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Alvida wrote:

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No PE does not equal no exercise.

It does for some students. A lot of children go home after school and sit. They sit and watch TV, playing games, or on the computer. Please don't take this the wrong way because I am not really trying to be critical, but what you got out of PE was learning that you could find a way out of PE by gossiping with your friends. You did not get the idea of being part of a team. You did not do your share. The fact that you or other students don't like PE isn't the point. We all have to learn to do things we don't like and give it our best effort. These are lessons we take into our employment. These are lessons that make us successful. Now, you probably have learned these valuable lessons in other ways. But for a lot of children, the only place they learn these things is in school. And PE is part of what enforces a lot of life lessons.

Alvida wrote:

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I actually heard they were considering making a lot of subjects opt out from fourth year on.

There is a theory here in the states that one of the reasons the bush administration has lowered the quality of our children's education is to put them in a situation where they are unqualified for anything other than joining the army. Hopefully for us, this will change with a new administration. But reading that in the UK some subjects may become "opt out" really reminds me of this. Children should not be allowed to opt out of subjects just because they don't happen to like them. These might be the very subjects that could help them get a better job or get into a good university. Why are we lowering the standards for our children? If anything, they should be set higher than the ones we had.

A lot of people don't know what kind of work they want to do well into their adult years. How can we expect children to know? We have to prepare them for their futures. Subjects they are not good at and don't like, might be the subjects they really needed to get into a career they would like and excel at. We are cheating our children by letting them make choices they are too young to make. They have not lived long enough to understand the consequences. That's why they are considered to be children until the age of 18. It is up to adults to guide them into an education that can satisfy and support them and their children for the rest of their lives. Patting them on the head and saying, "You poor child. Don't worry. You don't have to take that mean old class if you don't want too" isn't going to put food on their tables or pay the house payment. When did parents and teachers give up on our children. If we don't give our children the best education, we will have a very ignorant society in twenty years.