With the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year underway, a controversy has emerged at Seneca Valley in the form of a new cyber class: Independent Study P.E. This course, which simply gives athletes a different option to fill a physical education requirement, has become the victim of a vicious argument among students who are questioning whether or not the class is fair.

Independent Study Physical Education is offered to students who take part in school sponsored sports and Seneca Valley club sports. It gives athletes in grades 10-12 an opportunity to fill a P.E. requirement with their practice hours and from curriculum offered via the cyber program, according the Seneca Valley Program of Studies.

Independent Study P.E. is completely fair to athletes. Students who claim that this class is unfair or that the students who take it are “lazy” simply are uninformed on the requirements of this class. Also, the school district should be commended for giving students more options for physical education, instead of being scrutinized for supposedly finding a loophole for students who want to avoid exercise.

In reality, students enrolled in this class may end up doing more work than students who take a regular P.E. class because of the online curriculum that is a part of the course. In addition, athletes, on average, will practice two and a half hours after school every day, while students who take P.E. during the day only exercise for one class period. This proves that if someone were to argue that Independent Study P.E. is unfair to a student enrolled in regular P.E, they are completely uninformed. If anything, an Independent Study P.E. student is doing more work, and therefore they must not be “lazy.”

Students who have been claiming that the school provided Independent Study P.E. as a way for students to avoid exercise are also uninformed and incorrect. In order for a student to be eligible for this class, they must be a part of an activity that requires them to exercise at least once a day (school sponsored sports and SV club sports, to be specific.) This obviously means that students enrolled in this class are not avoiding exercise. The people who started this “rumor” about Independent Study P.E. should stop complaining for a moment and instead, be thankful, because they attend a school that makes an effort to suit every student’s needs.

Thankfully, there is a solution to this controversy: being informed. Students should try and make sure that they know all of the information about a class before they discuss it. This would end all of the arguments about Independent Study P.E. (and all classes in general.) However, this solution will not be easy to achieve. The unfortunate truth is that most students don’t care enough to research the facts about something before they talk about it. Until that changes, students who are enrolled in Independent Study P.E. could try and correct false information about their class whenever they hear it.

Independent Study Physical Education is not a class that is unfair, for lazy students, or for people who want to get out of taking a physical education class. This class could even be considered more work than a normal P.E. class, and students should be thankful that Seneca Valley made an effort to provide a different course. The truth is that Independent Study P.E. is completely fair, and those who think otherwise are simply misinformed.