Most people do not think of school when they think about bowling. However, I once heard a story about Oswego East High School once offering bowling classes to students. What caught my attention is that these classes were reportedly discontinued not long after.
I first heard about this class from my former driving instructor, who was also one of the teachers that taught the bowling class. According to the story I heard, Oswego East previously offered a bowling class in which students could learn and practice bowling and skating due to Parkside Lanes and Aurora Skate Center being neighbors.
Beyond that, I wanted to see if I could find anything that showed the class actually existed. While looking through old information about Oswego East, I found an archived website from the school’s physical education program that gave more insight into the school’s PE classes from years ago.
The archived website describes a physical education program with 12 different classes. Some of the options included strength and conditioning, dance, and bowling. The website explains that the students could choose from different classes and that the program was designed to give students opportunities to participate in activities that they would enjoy.
Finding the archived website was interesting because it supported what I had originally heard from my former instructor. Bowling was not just something students did as an extracurricular, at one point it was listed as one of the school’s PE options.
The old program also just highlights that Oswego East’s approach was not limited to traditional school gym activities. Students had the opportunity to choose from a variety of classes based on different interests and types of physical activity.
However, finding proof that bowling was once offered raises another question. Why was the class eventually discontinued?
The archived website does not explain why the bowling class was eventually removed. From the story I heard from my instructor, time management was one of the issues involved. Bowling would require students to leave the school making it difficult to fit the activity into a steady school schedule.
This shows one of the challenges that can come with offering less traditional PE classes. Schools still have to consider factors like transportation even while an activity may be interesting to students.
Interestingly, bowling has not completely disappeared from Oswego East. This school has continued to have bowling as an athletic activity. Students can participate in the sport through school athletics but participating on a team is so much different from participating in a class.
The archived athletics website gives a glimpse into how drastic the changes of Oswego East over the years. What is now a surprising piece of school history was once a normal option for students choosing their PE classes.
Finding this information made me realize that there are definitely other classes and traditions that current students have no idea about. The bowling class may be gone, but its history gives current students a chance to see how much Oswego East has changed over the years.
Written by senior Shia Love. Edited by staff writers for the Oswego East’s online news magazine The Howl.