Some people believe that the best way to improve the general well-being of schoolchildren is to make physical education compulsory in all school. Others, however, think that this would have a little effect on overall health and that other measures...

It is acknowledged that sports play a pivotal role in our lives. However, the impact of physical education on student health remains a polarizing topic. While a school of thought holds that making PE an obligatory subject is the optimal method in other to improve the general health of schoolchildren, others claim that this has just a small impact. I can therefore only partly agree with the assertion that PE should be compulsory.

It is understandable why some people advocate for all schools to have physical education as one of the main subjects. First, sports help to boost both physical and mental health of schoolchildren. For example, when students do exercises frequently, they will not only prevent themselves from severe health diseases, but their cognitive skills will also be improved. American schools perfectly exemplify this situation. American students are trained earnestly in sports, and they have physical education lessons pretty often. Therefore, they look healthier in both strength and physique in comparison with the Asian ones who do not take exercises seriously. For these reasons, it seems sensible that making physical education obligatory in school is the optimum way to improve schoolchildren’s health.

On the other hand, I am of the opinion that the aforementioned method would bring adverse effects on students in some cases. The fact that schoolchildren nowadays have a host of subjects to study leads to a manifold of problems. For instance, there are a lot of assignments for them to do and cramming is not an unfamiliar thing when it comes to examination. Therefore, they show a tendency to being fatigued, stressed and less active. If schools force children to do exercises, it will be hard for them to focus on the other subjects that are more crucial, such as Maths, literature, etc. Moreover, the state of being healthy does not only depend on exercising but also on people’s diet. It can be seen that young people in this modern age are more likely to digest a lot of junk food which contains harmful substances for their health. This less nutritious food may cause them to suffer from some intense health issues, namely diabetes, heart problems, and so on. Consequently, physical education is not a necessary method and some culinary nutrition courses should be applied to the curriculum instead.

In conclusion, while there may be reasons to support making sports compulsory at school, I believe that the proposed solutions would go a long way in improving the health of schoolchildren.