As the sun beats down in the humid Iowa August, a gaggle of band kids rush for a sip of cold water after almost an hour and a half of playing and marching. This year was my first marching band season and it got me thinking, should marching band get you exempted from PE? The answer is yes. 

I was shocked and appalled to learn that show choir would count as PE credit next year and marching band wouldn’t. I believe show choir should count as a PE credit, my show choir friends are constantly exhausted after a long day of singing and dancing. But why should it be counted while marching band isn’t?

Marching Band is a strenuous activity. 9-12th graders haul around heavy instruments for long periods of time starting in July and ending in October usually for hours on end in the humid Iowa heat. Football is from August to October. Marching bands work for a month longer than the football team, and football games are where marching band really shines. Marching band isn’t just walking and playing though, just like any other sport you have to work as a team. One extra step could set the whole band off and make the performance go haywire. Everyone depends on the other for musical and marching ques. Just like a sport you depend on the other. 

Unlike show choir though, marching band practices during school hours, which would define it as a school sponsored activity. During band class for most of the first trimester, the band works to practice their parts out on the astroturf field only with half of their band. Unlike football or track, when band is practicing they don’t get the field to themselves. Numerous times people are running around the track, causing delays in walk on and walk off practices. 

Dictionary.com defines a sport as “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” Marching band meets most if not all these requirements. It involves physical exertion because you walk for hours in the heat with heavy metal instruments and it requires skill because you need to know how to play that instrument. The one thing marching band doesn’t check off that list is competing, but there are marching band competitions and City High does compete in those. 

Because of all of this, marching band should be counted as PE credit if show choir is too.