Has anyone noticed the decidedly low number of Wellness II classes being offered next semester? You’ve probably been signing up and exchanging classes recently considering it’s now the add/ drop period for Fall 2012 classes. I’m a senior and as such no longer have the need to select further classes but I knew this diminished Wellness II curriculum would occur because my Wellness instructor passionately informed me of the reduced classes since the beginning of the semester. I’d like to outline how this is unfair to the SMU undergraduate population as well as our Wellness professors.
SMU will be slashing the number of Wellness II classes it offers starting next semester and this will continue indefinitely in future semesters. If money is the reason, no one has said as much. When I was a freshman and learned that two Wellness classes were required to graduate, I thought I would pay my dues and be done. I never imagined I’d be one of the people who would go on to take any additional Wellness II courses, yet that’s exactly what I did. Why? There are so many options. Or should I say there were so many options.
When I was in high school not long ago, I heard about elementary schools shortening recess or putting limitations on recess like telling kids “no running” just because they don’t want to be liable for children’s accidents during their exercise time.
Other schools reduced P.E. to a single activity every single time instead of diversifying and introducing kids to sports they might never experience otherwise. Limitations on children’s play and adult’s choice of workout have been in the making for a while apparently, and not just at SMU. How are we supposed to encourage physical activity in a nation that one can easily label one of the unhealthiest in the world with this attitude?
This brings me back to my opening point. I wouldn’t have considered taking another Wellness II class unless I had seen one or heard of one I was highly interested in, and more options are likely to spark more interest. Why on earth is SMU going to slash the Wellness II programs by a whopping 80 percent, according to my professor from 39 classes down to 8, when it’s hard enough to get people interested in taking a class in the first place?
Among these casualties will be self-defense and rock climbing along with others like walking (which by the way you should be able to learn to do on your own without taking a class). Limiting Wellness classes will hurt any interest that has already been generated in any Wellness II program and will constrict people to having to choose a class instead of getting to choose a class.
On top of this, apparently someone suggested that the available Wellness II classes should have more intellectual components (meaning more classroom stuff). So the people requiring us to take Wellness to get physical education and graduate want us to do more of what we already do every day: sit and listen.
This is a physical education class that requires movement? How are we supposed to discourage the epidemic of unhealthy habits, one of which is not moving, by slashing the number of classes and THEN slashing how much activity is done in the classes that are left? I can’t imagine my self-defense class with any less physicality than it has because if that were the case I would not remember anything. In self-defense at least, you cannot learn moves by watching, you have to perform them and that takes time and energy. You have to move to understand and apply the techniques you learn.
I don’t know about anyone else, but the Wellness II classes I’ve taken have broadened my perspectives, shown me possibilities and potential new interests and hobbies, as well as introduced me to new people who are as curious as I am which makes moving to learn all the more fun. Also, I have wanted to take these classes since I was little, and Wellness II at SMU finally afforded me that chance. If they are gone, will others like me get that chance? No.
Further complicating matters is the overflow of professors in Wellness who no longer have classes to teach. My instructor told me he is ready and willing to teach the same classes next year, but since they won’t be there, he can’t. I know I don’t need to mention how people need and want jobs in their areas of expertise right now.
This whole situation is a lose/lose for everybody. I think the people who made the decision to cut the Wellness II courses should try them out before they put them on the chopping block because if this decision came from ignorance, as it appears, then that is unacceptable. The availability of options in Wellness II classes allows for more exploration and the formation of curiosity. It allows for people to take a class and then talk about it to others who then may become interested in trying it.
But here’s the catch, the classes have to be there for people to get interested and try them. That’s how it worked for me at least. There may be a perfectly acceptable reason for slashing the Wellness II classes, but if there is, no one has been up front about it so far.
Jaclyn is a senior majroing in psychology.
