Mix it up.
Freshman PE classes should be co-ed just like they are for every other grade.
The gender separation of freshmen physical education classes doesn’t really have much of a reason, and can leave some students feeling isolated. Whether you look into a class of freshman boys or freshman girls, you’ll find the students participating in the same activities and following the same curriculum, with just a few exceptions. So there isn’t really a reason for boys and girls to be separated into different classes.
Freshmen here end up partaking in all the same sports and health units in their PE classes, and the participation levels would not be affected if people of different genders were in the same classes. We know this to be true because every other grade level has co-ed classes and it doesn’t seem as though there are any problems in performance.
Another problem with separating students based on gender and sex is that it can isolate some students who struggle with their gender identity. True, this is not a majority of students, but that doesn’t make them any less important. Placing a student in a class of people that they are unable to identify with can be difficult and can feel uncomfortable. Non co-ed PE classes promote the gender binary and will leave some students feeling out of place and like they don’t belong wherever they are.
According to a study by health.tki.org, one of the reasons that PE classes are separated by gender is that differences in athletic performance are even more exaggerated as students get older. This is something that tends to happen because of the treatment they get from teachers, coaches, or other adult figures in their lives. It is true that physically, males and females develop differently and the result is a difference if performance levels in athletics. For this reason, it would make sense to separate PE classes by gender.
The Honolulu Advertiser, a popular Hawaii-based news source, made the claim that girls will perform better in a gender separated PE class if the activities that they partake in are “activities for girls.” While this is simply a sexist notion, it also doesn’t help ETHS’ argument because boys and girls in PE classes follow almost the exact same curriculum.
Gender in PE classes also brings up the argument about why boys wrestle while girls learn self defense. These particular units would probably be affected if classes were co-ed, but it’s not too big of a problem. Neither unit has to be a part of the curriculum, and if students really want to participate in a wrestling or self defense unit, those units could perhaps be a part of anoth6er specialized PE class.
ETHS generally does a good job of giving boys and girls the same experiences in physical education, so there isn’t a good reason for freshman classes not to be co-ed. Co-ed classes would promote gender integration and would make everyone feel more comfortable.