Auggh, the PE memories.
My school system had a “Principal’s Honor Roll” for students who made straight A’s on their report cards.
Not once did I ever earn this honor, and it was always because I was never able to get an A in PE. 
Are you sure? That’s not that much faster than walking. Maybe they just told you that?
I mean, I was just about the worst long distance runner in the history of the world, and got stitches in my side like nothing before or since, and I could do a mile in half that time.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve had a lot of really creepy gym teachers. One of these guys would try to make as much physical contact as possible with the girls in the class. Some of these girls would really go along with it, I assume beacuse it netted them easy A’s without having to put any effort into PhysEd activities like their classmates. Bonus points would be awarded for “pig tails!” or (funky) “socks!”–the latter open to both genders of student. There were always rumors that Mr. so-and-so had at one point boinked one student or another.
Another gym teacher got fired for embezzling a year or two before I moved to that town.
I can’t be the only one…
Joining in to say that, I, too had to take remedial gym. Which wasn’t that bad.
I do remember some horror stories. I was always the smallest girl in the class and gym was always co-ed. I was NOT evenly matched with the larger boys in the class, and especially when I went to a school that combined 2 grades into the same class. Some of these kids had anger management issues and would genuinely try to hurt me, because they could.
I would definitely have benefitted much more from fitness classes than PE. My university also required PE (2 semesters I think) and ironically I took at least 1 PE course each of the 8 semesters I attended, because I could take yoga, dance, and horseback riding.
Ugh…Phys Ed.
Luckily I was always able to do well when we were forced to run or sprint or do sit ups for the Fitness tests…but that FUCKING v-sit and reach always got me. I could never get past the negative 7 inch mark. I have long legs and I am simply not that flexible.
The teachers always gave me shit saying “if you just practice, you’ll be able to do it.” I called bullshit on it every time. My mother did ballet from the time she was 10 til she was 25, and she was never ONCE flexible enough to touch her toes. It just isn’t in the genetics for me.
I consider myself extremely fortunate that it was not required in my high school classes for us to shower. If I would have had to shower in front of my post-puberty classmates as the not-yet-finished-puberty 18 year old I was at the time…I would not have graduated high school. I would have simply refused to go to gym and taken an F.
For the most part I could scrape by with not really having to do anything. Just showing up, dressing, and doing the warm up exercises. But every so often…
Baseball, the bane of my existence. Not only was there the humiliation of getting picked for the teams, but I had negative throwing, catching and batting skills. My dad never took the time to teach me to play catch, so my mom, who never did any sport other than ballet decided to teach me as a wee lad just so I wouldn’t be completely embarrassed in gym classes. But as a result, I literally throw like a girl. Because I was taught by one. Nothing shoots your self esteem down faster and farther than having your shortcomings on display in front of a large group of girls in co-ed gym classes. It wasn’t enough that I was (and still am) a stick next to the guys my age, now my lack of athletic ability would be on display for all to see as well.
One moment that sticks out in my mind is a day we had to play basketball. With 20 minutes left in class, the whistle is blown and we are told to get in a single file line at the net. We are then informed that we each can’t go into the locker room until we made a 3 pointer. Not only am I a horrible shooter, my shooting form has brought great amounts of ridicule upon me, so I decided that I wasn’t going to shoot for the basket traditionally. I stood there, feet planted firmly on the ground the entire time, and flung the ball, overhand, one-handed (ala BASEketball), at the basket. Needless to say it didn’t go in on the first try, and my gym teacher laughed his ass off. So since I missed my shot, I had to go to the back of the line to await another chance.
Next chance…same shooting style. Another miss, more mockery. After I missed it the third time, he said “Look, if you actually make it in like that, the whole class can go to the locker room.” Fucking great! More pressure. Whereas before everyone was responsible for getting themselves out of the class, now people could heap blame on me for not making my shot! I finally made it though, and gave a hearty “fuck you” glance to my teacher as a shuffled into the locker room.
It’s not a stinking, fetid arguement and if you want to make a smart ass remark about my statements then please take it to the Pit. Even if they aren’t graded on teamwork they still learn about it through normal play. Drama, band, and orchestra, all required a great deal of teamwork but we weren’t specifically graded on it. So just because there’s not grade for teamwork doesn’t mean there aren’t lessons learned.
Marc
I don’t know how I always got an A in PE, because it certainly wasn’t my athletic ability. Not only was I about as wide as I was tall (the year my mom bought me a bright yellow sweatsuit it looked like a giant grapefruit was playing badminton), I take forever to learn to do things like swing a bat or make a basket and my very best will still be pretty pathetic. Add to the mix that I am unable to smoothly track a moving object. One second the ball is leaving the pitcher’s hand and the next time I see it, it’s in the catcher’s mitt. Try hitting a ball when you’re essentially blind and have to guess it’s position. It’s doable but damned difficult. Nobody said a negative word to me, and most kids were actually pretty nice. PE was a very valuable class for me, getting me out of my shell along with giving me a way to become more healthy. As positive as it was, it could have been a lot more, like many schools are trying to do now.
Where I work we have a good PE program. Well, half a good PE program, and it may explain the tough time a lot of people have with PE. Our school’s PE-teacher-types are currently split along gender lines, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s the same elsewhere. The two female teachers run a tight ship and do as the state curriculum requires-- they teach safe ways to excercise, as well as the rules of a variety of valuable athletic activities (they don’t teach dodgeball for example, because it’s half-way barbaric and the skills it teaches can be learned in other sports), they assign reports, test and record improvement. Kids are treated respectfully and generally come out of the class having learned a lot of things they’ll be able to use and enjoy their entire lives. That’s what I think of when I think of a general PE program, but the other teachers seem to be more common.
One of the male teachers does a half assed job, the other two are as worthless as tits on a bull. They aren’t earning their pay, and make the two good teacher’s jobs more difficult, as well as cheating their students of a good physical education. I’ve actually seen them do things that could result in injury to their students. Why do they get away with this behavior? Because they coach boys’ sports. They were hired for their ability to get the ‘important’ teams into the play-offs, not one of them has a degree in anything athletics-related. Hell, one of them isn’t even fully credentialed and wouldn’t have had allowances made if he were an english teacher. The women were hired because they were actually good teachers and it’s a bonus they can coach some of those silly girls’ teams. It’s not just the teachers, but administration and even the community who need to solve the problem. The attitude that PE is unimportant and you can just sling anybody into the position is what keeps PE from developing into a program that would earn the respect it deserves.
Because physical education is important. Students need to be well-rounded so that they have options. All subjects teach more than just what’s on the course title (or they should). I learned history in english class, physics in PE, and so on. My PE classes were taught as a sort of survey of various sports and physical activities, pretty basic compared to what should be done these days (one recent improvement has been the addition of PE classes that focus on a student’s particular interests, like dance or weightlifting). Even back in those simple classes I learned perseverence, critical thinking, team work, leadership, compassion, and to deal with dissappointment among other things. I’ve benefitted from all of what I learned in PE, some of it was the main reason I succeeded in many areas of my life and I might not have learned it as well or as efficiently elsewhere.
One more thing I came to realize-- PE made me sharper. Just as my brain got a bit mushy when I wasn’t taking a math class, PE kept me active physically and mentally. Not that it made me into a super-genius, but for me at least, a more active body led to a more active mind. Many years later, whenever I feel sluggish and fuzzy-headed, it’s generally because I’ve been doing nothing but sitting around and need to get moving again.
The way I look at it, PE doesn’t need to be eliminated, it needs to be improved, to better serve students’ needs.
I learned exactly zero lessons about teamwork in PE. Well, I learned that if I’m a beginner at a game or not athletic, I’m not welcome on any team and deserve harrassment. I guess that’s a lesson.
I’m not attacking you, so there is no need to take anything to the Pit; the argument in question still stinks. The “learning teamwork” canard has been forwarded to justify sports programs in a supposedly academic environment for years, and it continues to make me sick. Specifically, coaches laud the forty-odd students picked for the football team because it “teaches them teamwork,” as if the other fifteen hundred kids at the school had no need to learn any.
The teamwork argument is a complete smoke screen; if it truly were about teamwork then teamwork would be mandatory and graded elements of other school classes, not just the voluntary ones like drama, football, band, etc.
I agree that teamwork should be taught in school. But in my experience, PE is exactly where it ain’t. What was taught was “stay out of the way and let the jocks win the game for your side.”
If I could go back, I’d 6’4" of TLD would punch my old PE teachers in the head.
P.E was the only class I liked in high school. Yes, I could run, jump, hit and catch a thrown ball and alla that.
Some of the other classes I tolerated, but I hated math. I forced myself through several college math courses, because they were necessary for me to attain certain goals.
Those of you complaining about P.E. don’t have any bigger gripe than I do with math, yet time and again we see these “P.E. sucked” threads here. Now through with math, I’ve let it go along its dismal way.
Why can’t those of you that hated P.E. just forget it?
Question: What’s with all the gasp! group showers! sentiment? So what? I do notice that most of the complaints about showers are from the female posters, so, is this aversion to a group shower scene a female thing that is beyond my comprehension? It doesn’t seem to bother the guys so much.
our p.e. teacher in high school (circa 1967-1971 had a very easily understood grading scale completely independent of effort and or performance.
jocks got an A. fat kids, weaklings and nerds got a D. the middle group got a C or an occasional B.
he also taught american history, and used the same grading scale.
I can walk a mile in 14 minutes. It’s obviously just barely faster than 4mph. You don’t have to explain your post, but I even saw an 8th grader once break 6 minutes for the mile. 14 minutes is no aerobic fitness.
What does this have to do with gym classes? The kids were rightfully suspended and ridiculed for their actions.
This is what really bothers me. You had/have a loser’s attitude. Instead of trying to improve, you’d rather blame it on genetics or not being properly motivated by other people. Rather than trying to improve through practice, you sit out like a baby, most likely to write crappy poetry about how cruel the world is. I’m not saying being good at dodge ball should, or has to be high on your list of priorities, but don’t act at though your attitude had nothing to with your experiences. If someone had taken the same attitude about learning calculus or Latin history, everyone would agree he/she would deserve a bad grade and ridicule.
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. It’s akin to lacking intellectual curiosity. It’s about setting goals for yourself, and always wanting to be better than you were yesterday. How many of you people, who had a hard time in gym class, really tried your hardest everyday? I’m sure some people may have, but most of you guys found it to be difficult, and decided to give up. People complaining about having to run a 10-minute mile is pathetic. Any person in decent shape should be able to do that. I’ve never heard of any standards imposed by a gym teacher that are beyond what any healthy person is capable of (with practice).
The thing that separates elite athletes from good ones is mental strength and perseverance. Michael Jordan wasn’t born a great basketball player. He practiced and set impossibly high standards for himself, just like every other person who has done great things with their life. It seems like when a physical activity is concerned, people feel it’s OK to not demand more of themselves. If you take that attitude, then you should expect all the derision and humiliation. If you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences. Save the sob stories about how you were bullied, and always picked last. That’s life. I’m not saying that bullying is acceptable behavior, just that the bigger tragedy is that there are so many weak people with no desire to improve their situations.
Girls are often taught that it’s a bad thing to let other people see them naked. Indirectly, even in this ‘body positive’ phase people seem to think we’re going through, they’re often taught their bodies are shameful and shouldn’t be seen. Or they’re not taught how their bodies should look, so if they look ‘different’ to other girls who are in the locker rooms, then they end up feeling self-conscious and ashamed of how they are. Body issues are a bitch enough when you’re thirteen, let alone when there’s twelve to twenty other girls of various ages in there with you…
I’m a guy and I’m one of the people who said I would have had nothing to do with public showering. Not out of shame, but out of sheer embarrassment. Same as the one girl who said she was under developed.
Not everyone has finished puberty by their last few years of high school (I sure as hell hadn’t, and even today at almost 21 years old, there is no way I would ever be naked around anyone except for an intimate girlfriend). The last thing we want is to be naked, at our most vulnerable, in front of our peers in yet another potentially esteem-decimating situation.
They may have got the bad grade, but who got the derision and ridicule in class? The ones who didn’t learn the material and sat in the back row making origami triangles to flick through finger-goalposts, some of whom would get the C anyway because the Coach would arm-twist the calc teacher? Or the ones who actually learned the material?
Let’s see… yes, it was me. I learned it, I applied myself, and I got teased for being smart. The only time any of the slack-jawed athletes were on my side was in team-based stuff like Knowledge Bowl where my studying could get them loose from the evening’s homework.
And I rather enjoyed parts of PE because I wasn’t terribly bad at them. I did try to meet the Presidential Physical Fitness whatsitzes they had. I did apply myself to dodge ball, oddly enough, because it was fun trying not to be hit, even though I was specially targeted by all of those resentful origami-triangle-flicking idiots who already disliked me from academic classes. And who got teased?
Yeah, me again. So go figure. Your standard of “try hard and apply yourself and you won’t get teased” doesn’t match my own experiences. I envy you if your educational world was that well organized.
On the other hand, I hated math class too. 
Group projects are done in just about every class at my school. They’re mandatory and graded (though I give a grade for the group as a whole as well as an individual’s contributions). The newest bandwagon we’re jumping on pushes group work, or pairing at the very least, on an almost daily basis. When done properly, kids work harder and learn the material better, along with teamwork skills.
John Carter, besides Sierra Indigo’s points, girls just aren’t used to being even partially unclothed around each other as much as men are. Look at the difference in restroom facilities. I don’t think I’ve been completely naked, among strangers, since I was a toddler ( I had a habit of streaking the year I was two). There just aren’t many places where a woman can’t find alternatives.
I learned that people resented me being on their team and that if I lost or missed the ball everyone would ridicule me for the rest of the day. That’s the kind of “teamwork” I learned about.
brickbacon, maybe I had a “loser’s attitude” because no matter how hard I tried, I was still clumsy and uncoordinated and everyone made me feel like shit for it. Granted, it got better later on when I was in high school, but I didn’t learn JACK SHIT in gym class. I don’t have a problem with PE, I have a problem with how it’s taught. That only the jocks matter and if you’re not a jock you might as well not exist.
No offense, but it often seems that in threads like these, you show a complete lack of empathy and sensitivity.
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.