Did you like gym class in school?

[muon2]

My JHS and HS were large enough so that students could be clustered in academic subjects by ability. Teachers could focus on the skills needed for a given group. PE was not that way, with all students lumped together regardless of ability.

I was a year younger than most of my classmates and noticeably smaller until about 11th grade. The teachers did nothing to try to work with me at my ability level, so I just got low marks. I found nothing to enjoy in the class. In college we had required PE from a basket of electives and I enjoyed those. As an adult I spent 20 years in martial arts rising to a third degree black belt, so there were athletic activities that I could enjoy and compete in.

[muon2]

Horrible activity. The one reason I never made honor roll/dean's list in middle and high school, of all things. I usually had a 97 to 100 in all actual classes and around an 80 in PE, so was ineligible for the honor roll (I think it was something like you couldn't have any grades below 85). Plus I really was acutely aware of my inability to throw a ball or whatever. No need to be publicly shamed 4 days a week for years. We had timed runs in high school where your grade depended on your time. Liberal education, mind-body-spirit kind of stuff. Except the focus on the body had negative effects on my spirit. Free time to move around outside would have been awesome.

How the hell did they get away with that? That is ridiculously unfair, assuming you put in the effort and participated.

Academic subjects are graded on ability, not just effort. It's not unusual to see ability count in subjects outside the academic core.

[muon2]

But grading people for ability in P.E. is ridiculous.

Why?  Granted, anyone who is making an effort ought to get at least a C, but I see no problem with having better grades in P.E. being based on better performance, and I say that as someone for whom P.E. was not one of my better subjects for exactly that reason.

I agree.  People that are naturally smart (or at least naturally good students) find it easy to get good grades, why shouldn't the naturally athletic get better grades in athletics?

Indeed, if it is going to be a school subject, why shouldn't it be treated like other subjects? If PE is not ability-based, then how should music and art classes be graded? What about cooking or keyboarding?