When we picked teams for elementary school softball, it always came down to me and Manuel, a kid who only had one leg. They’d pick him first because at least he could catch.
I think I would have enjoyed PE a lot more had the teachers tried to be like my other teachers.
You can’t control kids being picked on all the time, but you most certainly can while they’re in your class, right in front of you. I used to get picked on because I was shy and wouldn’t change in front of anyone else, for a long time because I wasn’t allowed to shave my legs, and merely because I had a “weird” name or didn’t understand the same pop-culture references as them or a multitude of similar reasons.
If the other teachers saw it they’d try to stop it. Most of my PE teachers would just look the other way! Kids would get picked last, but there was no attempt made to try and involve those kids. Even the ones who wanted to play.
Also, it was brutal. Rather than letting you improve in team sports, they would just shove you out of the way. Kids were so competitive. I would try to play volleyball, and I’d literally get shoved out of the way so the other girls could hit it - and I was much too shy to speak up, most of the time. And the gym teacher would watch, and do nothing.
Not to mention sports like Dodgeball, where they would deliberately aim to hurt the less popular kids, by throwing the ball at their faces, etc., and again the teacher would just stand there, tacitly approving.
My two cents.
In spite of being in (at the time) fabulous physical condition, I could not run a 10 minute mile if my very life depended on it. I still can’t. I never will be able to do so. Arthritis combined with several serious injuries to the joints of my right leg. I have trouble walking that far at any speed without nasty grinding pain.
I damn near failed PE because of it. I showed up every day - but I was “unable to perform to required standards”. The issue wasn’t my level of fitness - at the time I was a lifeguard and swam a mile every day that I worked (5 days a week). I was “unable to perform to require standards” because my joints were (and are) so unstable that they’d dislocate if pushed into a high-impact sort of workout. Like distance running.
My PE teacher refused - point blank - to believe that this was in fact the case. Despite a note from my doctor, followed by an irate visit from my mother and my doctor, followed by an even-more-irate visit from my father and my former basketball coach (the high school girl’s varsity coach). He was totally convinced that I was slacking. I must be lazy.
PE was an adventure in torture for me. I was reasonably popular, in great shape, and a straight-A student and damned if the requirement of PE didn’t almost drive me into quitting high school altogether. I can’t even imagine how hideous it must have been for the girls who weren’t reasonably popular and in good shape. It had to have been unimaginable.
For the record I didn’t shower after PE either - it was the last class of my day, and given the choice between a) showering in public and b) leaving school and proceeding directly home to my own private shower, I didn’t even have to think about that one. Plus, on the days I didn’t go directly home, I went directly to work - accessible from the locker room at school - where I was required to shower before changing into my work “uniform” of swimsuit and T-shirt/shorts anyway.
That’s right.
Gym class is the last bastion of exclusivity and derision for those who don’t belong. because nobody EVER rolled their eyes at having to have a kid they perceived as less intelligent than them on a team project. Nobody ever gave a kid who was having trouble keeping up in trigonometry or English a hard time.
Because the “smart kids” are soooooooo much better than the athletic kids. :rolleyes:
So is trigonometry or quoting Shakespeare.
In a day and age where they have to RENAME Adult Onset Diabetes for the specific reason that twelve-year-olds are getting it, we need gym class and we need more of it. And, quite frankly, because the fat or unmotivated or unathletic will not, to the main, use their “free period” for physical self-improvement.
I was a tiny kid growing up. I didn’t break five feet until my sophomore year in high school, and I was a 5’2", 101-pound high-school junior. But I went to gym class every Wednesday and I enjoyed the hell out of it. I tried out for whatever sport I wanted. I ran sub-100 lb. track in the winter and spring, and, when my growth spurt hit, I played football and intramural basketball. All this while maintaining a 3.8 GPA, playing AD&D, and being president of our comic book club.
This thread and the vehement agreement it engenders, not to mention the flames that accompany dissent, are indicative of the bias against the physically gifted and the arbitrary moral high ground assigned to those who are physically deficient.
Make no mistake about it. Being obese, whether genetic or habitual, is a problem. And physical exercise helps.
Being tiny is not a crime, and neither is being exclusively smart, or simply uncoordinated. But the purpose of PE is to get you out and moving and used to exercise. Because it’s not OK to say “I’m just different” and not make any effort.
I have a long-standing dream of opening a private school, dedicated to academic excellence. The only PE activity would be martial arts training.
Actually, mostly the kids that excel are the ones that get made fun of. Or at least that was the case in my time.
Plus, “rolling your eyes” at someone who isn’t doing as well in class is miles different from hitting them with a large rubber ball deliberately or ridiculing them loudly, in front of their classmates.
Jocks have power. Bright kids do not have the power. I’m not bitter, I’m just pointing out a truism.
I loved PE! Now, don’t get me wrong - I have never in my life run under an 11 minute mile - but gym was the highlight of my day for many years because I could act like a jackass and get away with it. Not to other kids, of course, but just playing the games in general were fun for me. My friends and I would do really immature things that were very hillarious at the time (like wear the bags the gloves came in and run around the bases screaming touchdown), and our teacher generally didn’t care.
Once, when my friend and I were shown to suck/not try in volleyball, our teacher at the time actually made us hold up the net for the rest of the match. That didn’t turn out good for those playing. Other than that I thought it was a pretty funny thing for him to do.
My gym class was never a big deal. If you showed up and participated, you got an A. You didn’t have to do well. You didn’t have to excel. You just had to do the activities for the day.
As for the mile, I ran mine in seven minutes and some change and I was as pathetic of a jock as they come.
In a physical sense, of course it is. My point is, however, that derision for the “weaker” members of the herd is nolt limited to physical activity. There’s just a larger pain component to the derision of jocks.
I don’t disagree with you here, either.
The main issue that I have with the negative emotions displayed toward the physically gifted by the non-physically gifted is twofold:
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“We’re just different and it isn’t right to ask us to change.” Sure, there’s difference. But not every fat kid has a thyroid problem, and not every uncoordinated kid has a genetic spatial-comprehension problem, and to pretend so is foolish.
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“We’re morally better than them.” Having traveled in both “circles,” I can tell you that, in my experience, the moral low ground belongs to the brains. The jocks are just trying to win a game when they’re pushing the brains out of the way (and I got pushed out of the way a lot, and I’ve been known to do some pushing as well). But the derision for the jocks that’s leveled outside the gym environment is some of the most mean-spirited and nasty stuff you can imagine. Sure, it’s a bit of a defense mechanism. But that is no more right than the pushing.
I’m just sick and tired of the double standard, that’s all. Being the tiny kid did suck, don’t get me wrong. But that doesn’t mean I want to tear down the institution just because there were parts of it that I wasn’t good at. That’s the way with every institution ever created.
It boggles my mind that some of the same people who are so against non-graduates being allowed to walk at the ceremony are also for passing everyone in gym class just for showing up.
I would have had no objection to PE if it actually taught me something worthwhile. PE in my high school consisted of everybody changing, then going to the gym, where the teacher would take attendance, then he’d say, “okay, go to it,” toss us some balls, then he’d go do a crossword puzzle. The sport changed depending on the season. It was softball, volleyball, basketball, floor hockey, and dodgeball, and the only exception was every winter there’d be a period of several weeks where we’d all pile into a bus and go to the bowling alley. This I enjoyed. Actually, I liked floor hockey too, because I was actually kind of good at it. And once in a very great while, the teacher would get in a weird mood and let us do something different. This happened twice in four years. Once we got to do archery, and once we got to go cross country skiing around the football field.
Anyway, there was no instruction, if you didn’t know how to play, you had to pick it up on your own, and of course, if you didn’t know how to play, or if you were just generally unathletic, you’d be harrassed and teased.
At my high school, if you played any varsity/JV sport during a particular term, you had study hall instead of PE. I still had to take PE because I was the field hockey and lacrosse manager, not an actual player.
I’m afraid PE’s going the way of Home Ec and other electives in my area. The state-mandated assessment tests are forcing high school curriculums to teach to the test and nothing else. There’s going to be a generation of unathletic kids who’ll have no inkling of what teamwork is all about.
I had an OK time in PE and I’m not very athletic.
I went to a four year Catholic HS and I graduated in 82.
The classes were small and we were only required to take PE our Freshman year.
But then my Senior year myself, and several friends, all had a free period together. However it was 5th period and we all had a sixth period class so we couldn’t leave school early or go off and do too much. But then we saw that a PE class was offered at that period so we all took PE again. Six Seniors mixed in with about 20 Freshman, good times man, good times.
And I did the most chin ups of anybody. I more than tripled some people and beat everybody by a good margin.
I never liked PE. But I had a secret advantage that I learned in junior high. At the beginning of the year, we ran a mile and recorded the time. At the end of the year, we would run it again and be graded on our improvement. I ran as fast as I could and when I finished I was all sweaty and exhausted. As I sat there watching the other kids come in, a guy I had known for years asked me why I ran so fast. I looked confused. Then he explained that if you just ran really slowly at the beginning of the year, you didn’t have to do any work and it would still look like you had improved so you’d get an A…
Thus, my years in PE forever after were cake. Just look like a clumsy jackass at first, then “improve” as you went along. Although I did cut class enough that my grades weren’t really that good after all.
Do you really think a dodgeball class three times a week (most of which is not spent in physical activity, as we spent at least fifteen minutes picking teams and ten minutes at each end of class getting dressed/showered/lined up… the game itself took up maybe 25 minutes) is going to prevent type II diabetes? More than, say, a free period in which you could run freely (and under my plan, the free period would have to be used doing some sort of physical activity, it just wouldn’t be graded or structured)? Individual activities like running, cycling, and swimming are far more strenuous than team sports, especially stuff like dodgeball and volleyball where many of the players are stationary for long periods of time.
And nothing schools do to slow down the rise of diabetes is going to matter as long as parents let their kids eat junk all day and sit in front of the TV. Saying gym class has anything to do with diabetes is like saying you can stop a spurting artery with a Band-Aid. I don’t think the average kid burns up 200 calories in an average dodgeball game.
Exactly what I’m saying.
The ideals of being ridiculed in front of twenty other girls? The ideals of having your imperfections pointed out on a daily basis?
I do exercise. I walk at least an hour a day and I’d start running again if I could find a track within bussing distance. “Sports” like that are the purest form of exercise. Team sports, especially as practiced by a bunch of high schoolers, aren’t all that physical by comparison. And never, in any of my gym classes, were we ever encouraged to do sports or exercise outside of class. The teachers didn’t teach you how to apply the lessons of PE to your own life. You had to do that yourself, and most kids just didn’t.
That happens in other school areas as well. The difference is, if a kid isn’t participating in science lab or collaborative projects in art class, the teacher will (usually) take them aside and try to figure out the problem, and maybe give them some outside help. Never happened in any gym class I was in.
And no, I didn’t shower after class. It thought it was totally gross to be using a shower that other people used before me, people who may have been on their periods or done something disgusting to the shower before I got in. And they also made a teacher watch you (not our male gym teacher, but a woman… but still), which freaked me out. I also didn’t change in front of other people.
First, I must tell you all that my HS gym teacher was 300lbs. I am not exaggerating. She was so fat that she could barely walk, yet she would give us shit for not doing enough sit ups to meet that Presidential Fitness test. I could do them, as I was always pretty in shape, but it was kind of hard to take from someone who clearly didn’t actually care that much about physical fitness.
I will say that high school PE was better than middle school, where it was a little slice of hell every day. I was a late bloomer and looked at the other girls changing with a mix of amazement and horror. Forget about how I looked at the boys and they at us. The uniforms! Do they need to be that ugly and polyestery? And fit so… weirdly? Thank god uniforms are a thing of the past now.
I think PE teachers need to be more aware of what’s going on in their classrooms because it’s an unstructured environment. Any teacher will tell you that it’s in those unstructured situations that the vast majority of the bad things happen in school, not just the gym. I think kids who don’t succeed academically, or who only have a meaningful advantage in the gym and nowhere else in a scholastic setting, take that opportunity to sock it to the other kids. If you’ve never been hit in the face with a dodgeball, thrown at full tilt, then you have no idea what I’m talking about and should sit back and try to imagine it. All the A+ grades in the world do not make up for it.
I am one of those people who, while not overweight or ill, was never going to be good at the classic gym activities. Right now, I’m 5’0, and in middle school, I was inches smaller and weighed about 80lbs. I couldn’t hit a volleyball over a net, or shoot a basketball, or hit someone with a dodgeball. I could run, climb the rope, and do the gymnastics, but not much else. It was rough, because the mockery was open. Everyone could see how well or badly you were doing, unlike in an academic classroom, where you can keep your failures private. That’s the big difference. Also, in academic settings, there’s little chance of physical harm or outright, dick in the dirty humiliation happening on a daily basis, as there is in gym. And, um, also, the nudity isn’t so hot for kids going through puberty at varying rates. Y’all saw Carrie, right?
I have seen changes, though. The school where I work allows the kids to work out in a nautilus room, run the track, or play team sports, as they wish. That I’d have loved, because team sports were not for me. I’ve heard of other schools exempting kids from PE if they were playing a sport in or out of school, including martial arts classes and the live-action outdoor adventure games kids play on weekends. This is a positive sign… along with the fact that the group showers seem to be a thing of the past.
I learned far more about teamwork by doing group work in English and Social Sciences than I ever did in PE. In PE I was taught that if you aren’t athletic, you aren’t part of the team, even if you try. And I learned that ‘teamwork’ was all about teasing the fat kids (or if you were lucky, being ignored by the rest of the team).
In English, I learned that everyone is a valuable part of the team because they all have opinions to contribute and that everyone is treated equally, regardless of their intelligence. Everyone had their place - even if you weren’t smart, you could be the one who wrote down all the answers to the questions the group answered. I learned listening skills, public speaking, critical thinking skills and how to respect all people. You weren’t excluded from the group unless you chose to be - by slacking off.
Oh, and the disabled kids were never beat up by someone their coach bribed because they didn’t have good athletic skills. :rolleyes:
I don’t think PE was a bad thing in my case. Going into middle school, I was a slightly overweight wiseass who was too busy cracking jokes to avoid being picked on to care about athletic competition.
I had a fantastic Gym teacher (a former All-American Lax player) who was young, hip and cool - over the course of three years he was my teacher, I lost every bit of excess weight, learned self-discipline and the value of teamwork, and got in good enough shape to make varsity soccer and lax my freshman year at a very competitive private school, something I never would have even considered trying beforehand.
I am convinced that if it weren’t for this teacher, I would have had an entirely different and most likely not as successful high school career overall, not just athletics.
PE doesn’t teach you anything. At least, not back home. The nutrition stuff and related ‘know your body’ info was all covered in ‘Health’ class. Fortunately, PE wasn’t required after Junior High when I was going through, so I had one year of it, and that’s it.
The other problem with PE is that Forced Fun Isn’t. In fact, there is nothing LESS fun than Forced Fun. As a result of PE class, I developed a strong distaste for athletics, and would probably be in better shape now if I hadn’t had to endure it.
The other other problem with PE is that for many, it’s just an exercise in psychological torture. The same might be said for high school in general, I suppose - but compare a poor performance in a basketball game to a poor performance on a math test. Chances are, unless you tell them, your classmates don’t know how you did on the math test, and even if they did, they wouldn’t make fun of you. Not so with the basketball game, where the problem is further compounded by the fact “you made us lose!”
I really dodged a bullet by getting out of high school-level PE, I think.
I can’t help but think that if Nietzsche had foreseen how his arguments would get turned into bumper sticker slogans, he would have given up and become an accountant.
Are you seriously attempting to assert that insulting words are morally equivalent to physical assault? :rolleyes: