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Li 1
Steve Li
Mrs. Staab
Nonfiction Writing C
9 Jun. 2017
Schools, Students, and Health
“I’m downright hostile to long-distance running! One day in the future, I’ll be the
president of my university, and abolish this absolutely useless project! Then I’ll be a heroine
written about in history!” That is what one of my classmates from high school complained to
me after being forced to run by the compulsory long-distance running project in her
university. That kind of project, which aims to improve students’ physical health, actually is
seriously defective and irrational because it cannot produce an effective result as expected,
and can even harm students’ health.
Due to concerns about the physical quality of university students, many universities in
China have carried out a compulsory exercise plan like this: At the beginning of the semester,
school authorities will assign certain tasks, such as every student must run for certain
distance, or record the number of times they run. An app on students’ smart phones will
measure the distance they run with the GPS, and a machine will record students’ number of
running sessions. At the end of the semester, there is also a running exam for students, and
those related data and records will be counted as a part of students’ PE grades. In order to
gather more information, I interviewed thirty-nine students from nine universities which had
carried out the project, including Beijing Language and Culture University, Henan
Li 2
Polytechnic University, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, and others.
Undoubtedly, it is necessary to improve the physical health of Chinese university
students, however, this kind of required project is unable to help reach this expectation and
goal. The first reason is that universities’ preparation for this project is inadequate, especially
when compared to their great zeal.
One of the interviewees, Michael Chang, a student from Henan Polytechnic University,
once said happily that they did not need to sign in for running because there was something
wrong with their school’s machine. Like the broken-down machine, the distance-measuring
phone app chosen by Beijing Language and Culture University, is always criticized by
students. According to students’ complaint, this flimsy program often shuts itself down as
