My high school was huge, so my PE class was at least 100 boys - probably more like 150. So the 3 PE teachers assigned did triage. Those of us clearly not destined for jockdom got to run the track, which worked for me. In fact we edited the science magazine running the track.
My school also didn’t have a football team - but did have a golf team.
So, no bad memories of gym.
For the most part PE was my least favorite class. Ironically, the only sport I enjoyed was dodge ball. I was the shortest and skinniest kid in my class, and even though I was slow, I had good agility back in those days. With that combination of traits, I ended up being pretty good at dodge ball, and looked forward to days when that was the sport of the day.
My gym teacher was a bully that wanted only “winners” in gym class, and he thought that, to have winners, you had to have losers for them to be better than. He would end gym class every day by having the gym class run around the track a couple of times (half mile), and the last three in would have to run a full mile right after they almost puked their guts out trying not be one of the three unlucky ones. He was also big on dodgeball(his football stars would all be on one team, of course). Basically, anything that made his sports teams happy made him happy because they were “winners” in his eyes.
I definitely did not enjoy PE.
The teacher I mostly had was actually really nice, and we didn’t have a bullying problem in my class, but I was utterly nonathletic, and we had pretty rubbish facilities, with no options. Every year, we did (field) hockey, tennis, touch rugby, cross-country, and a few bits of stuff like javelin and shot putt. I can’t run, and I Ioathe team sports. I was OK at shot putt, but that was about half a class a year, if that. The only sport I’ve ever been any good at was swimming, and we didn’t have a pool.
Hockey took up of most of the year, and I played in goal because the team I usually played with was good enough that the ball never came near me, so all I had to do was stand there- I somehow even made it to the class B team, because a friend dragged me to tryouts as moral support and they were short a goalie, which meant I got pressured into hockey at lunch time a few times as well. I probably could have got out of it, but, the nice teacher was so excited for me that I went along with it. We got kicked out the tournament fast enough anyway.
We did have the other gym teacher one year, who was not nice- my main memory of her is when she got these calipers for measuring body fat, and dragged me- as the biggest girl in the class- to the front to demonstrate, smirked, and started pinching, painfully, at my leg- hard enough to leave bruises, in fact. It turned out not to be as high as she thought, so she just mumbled ‘Huh, well I guess you are quite muscular’, looked disappointed that she wasn’t going to be able to humiliate me as much as planned, and sent me to sit down again. Bitch.
It was a girls’ school, with the awful traditional uniform of gym knickers and a short skirt, and a public footpath ran along the edge of the pitch, so we always had a selection of perverts for all the outdoor stuff. This did not help.
I did learn some good techniques for looking like I was doing something, I got good at finding spots out of sight and making daisy chains, otherwise it was a complete waste of my time. It was practice for the kids who were into that sort of thing, and the rest of us just kept out the way.
I never enjoyed PE until I got to high school.
My Grade 9 PE teacher, Mr. Murphy, was one of the three best teachers I ever had in high school in any subject. You know how in movies the PE teacher just makes everyone runs laps or play dodgeball or something? Mr. Murphy did not do that. Every week, you were going to learn an athletic skill, and that skill was taught clearly and systematically. This week, perhaps, we would learn how to punt a football, and every day there was a lesson plan teaching one more aspect of how to punt a football. By week’s end EVERY kid could punt a football. Kids who already knew how to do this were made accountable for teaching it as well (in accordance with the lesson plan.) By Friday, even the most ungainly nerd was lofting 30-yard punts. The next Monday, Mr. Murphy would inform us that it was time to learn how to hit a baseball, and by week’s end everyone had a pretty solid swing.
Jocks dominating the less talented kids was… not tolerated.
I still possess athletic skills I learned in that class. Funny thing is, I still didn’t take PE again.
FWIW, I’m willing to cut him some slack.
For me, it was essentially recess. I think that’s the way it was for most kids. A blow-off period where we could run around.
-
Gym class in my day was hideous
-
Yes. The negativeness of the experience is still detrimental to physical activity more than 52 years after my last PE.
Depending on where you live, 42N can be fairly balmy in April.
Initially gym class was a one size fits all sort of thing. If you were in grade 7, you had 7th grade PE. My teachers were generally good, even if some of my classmates were jerks. We did a lot of fun things, including field hockey, badminton, and volleyball.
Starting in 9th grade, we were allowed to pick a PE elective, if we didn’t want to take the basic class. I loved that. I took dance, gymnastics, diving, and swimming.
There was always a requirement that we took some kind of PE. It was impressed on all of us that part of being healthy and well-rounded students (and people) meant including exercise. I would say it had a positive impact on my life.
Gym class was mostly a time for nerdy little me to stay out of the way of the more athletically gifted kids, which I did a pretty good job of doing. The only positive memory that comes to mind is playing volleyball. It was the only sport where you might actually hope to have me on your team. Now, I wasn’t out there slamming down spikes or anything, but I did kind of have a knack for serving the ball. I could put a difficult spin on the ball and reel off several points in a row.
I went to a K-8 grade school, and we had the same gym “teacher” for the entire 9 years I was there. In the lower grades I don’t think we interacted with him much, maybe starting in 4th grade, though, he was the person who directed our activities during PE class.
My biggest gripe, and the reason I put his title in quotes, is that he never taught us anything except how to do the hokey-pokey. For outdoor games, he would name the team captains (for the boys, it’s funny but I don’t remember anything about what the girls did during PE) and then go and sit down somewhere. It was very frustrating to not be taught, for example, how to catch a ground ball in softball, or anything at all about how to play basketball. He was a nice enough guy, I guess, and we didn’t have any bullying that I remember, but I think he was bone lazy and just didn’t care enough to put any effort in. It was a lot of missed opportunities for me, to build up physical skills and to bond with other guys through sports instead of being uber-nerd all my life. There were one or two highlights. When I was 13 I had a crush on a guy in my class who often carried the ball in flag football, so it was perfectly legitimate for me, when I was on the opposing team, to be lunging towards his legs to try to get his flag. I was, of course, too scared to do anything that was even remotely inappropriate, even “in fun.”
Our high school gym class was pretty awful. Most of the time, in the winter, or if the weather was bad, they threw out three basketballs and let everyone simply organize their own games. Or work out on the weight machine. In fall they played soccer and flag football. In spring it was softball. Occasionally they’d roll out mats and do wrestling, or else we’d do calisthenics. But precious little instruction, or organized activity. The gym teachers favored the athletes to the exception of everyone else in class. I found that I got the same grade if I participated enthusiastically or basically did nothing. A real waste of time.
I got to college and had organized sessions of varied activities. I did Judo, Rowing, Fencing, and Sailing. I loved it, and even started working out with some of the teams.
Phys ed. didn’t affect my workouts, though. My own activities were with Boy Scouts (hiking, camping, etc.) or solitary swimming or cycling. I didn’t discover (or have access to) skiing until I went to college.
Gym class was mostly awful because I was almost always picked close to the last for team sports because of my lack of hand/eye coordination. It also seemed that school pictures were taken immediately after gym class on too many occasions. I finally excelled at individual sports like wrestling and boxing and carried my fit physique into the military. Once I hit my 30’s, the weight became more difficult to keep off. My fitness improved after I quit smoking 7 years ago, but my weight has continued to be an issue.