Physical education, or PE, isn’t required for all high school students. In some schools, it isn’t offered for some different reasons. But should high school students have physical education? The answer is certainly “yes”.

Today many people don’t do sports. But as is known to all. doing sports is very important for an adult. Teaching teens the importance of a healthy lifestyle and making fitness plans now can help teens put exercise in the first place as an adult.

High school isn’t that easy. Many students are under a lot of stress. Stress can be harmful to a student’s studies and life. Doing sports can help them deal with stress better, helping them live a happier life at school.

The American Heart Association says that 10 million kids and teens suffer from obesity (肥胖). Teens should get 60 minutes of physical activity per day to control their weight and to help their bones get stronger. The increase in activities that don’t get teens to move around, such as computer games, means many teens don’t get their required exercise. PE classes act as a public health measure (措施) to encourage physical activities and help teens have healthy weights.

Not doing sports increases teens’ hazard of developing many diseases. An active lifestyle offers a good way of protection from these health problems. As much as 75 percent of health-care spending goes toward treating medical conditions that can be prevented by lifestyle changes, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

According to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN), students who performed five hours of physical activities each week improved their academic (学业的) performance. Students from programs with no physical activity, who used the extra time for classroom study, did not perform better on tests than those who gave up some study time in support of physical education.

Both online learning and distance learning require similar online learning tools, but there the similarity ends.

The key difference between them is location. With online learning, students can be together in the classroom with an instructor while working through their digital lessons and assessments. When using distance learning, students work online at home while the teacher assigns work and checks in digitally.

Next, used as a mixed learning technique along with other teaching strategies, online learning will involve in-person interaction between you and your students on a regular basis. On the contrary, with distance learning you’ll likely rely on digital forms of communication such as messaging apps, video calls, discussion boards, and your school’s learning management system.

Both online learning and distance learning are effective teaching strategies, they do have their own distinct advantages.

To start, online learning can increase student engagement with a variety of instructional resources and teaching methods to deliver content in multiple ways. Second, using online learning tools makes it easier for you to differentiate your instruction. When using tools like digital curriculum, you will have more flexibility and control for differentiating your lessons. Finally, online learning is a time saver. Many digital curriculum tools do the heavy lifting for you by providing ready-to-use lesson plans, instructional materials, and assessments. Many online learning tools also automatically grade those assessments and post them to your teacher dashboard.

Compared to online learning, distance learning can continue without disturbance even in events like snow days or the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, distance learning provides greater flexibility for students to work at their own pace and review work as needed. This also ties in with the fact that students can access your course material at the times that work best for them, which is important for students who may have irregular work schedules.

Bill Gates recently has predicted that online learning will make place-based colleges less significant, and five years from now, students will be able to find the best lectures in the world online. I applaud Mr. Gates. But what’s taking us so long?

As early as 1997, MIT(麻省理工) decided to post videos of all university lectures online, for free, for all people. But today, how many students have you met who mastered advanced mathematics or nuclear physics from an MIT online video? Unfortunately, the answer is not many. The problem is the poor quality of online education websites and the experience they provide to students. Those who go to the MIT website and watch courses online are surely very smart people, but it’s not like playing a video game such as World of Warcraft. Only the most ardent students, those who are highly motivated, will devote themselves to studying these boring online videos.

The real question is why we aren’t spending more to develop better online education platforms. Where is the Avatar of education? Think about this. The market for Hollywood films per year is worth around 30 billion USD. Education in the world is a trillion-dollar-a-year market, hundreds of times bigger than Hollywood movies. Yet the most expensive digital learning system ever built cost well under 100 million dollars.

Bill Gates’ prediction is going to happen. There is no doubt about it. But it will only happen when we create high level educational content and experiences that engage and excite more than has ever been possible in the real world.