Morning Exercise, Necessary?

          Swarms of students in black or white rush out of the dorm vacant faced, rubbing their eyes, trying to wake themselves up before they fall into sleep in the middle of the road. This obscure scene pays its attributes to the school’s policy that all students must attend the morning exercise. While the school and probably most of the parents are proud to introduce such policy to others explaining how much the school emphasizes the balance in studying and exercising, but we, the students, who actually go to the gym early in the morning find many contradicting points to the policy.

          To be straight, morning exercise causes too much inefficiency. In school, the official lights-out time is 2a.m. However, there are many students who stay past that time with their individual lamps on, struggling with math problems or Physics proofs. After finishing up their homework, they don’t even bother to close their books but rush up to their beds, hoping to save extra minutes to sleep. Despite their pathetic effort, they have to open their eyes 2~3 hours later to avoid being charged with penalty points for skipping the morning exercise. The fact that a sufficient hour of sleep is needed in order to be healthy is proved not only by various researches but also by our own experiences as well. The morning exercise, which was supposed to improve the students physical conditions, is actually hindering it by taking away the time to sleep from students.

          Also, the morning exercise interferes with the class hours as well. In other words, students are still under the influence of the morning exercise even during the classes. Not to mention that some students replenish their sleep through classes but some are so tired from the excessive morning exercise that they don’t bother to look up during lectures. What I mean by the excessive morning exercise is the physical training the students get as a punishment. Once my friends had to do 200 jumping jacks and repeat a kendo step for 100 times that literally all of them passed out in a class. What is the point of exercising in the morning if you can’t concentrate on your studies? The morning exercise is supposed to refresh your mind instead of knocking you off.

          Apart from all the inefficiencies, morning exercise is impossible to enjoy in the first place. Many students prefer diverse sports over taekwondo and kendo as a morning exercise, but they are never offered the chance to choose. What is even worse is that students can’t even choose between kendo and taekwondo; they have to leave it up to destiny, which is ‘rock paper scissors’, to decide what they are going to be doing for a whole year. What would a year be like for a student who longed for taekwondo but, because of bad luck, had to take kendo lessons?

          The necessity of exercise doesn’t justify the existence of the morning exercise either. The inevitable 5 minute hike for any KMLA student who has to move to class to class, another journey up the slope back to the dorm to eat meals, and a two-hour of sports club every week seems to fulfill the required amount of exercise needed for average high school students.

          To wake up early in the morning and stroll by the woods in taekwondo uniforms may seem ideal, but it is of no good for more than a one-day event. We have been told that the morning exercise is for our own health and benefit, but now I question: Is the morning exercise REALLY necessary?