Just watching this thing that mentious JFK’s physical test.
And thinking, as I did at the time, they teach English at honours level, or robin or bluebird or whathaveyou. In gym they just throw you all, jocks and geeks, into the the same coldron.
The same one I had to emrerge from once ago year to take the stupid test. Not in any bettter shape than I was last year. Just more humiliated.
What else? My one acual triumiph in grade school, I hit the ONLY run in the softtball game. ONLY. We had one score and it was mine. Finally, some small gym victory. Next time i came up to bat, got the same “oh no it’s her” crap. They couldn’t give me my moment? Not that I’m bitter.
Those are my general complaints. I’m sure I can think of more. What are yours?
It’s not clear to me why your tale is a gym “horror story”. It’s disappointing and annoying, but not really Horrible.
I hated my gymm classes, too – they just threw everyone together in the class, no separation between abilities or interests. They also had very unimaghinative programs. In Fall, throw out footballs and one soccer ball. we were expected to organize our own games. In winter, we stayed in and they threw out three basketballs (they did this on rainy days in spring and fall, too). In spring, they threw out baseball equipment. Very rarely you’d get something different, but not interesting – like calisthenics.
I unimormly got “B” for gym, as did everyone else, it seemed. I was an “A” student, and figured I’d try to pull up the gym grade, as well. So I really participated hard. Very obvious and visible. “I see you out there, working hard,” commented the gym teacher.
At the end of the semester, I got ----- a “B”. Why bother?
There were a few scary stories. Like the gym teacher who said – apparently in all seriousness – “Happiness is when you hit yourself on the head with a hammer fifty times and then stop.” we all thought he looked a little too happy.
Or the gym teacher who found his name scratched into the top of a shelf in the locker room: “___________ Sucks!” We did calisthenics for a week.
I hear about schools that have things like pools, or take ski trips, or whatever, and I can’t believe it. Our gym classes in grade school and high school were jokes. I got to college and took, in my first year, rowing, judo, fencing, and sailing. It was great.
Actually, gym wasn’t all that bad for me, and I was pretty nerdy (I was always one of the last ones picked, but that never bothered me: my attitude was that they just didn’t know how good I was).
The coaches at are school were firm in discouraging asshole behavior toward weaker athletes. I was always at the bottom of the various fitness tests they gave us, but can’t remember any hazing about it. If any of the jocks tried to humiliate anyone, they’d get chewed out for it, and it could even affect their playing time.
Of course, our school was a bit different. Our cheerleading squad my senior year had the class valedictorian and salutatorian, and the valedictorian of the junior class. Several of the varsity basketball team were in the National Honor Society. We didn’t play football; we played soccer (again, with honor students on the squad).
In other words, there wasn’t any separation between jocks and what are now called geeks (the term wasn’t commonly used back then). I can’t say there weren’t any bad things going on, but the coaches wouldn’t let you get away with it if they found out.
I was a pretty small person back in the day. Once, my classmates locked me in a locker to see if I could fit. Just at that moment, the fire alarm went off, and they left me there and fled the building! It was just a drill, but I didn’t know that until after the fact.
Also, not exactly horrifying, but because I was small, I was always the “demo” student in gymnastics. My teacher would pick me up by the back of my gym suit and fling me around those uneven parallel bars like I was a rag doll. I had to pick my pants outta my butt every day.
Our old, perverted gym teacher used to wear white swimming trunks in the pool. The girls locker room had an exit leading directly to the pool (well, duh), and was lined with shower heads. We used to use them right after swimming to wash our hair and warm up.
One day, he STUCK HIS HEAD IN THE GIRL’S SHOWER ROOM to tell us to turn off the water when we were done. Thank god, we always had our bathing suits on. But Jesus Christ, you depraved prick.
I am sure I am not the only one, but winter time in Maine + phys ed = square dancing. What made it worse is when we would (often) have a shortage of females so guys, usually me, had to pair with another guy.
In high school, I scheduled gym to be the last class of the day so I wouldn’t have to shower and could just go right home.
Also, I was quite the nerd and was picked on by the jocks because I wasn’t afraid to mouth off to them. I remember saying something to one of them after class was over as we were coming off the field. It pissed him off so he started to chase me back to the building. As he got right behind me, ready to grab me, I slammed my braked and hit the ground on my knees. He flipped over me landing in a huge spot of mud (my knees got muddy, but that was okay). He beat the hell out of me in the locker room, but it was worth it to have the class laughing at him as he took his dive.
7th and 8th grade gym were the worst for me. The teachers didn’t care that kids were literally hazing other kids… and the kids in my class were some of the worst ones ever during those two years.
In 8th grade, I once had a guy threaten me at lunch saying that if I didn’t give him my cake, he’d give me a wedgie. I just looked at him and walked away. Later that day in gym class we were changing back into our regular clothes and he snuck up behind me and started in on giving me said wedgie. He didn’t get very far because I elbowed him right in the eye.
Honestly… what is it about middle school/ Jr. High gym class that makes kids so cruel? I’ve never understood that. Once I got into 9th grade, gym class wasn’t without it’s problems, but it was nothing like Jr. High.
This brings back memories! the man who was my 7th grade gym teacher was a pedophile-years after I left school, this guy had to leave under mysterious circumstances. He was later charged in another state, with various horrible crimes involving minors. In addition to his perversion, he enjoyed harassing the non-athletic kids, and made a lot of disparaging comments about people in general. The weird thing was, he was highly thout of! i guess nobody knew what this guy was up to, be he did get caught at last.
Junior high gym was always a fun time being the overweight short kid that was paired in wrestling against the captain of the basketball team because we were the same “weight class”. Oh boy - thought I was gonna die that day.
Nerds, geeks, and intellectual types like myself and most of the readers on this board look back on gym class and think of the bad times we had there. This makes me wonder if maybe there are groups of former jocks and cheerleaders who look back on their own high school days and remember times when they felt embarrassed in math or science class. “God, I remember this time in algebra where Mr Smith asked the whole class to factorize some squares and I was the only one who couldn’t do it. I felt so stupid.” “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. Mrs Jones would always give us these weekly quizzes every Friday. And all of the other people in class would finish theirs quickly and hand them in and I was always the last one to finish.”
I didn’t have too bad of a time in gym class in middle school. (Played varsity sports in high school, so I was exempt.) 6th grade, however, was a bad year; I was the only 6th grader in a gym class filled with 7th graders. Some of them tormented me, and others just laughed if something happened. However, I more or less got left alone by the worst tormentor after she pantsed me in the locker room; getting the back of her head slammed into a locker definitely reinforces a “don’t mess with me” message. I’m just glad that, once I was grouped again with my own age level, it was a pretty neutral experience.
Gym class was pure hell for me. I was the stereotypical dorky-looking kid with glasses who was always picked last. The teachers didn’t seem to care about the hazing. If anything, they probably encouraged it as it “builds character” or some other horse shit. All it did was make me hate 2/3 of my classmates. In seventh grade they sent us out to the field to play touch football. I didn’t know jack shit about football (and still don’t, come to think of it because I don’t care) and they just assumed we already knew how to play. All I did was putz around aimlessly and cluelessly, not part of the game at all. At least when we played soccer, basketball, volleyball and baseball I knew what I was doing, though I still sucked. I was able to redeem myself in the weight room as I was fairly stocky and muscular for being a dweeb.
I’m glad I was never a victim of wedgies, towel flippings or having my clothes stolen/hidden. I was pantsed once, though. I smacked the kid who did it and thought I would get in trouble, but nothing ever became of it, fortunately.
Sounds like fun! Anyway I’ve always hated PE (had it grades 1-10, and grade 12). Actually elementary school wasn’t that bad, but middle and high school got progressively worse. HS PE sucked. On paper the classes were single-sex, but in practice this meant that both classes were held at the same time and it was a joint activity or you could pick which teacher’s activity you did. I always picked the female PE teacher (there was only one, compared too 3-4 male teachers). She was far nicer than the males. They just couldn’t imagine that teenage boys could have ZERO interest in sports, ZERO knowledge of sports, ZERO ability, and ZERO interest in improving. Unless it was one of those made-up-just-for-PE games they just assumed we had a basic knowledge of the game. I didn’t. They constantly launch into diatribe about how “they shouldn’t have to teach us this”, how “17 year old boys should know how too ___”, how “this is stuff be teach peewee teams”, etc. They’d also try to appeal too our masculinity “Come, the girls can do better” in physical tests. The worst was when they decided to have all the boys learn how to play [ i]tackle* football. After one class I begged to be let out. They just told me I had to do it, it’ll be fun, etc. I skipped the next couple classes, and finally got caught. I had my detention, but it was worth it. We didn’t have a pool. And nobody showered after PE except the occasional jock who had a morning class. Even that was rare and everyone in school would know about it by the end of the day. Nobody changed underwear; it was considered “gay” to have one’s shirt and shorts off had the same time (ie just having your boxers on). The only thing I walked away from PE with is a deep hatred of anything resembling sports and haven’t set foot in a gym since my last class senior year.
My senior year, myself and about 5 friends had fifth period free. Not sixth, so we could go home early and our lunch was such that we couldn’t have a long lunch. So we all took PE again, just for fun. 5 seniors with about 20 freshmen. It was pretty fun and even though I was never a jock, just by being older I could be one of the best in the room.
One day we were playing softball and I was pitching. I caught a line drive, but not with my glove. Caught it right in my crotch. To make it worse, there was a woman there. She was some sort of college student so she was like 22 and really sexy and we had crush on her and she just standing there holding back a laugh and then, in a matter of cosmic coincidence, Coach B points out loudly, “There goes my fun tonight”. It was the day of the Prom. Everyone laughs. I guess Coach is the only person in school that doesn’t know that I don’t have a date for that evening. He did get a huge laugh though.
Anyway I’ve always hated PE (had it grades 1-10, and grade 12). Actually elementary school wasn’t that bad, but middle and high school got progressively worse. HS PE sucked. On paper the classes were single-sex, but in practice this meant that both classes were held at the same time and it was a joint activity or you could pick which teacher’s activity you did. I always picked the female PE teacher (there was only one, compared too 3-4 male teachers). She was far nicer than the males. They just couldn’t imagine that teenage boys could have ZERO interest in sports, ZERO knowledge of sports, ZERO ability, and ZERO interest in improving. Unless it was one of those made-up-just-for-PE games they just assumed we had a basic knowledge of the game. I didn’t. They constantly launch into diatribe about how “they shouldn’t have to teach us this”, how “17 year old boys should know how too ___”, how “this is stuff be teach peewee teams”, etc. They’d also try to appeal too our masculinity “Come, the girls can do better” in physical tests. The worst was when they decided to have all the boys learn how to play [ i]tackle* football. After one class I begged to be let out. They just told me I had to do it, it’ll be fun, etc. I skipped the next couple classes, and finally got caught. I had my detention, but it was worth it. We didn’t have a pool. And nobody showered after PE except the occasional jock who had a morning class. Even that was rare and everyone in school would know about it by the end of the day. Nobody changed underwear; it was considered “gay” to have one’s shirt and shorts off had the same time (ie just having your boxers on). The only thing I walked away from PE with is a deep hatred of anything resembling sports and haven’t set foot in a gym since my last class senior year.