According to Dianne Dudley, a personal fitness teacher at Community High School, approximately 80 percent of our population does not get enough exercise.

    “Where we stand, we are getting less and less movement, which contributes to disease and less vitality in life,” agreed Melissa Poli, a teacher of dance, personal fitness and health at three of the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

    Every day, students are made to sit in class for six to seven hours with few breaks. When they finally get let out, some students, who don’t play sports, are driven home and are obliged to sit down and do homework. When they are done, this leaves little time nor energy for students to fulfill the suggested 30 minutes or more of going outside or being active in any way.

    In an attempt to improve this statistic, the Ann Arbor Public Schools made it a requirement for every high school student to take at least one semester of personal fitness in order to graduate.

    “We provide students with opportunities to develop knowledge, skills and necessary attitudes for a lifetime of personal fitness and activity,” Dudley said.

    Teachers of personal fitness and physical activity classes at Community believe that one semester is not enough for personal fitness.

    “[Personal fitness] should be a way of life,” Poli said. “It is healthy for your brain and it makes you smarter.” Is having personal fitness as a school requirement, truly causing kids to exercise less?

    Students have a certain attitude towards classes that they are required to take as opposed to classes they want to take.

    “I think that the fact that you don’t have a choice makes people feel less open to [personal fitness],” said Grace York, a sophomore at Community. “When people are given a choice and they are happy to make it, their attitude changes from ‘I have to do this’, to ‘I chose to do this.’”

    The personal fitness requirement, made with good intentions, seems to be causing some students to see exercise as something to get over with in one semester and then be done with for life, it should be something every person choses to do everyday.