英语美文,体育课被取消之后…… When P.E. was taken away

I remember that when I was in middle school there were plenty of odd reforms in the school. But the one that I remember the most was when our principal decided to take away our Physical Education class.

It seems that our coaches thought our group was too large to manage. They claimed that since there were so many of us, they couldn’t watch all of us and it wouldn’t be safe. At 107 students, we were the largest in the school. But keep in mind that the grade below us was about 95 students, and also the fact that we had three assistant P.E. coaches. But our principal had another reason. She thought us to be “too rowdy ” and “disrespectful”.

But that was only a small minority. Our teachers thought we were decently behaved for the most part, but our P.E. coaches and principal insisted that we weren’t. And so P.E. was canceled (technically). We were told that we “should not receive the privilege of a P.E. class if we could not behave ourselves”. Our grade would be divided in half and go on different days. This means instead of five days of P.E., we would get two. For the rest of the time we would have study hall in complete silence.

I admit, some of the students were very badly behaved, but it wasn’t all of us. Either way, taking away our P.E. class didn’t seem like a good solution. Even our teachers thought it was a bad idea. But what were we to do about it? Our teachers tried to vouch for us, but the situation remained the same.

Finally, a group of my friends and I decided to do something. We found out that the North Carolina Board of Education requires at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day. We were getting an hour a week. The Board of Education also states that “Structured/unstructured recess and other physical activity (such as, but not limited to, physical activity time, physical education or intramurals) shall not be taken away from students as a form of punishment” which was exactly what was happening here. We finally printed this page off the North Carolina Board of Education’s website and showed it to our principal. We explained it and she said that she would get back to us.

Then two weeks passed. Nothing happened, 8th grade still only had two days of P.E. a week. We went back to see the principal, but still nothing happened. Three weeks later, we decided to write a letter to the Board of Education, but before the letter was sent, our teachers found a way to give us out physical activity. Instead of study hall, our teachers took us outside so that we could run around, play basketball, and pretty much do we used to do in P.E. Even though we still couldn’t go to P.E. class, most of us were content with outside time. Because after all, all we really wanted was for a time where we could be active and move around.

我记得上中学时，学校里曾推出过许多古怪的改革措施，我印象最深的一项就是校长决定取消我们的体育课。

似乎是体育教练们认为我们这个群体太大了，不好管理。他们声称，因为我们的学生人数太多，所以照看不过来所有的人，而且还容易发生危险。我们年级有107名学生，是全校规模最大的。但别忘了，低我们一年级的班也有95名学生呢，而且，我们年级光助理体育教练就有三个。但校长却有另外一个理由，她认为我们“太闹腾”，又“目无尊长”。

但只有少部分学生才有她说的这种情况。任课老师们都觉得我们多半表现得体，但校长和体育教练们却坚持说我们并非如此。于是体育课就这样，严格地说，被取消了。我们被告知“如果表现不好，就不能享受上体育课的待遇。”我们年级将被分成两拨，分别上体育课。这意味着我们要从一周五节的体育课减为一周两节。剩下的时间，我们都要在完全寂静的自习室里学习。

我承认某些学生确实表现不佳，但那并不代表我们所有的人。无论如何，取消体育课都不像是一个好的解决办法。就连我们的任课老师都觉得这不是个好主意。但我们能怎么办呢？任课老师们想替我们担保（复课），但事情还是没有丝毫转机。

最后，我和一群朋友决定采取点儿行动。我们发现，北卡罗来纳州教育委员会规定：学生每天至少要保证30分钟的体育锻炼时间。而我们当时每周才只有一个小时。教委会还规定，“不可以将学生（已安排好的或自由的）休息时间及其他体育活动（比如，但不仅限于体育活动时间、体育课时间或校内活动时间）以惩罚为由取消，”但我们这里发生的恰恰就是这种情况。后来，我们把北卡罗来纳州教育委员会写有这些规定的网页打印出来，拿去给校长看。我们解释了这些条款，而校长则说会给我们回复的。

之后两周过去了，复课的事儿还是没有动静，八年级每周仍然只有两天能上体育课。我们又去找校长，但还是没有解决。三周以后，我们决定给教委会写封信，但在这封信寄出去之前，我们的任课老师们想出了一个办法让我们进行体育锻炼。老师们没有带我们去自习室，而是来到了外面，这样，我们就可以到处跑来跑去，打篮球，很像以前上体育课那样。即使我们还是不能上体育课，但大多数同学都对这种“户外时间”表示很满意。因为毕竟，我们真正想要的就只是能有一个可以活动起来、跑跑跳跳的时间而已。

By Betty Liu 沐阳 译 来源：英语学习杂志 编辑：丹妮