirement in college as well.
I took four years of PE and also played soccer and hockey.
Yes, although 1/4 of every year was spent in Health class instead of gym.
I was done by senior year. It really sucked because I went from a private school to a public school, and they had different curricula. My private school said I was already done with PE, but my public school made me take another semester. So I had to take a coed PE class junior year. As a clumsy, odd teenage girl, it was absolutely no fun.
Mine didn’t have gym class, really. Most people did team sports, though there were a few exceptions like a yoga class or a fitness class that was basically supervised weight training. We had to do 10/12 athletic seasons, and the two you took off couldn’t be freshman or sophomore.
I believe P.E. was required in 9th grade, Health was required in 10th grade, and then one additional semester of an advanced P.E. class was required sometime in 11th or 12th grade, like basketball, weight lifting, swimming, or gym.
Everyone had to do freshman PE but after that it was considered an elective, with an option between PE and body fitness which had a bigger emphasis on weight lifting and was mostly the year round athletes
We had to do two years. Most people did freshman and sophomore years, but when I was a sophomore I had some juniors in my class. Just some people who had pushed it back a year because of scheduling conflicts, I guess.
2 years, which nearly everybody did in 9th and 10th grade. In 9th grade it was 3 quarters of gym and 1 quarter of health (all bundled under “phys ed”) and then in 10th grade it was 2 quarters gym, 1 quarter health, 1 quarter driver’s ed
I went to an all boys school—daily physical activity was a requirement in order to prevent us from descending into “Fight Club” daily. It didn’t always work.
Every year from 1st-12th grade. It rotated days, in highschool it was usually every other day.
I don’t know about now. Different school districts have different requirements, and I think a lot of them have cut out physical education completely in order to drill the students endlessly on math and vocabulary.
I did 3 quarters freshman year with the 4th being health, and 2 quarters my sophomore year with the other 2 being health and drivers ed.
I got waived out of it because I was in band. Granted, we only marched home football games and two parades each year, but I certainly didn’t mind not having to run a mile every Wednesday with the kids in gym or having to change into a swimsuit in front of my peers. I think it was required for everyone else, though. The poor orchestra kids had to take early bird P.E., which meant they had to get to school an hour early.
2 years of PE/Health out of 4. Freshman and sophomore’s did it, upper classmen didnt
I only took gym freshman year (2015)
Required all four years.
After my first year in HS they allowed marching band to count as PE, so that was all for me.
We had to do gym for freshman and sophomore years. But we could take classes in place of PE junior and senior years.
I graduated in the 90s and suffered through the required 4 trimesters of gym class and 2 trimesters of health class (2 years total.) There were other elective classes geared towards athletes like strength training, kinesiology and sports psychology… but I wasn’t remotely interested in them.
I was at a private school so likely not representative, but every freshman had to attend a health class, and after that there was no more gym/health classes but rather a physical activity requirement. It could be fulfilled by joining a sports team (soccer, tennis, track and field, etc), participate in an intramural sport/activity (like badminton or hiking club), or another extracurricular deemed to involve enough exercise (dance or musical theatre).
All 4 miserable years of gym.
Mandatory to our equivalent 11th grade. Under the Scottish system people only do S6 / 12th grade to do exams for university entry
Yes. And it’s still required for a diploma in my district, it’s a half credit, all 8 semesters (on alternating days). There are a few exemptions, but you can’t get out of it completely.
I had to take freshman gym and then senior year they made you do a “physical” credit but it could be from a huge list of stuff: weight lifting, a health class, swimming, track, etc.
Never had to take gym in any year I went to school.
Yes, Illinois requires all four years. We got out of it for half a semester for driver’s education, but other than that everyone was always in gym. No exceptions for sports or band/choir or tight academic schedules like is allowed some places.
We got graded too. At the start and end of each semester you’d do a series of physical tests (timed mile, pullups, pushups, shuttle run, grip strength, vertical jump, etc). If you didn’t dress for 4 or 6 classes in a semester they’d just fail you and it would screw up people’s GPAs all the time.
When I was in grade 8, it wasn’t required from grade 9-12, but then I moved and it was required at my new school for grade 9. And that year they changed the requirements to require it in grade 10 also, and so on for the rest of my high school experience- so I had to take PE all the way up.
My only 2 required classes for all 4 years if high school were gym and lunch.
Freshman year only 1 semester.
We had PE/ Health for the first two year required, the first year one quarter was health and 3 were PE, second year 1 quarter was health, 1 was drivers ed, and 2 were PE
Class of 88. Gym was required for three years with it being optional for senior year (my brother did this and broke his collarbone playing volleyball). Gym was an every other day with study hall (freshman) or free hour alternating.
Just once in high school. You could take additional classes for your electives, but only one credit was required for diploma.
2 semesters so 1 school year and it could be taken at any grade majority take it freshman year though.
I started high school in 2010.
I think I had to do 3 or 3.5 years, but it’s been many years. I feel like my kids have to do 4
I went to a (secular) private school and you had to take gym during seasons you weren’t doing a sport, and you had to do at least one season of a sport at some point in your 4 years (most people did bowling). I did three different sports so I never took gym.
I think so but I played baseball so during baseball season, my gym class time, I didn’t have to participate and could use that time how I wanted, which was usually doing any homework etc, so I never took a book home from January to may
When I was there, we were only required to do 2 semesters. I believe they changed it to 1 semester either in my senior year or after I left?
We were allowed to take more gym classes if we could fit them in our schedule, though.
We had to do two years of regular PE, freshman and sophomore. After that they were elective, but they had a several different types of classes like weights, advanced PE, etc.
My school had an option for either band or P.E. I was in the band, so I never stepped foot in the gym.
In St. Louis public schools, it was a requirement for all 4 years, but in Catholic high-school, it was not required. I attended Catholic 2 years, and public school the last 2 years.
i only took it in my senior year
Gym class was a requirement for a semester but you could get out of it if you took another year of language or if you took band. A few other classes got you out of it too but I forgot which.
When I started high school we needed 1 physical education credit for the entire 4 years. So I took 1 quarter of freshman gym.
The next year they changed the policy to require more credits (I think 4 total), but they grandfathered existing students in so I still only needed 1 P.E. credit to graduate.
I had everything set up to graduate a year early, all my credits except i needed to take four years of gym.