# What's the deal with PE teachers? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 10, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437 "2005-08-10T14:06:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/121 "2005-08-11T22:23:07Z")
> [@Anne Neville](#): > > I don’t get why some people are so obsessed with whether or not others “push themselves”. If we don’t “push ourselves”, but are productive and happy members of society, what’s so wrong with that? It’s a valuable lesson to teach children that sometimes they do have to push themselves and overcome a difficult situation. If they can’t acomplish a simple physical feat, such as reaching a mile in 10 minutes, then that’s something they should work on. Of course they should have some sort of assistance just like people who have trouble with Algebra get. > [@](#): > > I think most people push themselves to accomplish things of interest to them. Of course, not everyone has the same interests, nor should they. How many of you put forth the maximum effort possible for all your classes in high school and college, even the ones you thought were stupid and boring? I didn’t _think_ so. Maybe not maximum effort but I did put in some effort. Barring phsyical disabilities almost every student should be able to run, jump, and hit a ball. Provided of course someone has taken the time to instruct them on the fundamentals of the game. > [@](#): > > So, really, what you’re saying, **brickbacon** , is that I’m somehow weak and a loser if I don’t push myself to accomplish what _you_ think is important. If you make no effort to improve at PE then you’re just as weak as the person who refuses to improve his deficent math scores. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/122 "2005-08-11T22:29:06Z")
In 4th grade we had a sadistic teacher who would threaten to make the last kid cross the finish line run some more. I don’t remember whether or not he actually used that as incentive or actually made him run. In 7th grade we started baseball in spring and the folks in class never gave me any credit. I’d played baseball for a while on teams and it was rare for me to strike out in PE and almost every hit resulted in a base hit. Still, every time I went up to the plate the folks from the outfield came a bit closer and my own team didn’t expect me to hit the ball. I know it isn’t a heart wrenching story but I never understood why they had no confidence in me. The only time we ever spent learning the basic fundamentals of game play was in 7th grade when we learned basketball fundamentals. I’m still not good at basketball, I never cared for it, but I understood the rules enough to get down the court and pass to someone else who can shoot. Marc ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/123 "2005-08-11T22:50:27Z")
I was a relatively small kid until puberty caught up with me, Gym class was torture for a new student in a jock-oriented school with no friends and bad interpersonal skills. I was picked on and picked last, the usual things. One area where I always did well was softball. I played with my cousins for hours on end weekends and evenings, so I had a pretty good handle on the game. In gym class, they would underestimate me every time- I was good enough to hit the ball where I wanted to, and when they would move in I would make them chase the ball down the track. I also got away with nailing a nemeisis who was pitching to me with a line drive to the crotch. Until I had my growth spurt and started in the football program, I was called “Brainstorm” and reviled for my being able to answer the teachers’ questions (and make the jocks look bad by inference.) That all changed when I made it through my first set of summer workouts. By hanging in there, even the scrubs on the football team had higher status in school and got better treatment from the teachers. One point- and I’m looking for the cite- PE progrms in schools are supported by governments in order to have a pool of ready recruits for the next war. This perspective makes you look at everything in a new light… ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/124 "2005-08-11T22:54:33Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > Count me in as someone else who hated gym classes. It got a little better when I could take swimming in high school instead of gym, as I was fairly good at swimming, but gym? Yuk. I lived through at least two semesters of getting pelted by dodge balls before swearing that I’d never do it again. > > But my real beef on this thread is all you people insisting that a ten minute mile is akin to switching channels on a TV set. I run. I’ve run, on and off, for going on ten years now. Currently I’m running about 3 miles, 3 times a week, sometimes more. At times I’ve run more like 5 miles at a time. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten below an 11 minute mile. I think my average is around 12. > > I know I’m not a great runner. I don’t really care - I’m out for the exercise, and I get plenty sweaty from my slow miles. But the idea that a ten minute mile is something that anyone can do with very little effort just ain’t so. Thanks for posting this. I’m still kind of a beginner runner (ran my first 5k this summer. Slowly.) The bald assertions in this that everyone can run 10 minute miles and there’s something wrong if you can’t were getting to me a bit. I’m running 3 times a week currently and I run about a 14 minute mile and I damn well get cardio from that. I’m also overweight and self-conscious about being out there in the first place. I will be HAPPY when I run a 12 minute mile reliably. Running my first 5k was a huge eye-opener. Like many people posting in this thread I was picked on for being unathletic in PE class. I had childhood asthma and between me, my doctor, and my PE teachers, we hadn’t worked out how I should manage that so I could exercise normally. My co-ordination was crap, too. So it was with a lot of trepidation that I laced on my shoes to go running with real, grown-up runners in a road race. I felt sure they’d just know I was pathetic, faking it, not good enough. You know what though? Up the back of the pack I found teamwork. I found that total strangers wanted ME to finish the race. There was nothing but unsolicited encouragement from the other runners. I couldn’t have done it without them. I just wish that PE class had been more like that for me, and less of a chance to be teased and humiliated. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/125 "2005-08-11T23:40:34Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > BTW, **brickbacon** , I seem to recall you defending people destroying packages while working for Fed Ex because they were frustrated, and because the job sucked and thus, it wasn’t worth it to give it your best effort. Sauce for the gander, and all that. No, I didn’t. In the thread you are talking about, I specifically said that destroying packages was wrong. Do you have a reading comprehension problem, or do you just feel that slandering me is more important than being truthful? > [@Guinastasia](#): > > Are you fucking shitting me? Tell that to Stephen Hawking. :rolleyes: Wow, another post of mine you deliberately distorted. I guess you missed the bolded part. > [@brickbacon](#): > > I always find that most physically weak people are also mentally weak. **I’m not talking about people with health problems, but those who are physically able, yet don’t push themselves**. Steven Hawking is disabled. Please read more carefully. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/126 "2005-08-11T23:49:23Z")
**MGibson,** I don’t quite see how some of your arguments were about the hypothetical, as you phrased them. But if you say you were only talking about what PE might be, then yes, a properly structured and executed PE class would include and emphasize teamwork and game rules and strategies, among other things. (It would also be taught by a _real_ certified instructor rather than by an overweight football coach who spent the period flirting with his female TAs while he invented more plays for his playbook. I have respect for only one of the PE teachers I have ever had.) > [@](#): > > I’m not sure how it’s a horse of a different variable. School is about more then grades and you get more then marks out of participation in a class. Speaking about what the class _was_ as I experienced it, algebra at least _taught_ me the rules of what it graded me on; and it let me succeed on my own merits. If algebra were taught in the equivalent of my PE classes, you’d be graded on how well you solved the puzzles but not taught how, and other students would get bonus points for doing your homework before you could, and this would drive your grade down without any way to make it up. ---
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/127 "2005-08-12T00:09:13Z")
> [@F. U. Shakespeare](#): > > The bolded part of your statement is one of the most ignorant things I’ve read on this board. Really? Please tell me why you disagree with it rather than going on about how your daddy didn’t teach you how to play basketball. > [@F. U. Shakespeare](#): > > My point: I’m not a bookish weakling. But I had a horrible time in gym class in junior high, for the same reasons that you would if you came to one of my mathematics classes and I treated you with scorn because your father hadn’t already taught you the subject matter. But if I came into a calculus class, not knowing how to add and subtract, you would be understandable frustrated. If you weren’t exposed to the rules of a sport, you could have done plenty of things to ameliorate the situation. You could have looked it up in a book, asked a friend, or watched a game on TV. Either way, you don’t seem like the type of person I’m talking about. > [@F. U. Shakespeare](#): > > At the agency where I work, there are plenty of people much smarter than me who are not the least bit athletic. I hope you someday encounter such a person. It would change your perspective for the better on the relationship between intelligence and athletic ability. I’ve met people like that, and I think many of them lack mental toughness when it comes to physical activity. Especially when they blame others for not motivating them, and think sports are stupid. > [@Anne Neville](#): > > I don’t get why some people are so obsessed with whether or not others “push themselves”. If we don’t “push ourselves”, but are productive and happy members of society, what’s so wrong with that? I really don’t care if others push themselves. My complaint was that some of these people feel their lack of motivation is someone else’s fault, and that their lack of success reflects poorly on PE. > [@Anne Neville](#): > > I think most people push themselves to accomplish things of interest to them. Of course, not everyone has the same interests, nor should they. How many of you put forth the maximum effort possible for all your classes in high school and college, even the ones you thought were stupid and boring? I didn’t _think_ so. I had plenty of classes like that. I had a pre-AP calc class with the hardest teacher in school. He would deliberately try to befuddle and embarrass people who didn’t know the answers. I, being a slacker, was often put on the hot seat. The whole situation sucked. However, if I were to come here and say the calculus is dumb, schools shouldn’t be teaching it, and that it’s unnecessary, I’d be wrong. You can’t control the behavior of others. People who allow other people’s actions to affect them have to bare some responsibility in the outcome. Of course the are mitigating circumstances in many cases, but if you allow some rude kid to prevent you from enjoying sports, then you are to blame. > [@](#): > > So, really, what you’re saying, **brickbacon** , is that I’m somehow weak and a loser if I don’t push myself to accomplish what _you_ think is important. No, I’m saying that, in my expoerience, people who are physically weak, are also mentally weak. They give on on things that they find to be difficult, and aren’t self motivated. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/128 "2005-08-12T01:15:25Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > Really? Please tell me why you disagree with it rather than going on about how your daddy didn’t teach you how to play basketball. Because I know of many instances that contradict it. Which I already told you about. (Smart people who are not athletic, remember?) > [@](#): > > But if I came into a calculus class, not knowing how to add and subtract, you would be understandable frustrated. If you weren’t exposed to the rules of a sport, you could have done plenty of things to ameliorate the situation. You could have looked it up in a book, asked a friend, or watched a game on TV. Either way, you don’t seem like the type of person I’m talking about. When you enroll in my math classes, you are informed of the prerequisites beforehand (unlike in my JHS gym class). If you don’t have them, I suggest you enroll later. I don’t laugh at you, I don’t roll my eyes and tell you to find out somewhere else, I don’t ask why your daddy didn’t explain them to you. (_Especially_ if you don’t know how to add or subtract). I would call anyone who does these things a lousy teacher. > [@](#): > > I’ve met people like that, and I think many of them lack mental toughness when it comes to physical activity. Especially when they blame others for not motivating them, and think sports are stupid. The underlined part looks like an attempt to move the goalposts: your original quote was: “ **I always find that most physically weak people are also mentally weak.** ” Not just “**lack(ing) mental toughness when it comes to physical activity**”. ‘Not being sufficiently motivating’ is not the same thing as ‘deliberately obstructing’. And how do you know they hate sports? Many such people I know are avid sports fans. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/129 "2005-08-12T01:17:50Z")
> [@](#): > > No, I’m saying that, in my expoerience, people who are physically weak, are also mentally weak. They give on on things that they find to be difficult, and aren’t self motivated. I would respectively suggest that your experience is limited. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/130 "2005-08-12T01:18:33Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > No, I’m saying that, in my expoerience, people who are physically weak, are also mentally weak. They give on on things that they find to be difficult, and aren’t self motivated. Bullshit. I am one of the most self-motivated people you’ll ever meet. I’m not going to waste time giving my full resume, but most people are impressed by it. You don’t accomplish half of what I have unless you’re self-motivated and don’t back off just because something’s “difficult”. What I am not is athletic. I’m okay with that; I’ve come to accept that most physical activities are things I will never be good at. I’m not even going to make excuses for it. Physical activity is just something I don’t do, and I, for one, resent the hell out of anyone who tells me I’m somehow defective because of it. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/131 "2005-08-12T03:47:29Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > Really? Please tell me why you disagree with it rather than going on about how your daddy didn’t teach you how to play basketball. > > But if I came into a calculus class, not knowing how to add and subtract, you would be understandable frustrated. If you weren’t exposed to the rules of a sport, you could have done plenty of things to ameliorate the situation. You could have looked it up in a book, asked a friend, or watched a game on TV. Either way, you don’t seem like the type of person I’m talking about. However, even if you had a hard time in calculus, I don’t think that would justify the entire class ganging up on you, assaulting you (and yes, it happens), the teacher letting it happen, or even joining in. Would it? > [@](#): > > I had plenty of classes like that. I had a pre-AP calc class with the hardest teacher in school. He would deliberately try to befuddle and embarrass people who didn’t know the answers. I, being a slacker, was often put on the hot seat. The whole situation sucked. However, if I were to come here and say the calculus is dumb, schools shouldn’t be teaching it, and that it’s unnecessary, I’d be wrong. You can’t control the behavior of others. People who allow other people’s actions to affect them have to bare some responsibility in the outcome. Of course the are mitigating circumstances in many cases, but if you allow some rude kid to prevent you from enjoying sports, then you are to blame. Ah, so you admit to being a slacker, then turn around and point the finger at us for slacking at gym? I don’t hate sports, and I don’t want PE to be done away with. I want it to be revamped, so it’s taught properly, and not by some angry jock wannabe, or some dirty old man. It would have been nice to actually LEARN something, rather than be someone’s punching bag (sometimes literally!). I don’t think that’s asking too much, do you? I am tired of you coming into thread after thread and belittling everyone else’s experience, and acting as if you somehow know better than everyone else. You will probably tell me that’s not what you mean to do-but it’s how you come off. ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/132 "2005-08-12T04:00:44Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > Then I’m sorry that teamwork wasn’t invented earlier, **Ashes, Ashes**. We could’ve used it at my schools 20 years ago. Back then, it was evidently such a new discovery that only sports teams were allowed to have any. Ha! As with many new products, the cost of good school-grade teamwork has been reduced significantly over time. There’s hardly a school that doesn’t have piles of it lying around, to tell the truth. Teamwork in the classroom goes in and out of fashion, not going ‘out’ as far each time. Twenty years ago, depending upon the region, how traditional the teachers were, and so on, it probably wasn’t used for much more than the occasional group project. Right now it’s coming back in, in a big way, so that you’ll hardly be able to find a kid working solo on anything. This new and improved, modern-style teamwork is the answer to all our problems and is going to be seen in every school. For a few years anyway. Constance, thy name is _not_ the California education system. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/133 "2005-08-12T04:12:26Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > (It would also be taught by a _real_ certified instructor rather than by an overweight football coach who spent the period flirting with his female TAs while he invented more plays for his playbook. I have respect for only one of the PE teachers I have ever had.) If you’ll go over the very first post I made in this thread I said PE has such poor instructors because the administration doesn’t take the class seriously. > [@](#): > > If algebra were taught in the equivalent of my PE classes, you’d be graded on how well you solved the puzzles but not taught how, and other students would get bonus points for doing your homework before you could, and this would drive your grade down without any way to make it up. I feel as though we’re simply talking past one another. I have already acknowledged, more then once, that many physical education programs are terrible. I even specifically mentioned that the fundamentals of the sport being played needs to be taught so you’re preaching to the choir here. Someone chimed in with the question of why we even have PE in this day an age. I reply with the several reasons why PE is a valuable part of the curriculum and the assertion that teamwork was earned was deemed fetid. I do think PE can help teach kids about teamwork but obviously this isn’t going to happen in a progam that’s poorly run. In algebra I learned how to think logically not just how to solve equations. In English lit. I learned how to interpret the written world not just the meaning of a few poems and books. So let’s stop talking past one another. I realize many people found gym to be useless but that doesn’t mean it has to be useless. Marc ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/134 "2005-08-12T04:19:03Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > You can’t control the behavior of others. Um, isn’t that what a teacher is supposed to do? Control his or her classes? > [@](#): > > People who allow other people’s actions to affect them have to bare some responsibility in the outcome. Ah, so you’re gonna blame the victim instead of making the teachers take charge of their own students. Nice. Didn’t you say you were an educator once? Double nice. > [@](#): > > Of course the are mitigating circumstances in many cases, but if you allow some rude kid to prevent you from enjoying sports, then you are to blame. What’s so wrong with not enjoying sports? No, really, what is? I mean, whether or not I’m to blame for my dislike of team sports really doesn’t matter all that much to me. I don’t think it makes me a lesser or lazier person. Tell me, do you do calc problems for fun? ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/135 "2005-08-12T05:00:55Z")
> [@MGibson](#): > > So let’s stop talking past one another. I realize many people found gym to be useless but that doesn’t mean it has to be useless. I wholeheartedly agree that it doesn’t have to be as useless as it is now, then. I believe I said I support PE in some other incarnation at the end of my very first post in this thread. I’m still puzzled why you think the algebra testing is enough the equivalent of the PE testing that it warranted a mention, because as you saw from my comparison, I don’t make that parallel. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/136 "2005-08-12T05:55:25Z")
> [@continuity eror](#): > > Didn’t you say you were an educator once? Double nice. No. He has an aunt or something that’s a teacher, so apparently that makes him an expert. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/137 "2005-08-12T12:41:11Z")
> [@brickbacon](#): > > I had plenty of classes like that. I had a pre-AP calc class with the hardest teacher in school. He would deliberately try to befuddle and embarrass people who didn’t know the answers. I, being a slacker, was often put on the hot seat. The whole situation sucked. However, if I were to come here and say the calculus is dumb, schools shouldn’t be teaching it, and that it’s unnecessary, I’d be wrong. You can’t control the behavior of others. **People who allow other people’s actions to affect them have to bare some responsibility in the outcome.** Of course the are mitigating circumstances in many cases, but if you allow some rude kid to prevent you from enjoying sports, then you are to blame. You should _totally_ be a rape counselor. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/138 "2005-08-12T13:58:46Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > You should _totally_ be a rape counselor. > :rolleyes: Well in all fairness, a lot of you seem like you make great victims. Not that some of you don’t have legetimate gripes. But it’s how you respond. There will always be assholes. Heck, half of competition is intimidating your opponent. The way you don’t be a victim (rape or PE or otherwise) is you stand up for yourself and don’t allow other people to define who you are. I also suspect that a lot of the folks who hated PE also felt like outsiders in general. It’s one thing to be known among your friends as the guy who sucks at basketball. It’s quite another to feel like the whole world thinks you are worthless because you can’t shoot a layup. I’ve had good PE experiences and bad ones (and by PE, I’m also including summer camp and similar mandated physical activities). Probably the worst was some dickhead counsellor who yelled at me because I sucked at water polo (when the fuck would I have ever learned water polo?). Later he sent one of his peons (who happened to be our cabin’s outcast) to appologize. Basically I (and my cabin pals) was like “tell him to tell me himself or go fuck off”. I guess he went and fucked off. The following summer he was kicked out mid-session for some thing or another. The point being is that most people know who the assholes are and there’s no reason to feel you suck because someone else has emotional issues. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/139 "2005-08-12T14:11:53Z")
> [@](#): > > The way you don’t be a victim (\*\*rape \*\* or PE or otherwise) is you stand up for yourself and don’t allow other people to define who you are. I also suspect that a lot of the folks who hated PE also felt like outsiders in general. It’s one thing to be known among your friends as the guy who sucks at basketball. It’s quite another to feel like the whole world thinks you are worthless because you can’t shoot a layup. Yeah, right. I have an idea. Why don’t you do some volunteer work at a rape crisis center? Or a a battered women’s home. Explain to the residents that if they had only stood up for themselves, this would not have happened. On second thought, maybe not. Seriously, those of us who hated PE for any of the various reasons already stated are not necessarily allowing others to “define who we are.” We’re just saying we hated the class! We’re not saying we didn’t have plenty of pride in our actual achievements elsewhere. We’re saying we resent the mistreatment and/or waste of time. Or we’re wishing that the classes had been managed better. ---
**Author:** ![dragongirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@dragongirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragongirl)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2005, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437/140 "2005-08-12T14:24:07Z")
I was never an athletic person, I had no interest in sports at all. PE wasn’t my favorite class in school at all, but whether it was good or bad depended a lot on the teachers. The teachers changed every semester so we all got the good with the bad. The best teacher was a former Marine Corps Drill Instrustor. I had heard about him and was terrified of him at first. But he never criticized or insulted us, he would teach us, talk to us and motivate us to work as hard as we could. Another one weighed about 500 lbs, no kidding. As long as we showed up, we passed. I don’t think he expected anything from us because he didn’t do much himself. The worst was a woman who should never be allowed to teach anyone, anything. She was a horror. She picked on the less athletic kids, showered praise on her favorites and overlooked the bullying that happened right in front of her if it was done by one of her “pets”. She would walk into the locker room and tell me and a few other girls how unattractive we were and that we never had a fair shot in life because of our appearances. She was a vollyball freak. If we couldn’t do that well, we would never succeed in life. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-pe-teachers/316437.md?page=8)