It's the time of year to pick classes for next year, and there's one big thing that everyone is thinking about, PE credits. There are a multitude of ways to earn PE credits here at Berkeley High, but for some reason, many students seem to overlook this graduation requirement until it's too late. That's right, it's a graduation requirement, every student needs four semesters of good old physical education to graduate. Here at The Blazer we don't really care if you graduate, but if you do want to follow that path, here are some of the ways that students get their PE credits.
Many students grab a PE waiver at the beginning of the year. Some of the most popular examples of using these waivers include some students working at the local Amazon warehouse or doing unnecessary wrist workouts assigned by teachers. Students can even earn credit for going on hikes around the Berkeley High campus. Even though these hikes have been proven to help improve morale and health among the student body, this particular practice has been discouraged by BHS teachers and administration because “you should be in class learning”.
Berkeley High also offers plenty of courses that fulfill the district's “exercise” requirements. We sent staff to go interview students enrolled in one of these classes to find out what they’re like. Most students our reporters talked to expressed their deep gratitude about being in the class, with one student describing it as “a great class to skip,” another saying “be quiet I'm trying to sleep.” The last person we talked to did provide a lot of interesting information about the class, unfortunately the interview was too long so we had to cut it.
Students are also enthusiastic about the new class added to the course catalog for next year: AP Cage Fighting, where students get to really let loose. This being an AP class, it does have an AP test at the end of the year, but the grading system is pretty straight forward and there have been virtually no complaints from students who get low scores. The rubric is as follows:
(5) Student successfully eliminated their opponent. (4) Student knocked out their opponent. (3) Draw. (2) Student fell unconscious. (1) Student perished. (0) Student chickened out.
While there are a large variety of teams and clubs at BHS that offer PE credits, most of them don't actually provide any real exercise so are not worth mentioning. With all of these great opportunities any student can find something that fits when it comes to physical activity no matter how they like to burn calories.