{"id":1293,"date":"2013-05-10T05:29:32","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T05:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web02.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters2\/archives\/1293"},"modified":"2015-05-24T07:07:15","modified_gmt":"2015-05-24T07:07:15","slug":"a-letter-about-the-removal-of-pe-lessons-from-the-school-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/archives\/1293","title":{"rendered":"A letter about the removal of PE lessons from the school curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dear Mister\/Miss Secretary of Education<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 It has been a hot debate around town that some schools are taking PE lessons out of the curriculum in the name of enabling students to concentrate more on academic subjects. \u00a0As a Form Six student, I strongly believe that this practice is harmful to the students and society as a whole and it should be dealt with at once.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 To begin with, the emphasis on academic performance is already strong enough in Hong Kong and it is not sensible to use academic results as reasons for cutting PE lessons. \u00a0Hong Kong students, being raised in one of the most competitive cities in the world, have always been the most hardworking and tough ones all around the globe. \u00a0Many are having only six hours of sleep a day in order to strive for the ridiculously small number of places in universities. \u00a0The situation is bad enough already. \u00a0In Germany, for instance, 80% of the students can get a place in university, not having to sacrifice sleep each and every night. \u00a0This is a completely different scenario. \u00a0Yet the country produces the best scientists and researchers. \u00a0Is our society ready to worsen the situation in Hong Kong and increase the burden on the shoulders of the students? \u00a0Do we really believe that increasing the stress can squeeze more out of our children?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 PE lessons are very important to the students and can be one of the greatest events of a week. \u00a0They are the time to relax. \u00a0It is not uncommon for students to become sick of the mundane school life, and PE lessons come into play as a break from both mental and physical boredom. \u00a0Students let go of the books; all they have got to do is to play a match. \u00a0This temporary switch from academic brain work to physical movements can help relieve stress and increase efficiency. \u00a0Plus, the teamwork and interpersonal skills developed through playing sports are beneficial to students. \u00a0After all, a good education system should be comprehensive, not focusing merely on academic studies, but also on mental and physical well-being.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 As PE lessons are part and parcel of the education system, scrapping them might have an impact on the students\u2019 development of a healthy lifestyle. \u00a0I am not saying that PE lessons can provide sufficient exercise for the students, but they do promote healthy living. \u00a0On the contrary, removing PE lessons from the curriculum might send a wrong message to the students that they do not need regular exercise to stay healthy, or that getting good academic results in exams alone means \u201csuccess\u201d. \u00a0This is a lose-lose situation, as in the long run, the city needs to pay for higher medical costs, an earlier retired workforce or even shortened lifespans of citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

To conclude, I sincerely hope that the government can halt this trend for the sake of the city\u2019s future, perhaps by introducing a compulsory physical education curriculum, by reducing the examination pressure of students and schools, or by promoting regular exercise in town.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yours faithfully,<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris Wong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Mister\/Miss Secretary of Educatio<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 \u00a0 It has been a hot debate around town that some schools are taking PE lessons out of the curriculum in the name of enabling students to concentrate more on academic subjects. \u00a0As a Form Six student, I strongly believe that this practice is harmful to the stu.........<\/span><\/p>Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":8474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","language-en","schoolyear-34"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3203,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1293\/revisions\/3203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carmelss.edu.hk\/buddingwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}