Imagine starting your first middle school day with no friends and having to dress out in front of everyone already feeling anxious as it is? Students worldwide have to dress out and wear the required uniform for Physical education to get a good grade in the class. Some may see this as a simple task while others may find this as cruel or even unreasonable.
One reason why students may find this as a cruel task is because many struggle with anxiety or body image issues. I interviewed an anonymous student who is heavily impacted on this issue and asked them how they felt about dressing out: “It me gives a really big sense of insecurity, having to take off my pants in front of people I don't even know not knowing what they might be thinking worries me. Dressing out makes me not want to look forward to the class that should excite me.” This shows schools are forcing kids to expose themselves in ways that can trigger a student, schools do not know what students are going through or what goes inside their mind so instead of trying to help students with this issue they enforce a requirement that forces students to change in front of strangers just for a pretty grade letter. Some may argue that they are all the same gender but that doesn't take away from the fact we are strangers with different body types and different levels of self esteem. Anxiety and body image is a serious world wide problem people experience and instead of trying to help it become better our schools are ignoring this issue.
Another reason why people find this unreasonable is it takes time away from the actual workout itself. Most schools only give a short time for pe and spending an extra 10 minutes getting everyone dressed out and in takes away a major portion that could be spent exercising. Article “Should Students be Required to Dress out in a Standard Uniform for Physical Education” points out that there is no studies shown that dressing out improves tasks. Most students and even doctors who monitor health would rather the time being spent on running or something that could be fun like basketball.
For these reasons and more schools should stop requiring their students to dress out. It should be an optional thing that if a student feels more comfortable in exercise clothes that they bring from home or even give them a private place to change. The requirement itself of being in a public place changing and if you don't you're the one who faces consequences is cruel. How do you feel when you have to dress out in front of strangers?
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