Why did (do) some students refuse to participate in gym class?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Maybe the big idea was for fit bodies in sharp minds, but in practice it was about training boys that manhood is a daily battle to prove you’re not a faggot.

We were made to play basketball in bad weather, flag football in good. The gym teacher was also the school’s coach in both those sports. He was a closeted homosexual who’d not only pat boy’s butts, but hold his hand there, up in the crack, while giving them “pep talks.” These pep talks were harranges about not being a weak little pussy.

I asked my guidance counsellor to intermediate with the coach, to see if I could run laps while the rest of the class poked and elbowed each other in the groin and face during basketball or flag football. The word came back from the coach that I should come see him and he’d, quote: “make everyting sweet for me.” I let the issue drop.

That was over thirty years ago. I run the equivalent of 24 laps day. The guys who I went to school with who are still alive are all fat. Perhaps, subliminally, the former to escape preadatory gym teachers, the latter to make themselves unattractive to them.

22

I HATED gym with a passion. I was very shy in highschool and not into sports at all. I was a straight A student more concerned with academics. I never refused to participate but I only took it for the required number of years. It was my worst subject. I also hated to change in front of the other girls as I was so shy so I used to change in the bathroom. I hated gym…did I mention that?

23

I graduated High School in '80 and I was one of those girls. Like others have said, it was about being humiliated and bullied.

When I started going to gym class in the 7th Grade, I was mis-took for the teacher because I had breasts. Big ones. All sports was that much harder for me and co-ed gym classes involved running which was more humiliating because it never dawned on my mother to get me a sports bra and being physically active did nothing other than make them flop around that much more. The showers were worse because the girls could then see and report back to their friends they were real.

I joined the band because they changed the rules that marching band time could be substituted for actual gym and for that, I became extremely grateful.

24

Asthma, and teachers who did not understand that asthma is not something you can “run off”. It was a lot better to not be involved then to participate until you are sick the rest of the day.

25

Not at my school, it wasn’t. I participated, played in every sport during the year as required, but was a terrible athlete. My mark was consistently 51%. I dropped out of Phys Ed as soon as it wasn’t required, and left me with a long-standing hatred for organised sports.

My comments on my Phys Ed teacher, Mr. Wotherspoon, are best reserved for the Pit.

26

At my jr. high school (1980s), there was one track for academically “gifted” students, maybe two or three percent of the student body, and the only class we had with the rest of the school was gym. It wasn’t the showering or changing, it was suddenly being alone in a group of people who all knew each other and knew that I was not part of the group. There were probably class and race issues that I wasn’t clued into at the time, as well; I know I was white and bused in from the suburbs.* I never refused to participate, but it was mostly hostile and unpleasant. It wasn’t a matter of participating: I wasn’t welcome. When the high school offered to give us PE credit for the time spent on the bus (seriously), I took it.

*It wasn’t as clear-cut a divide as other parts of the country: both the local kids and the “gifted” group were all races, and the “gifted” group included some local kids, but the balance was different. Our group was mostly white / Filipino; I’m not sure what the dominant mix was for the school as a whole.

27

I refused to participate in PE for the last two years or so of school, simply because I didn’t want to do it. Luckily for me, the teacher was happy for me to sit at the sidelines, so long as I was wearing the gym clothes.

I still don’t understand what place sport has in school: what exactly are you supposed to be “learning”? The time and resources could be much better spent on something useful, like a first aid class, cookery classes, or musical instrument lessons.

The only argument I’ve heard for PE is that it’s an attempt to tackle childhood obesity. As a former fat kid, I call bullshit on this argument. It only causes embarrassment, and a hatred of exercise which lasts into adulthood.

28

Thank goodness it was not mandatory at my school.

I think a lot of good reasons why kids would not want to participate have already been given, so I won’t bore you with all that.

29

That’s me! We weren’t permitted to ‘sit out’ at my high school in the 00s, but I repeatedly refused to dress properly, and very rarely participated in any way. I would just stand there, only move when the teacher yelled at me. When forced to run I would ‘run’ as slowly as humanly possible, taking 20 minutes to complete a mile run on one occasion. If forced to participate in team activities I would deliberately sabotage my team or hit the other kids with hockey sticks, etc. I was a big pain in the ass but the other kids seemed to find it amusing rather than annoying most of the time (unless they were the ones I was beaning with my stick). Teachers hated my guts for making their job more difficult but usually my gym teachers were the worst (IMO) and the hatred was mutual.

Disliking gym class began as soon as I was exposed to it in early elementary school. I am not at all competitive, can’t fathom caring about sports or who wins or loses, and hated the aggressive way the kids who did care acted. In particular, I hated the way the boys acted - I was always friends with more boys when I was young, and I remember that around 2nd-4th grade most of them turned into real dicks, and gym was the catalyst. It didn’t matter that I was the fastest kid in the class in 3rd grade and that I could’ve (and had) kicked the ass of any boy who gave me lip or made fun of my fat best friend - they all thought I was weak and inferior, just cause I was a girl, and if I proved them wrong they’d go out of their way to be nasty. Around that age I swore off boys, I never had straight male friends in school again.

The only real explanation I have for my problems with gym class and with school in general is that I have a negative attitude about life, and an authority problem. I have never done things just because everyone else does them, or because someone told me to, if I can’t find a sound reason why it’s right for me personally. School smelled like bullshit to me from day one and I passively resisted with all my might from 1st grade onward. If teachers wanted me to do anything other than sit at my desk and occupy myself with my own interests (I liked to read books of my choosing, draw, and write stories during class) it turned into a power struggle. I was a huge problem for my parents and teachers. But it could have been worse, I was always a very quiet and superficially polite kid and I never got sent to the principal’s office or suspended for misbehavior.

I’ve never been bullied, so that had nothing to do with hating school. Other kids usually thought I was crazy, but funny, and I always had a circle of close friends. I have done a little bit of bullying myself in fact, but only against kids who asked for it by being assholes or tormenting the weak kids in the class, if my memories are correct. I also never drank or did drugs in high school, but I hung almost exclusively with the ‘bad’ kids at school anyway (then I went home and holed up in my room, or went over to my teetotaling nerd friends houses).

Also, no one changed naked or showered at my school, ever. That would have been hellish - I was about 5 years behind all the other girls in everything but height, and I was intensely private about my body, wouldn’t even wear shorts or skirts.

I ended up leaving high school in 11th grade so I don’t know if my lack of gym credits in particular held me back. I failed a lot of classes… the only reason I didn’t fail every class and get held back multiple grades is that I usually went to class and I always did very well on tests, and on midterms and finals in high school. How well I did in any given class depended entirely on how much of the grade the teacher gave for homework, projects, and participation as opposed to proving I knew the material (I always did).

I guess my attitude towards school, gym class, and sports can be summed up as ‘This is stupid… FUCK YOU.’ And then I gave the finger to everyone, a lot, mostly while sitting in the corner.

ETA: OP, hope that’s an understandable explanation. Some kids are just born bitter and rebellious. I haven’t changed much.

30

This. I was hardly a jock, but I enjoyed gym. I wrestled, so there was no problem there, but I was (and am) useless on the track. I actually got a “D” one quarter my freshman year because our grade was entirely running. I got it back to an “A” by winning my weight class for the school in wrestling. Then I switched to “Athletics,” which was last period of the day for all sports. Swimming, water polo and loafing during the off season. Nobody had any issues with showering after practice, either. This was in the early 70s, and everybody dressed out and showered every day.

31

Can’t help thinking of this quote:

I too hated gym with a passion, but sitting out wasn’t an option. I don’t know what would happen if someone just sat there and refused like a mule – probably the same as if you did that in any other class.

The teachers were great – really enthusiastic about what they did, and very understanding, even for the chronically uncoordinated underachievers like me. No, the problem was, as mentioned above, it was an arena for bullies, where they could really let rip as they wanted. There was one pupil who would bring his dog to gym class (yes, it was a rough school, teetering on anarchy) and throw it at you. Then accuse you of “attacking his dog” and beat the crap out of you. His dog was called “Bully”.

32

Those who can’t teach gym, administrate.

33

In my day you couldn’t opt out of gym. But it was bad for some kids.

It was hard to really fail. We had golf one half semester and I came in every day after school for tutorial. The gym teacher said, “Mark you deserve an ‘F’ but because you came in and tried, I’ll give you a ‘C’.”

I was really, really, REALLY, bad at golf.

Or like Football, I could never throw that stupid ball straight. I still can’t. So I’d just say, “Make sure I never get the ball.” And everyone on my team did. I just blocked.

I can see how some kids hated it though. Our gym teachers, except for one, were really lame. They would take a team of five for basketball and put 4 guys from the basketball team with the one guy from chess club.

OK obviously this is stupid. How can that one guy ever get to play at all if he’s on a team in gym class with FOUR other guys from the school basketball team? He won’t get to play. So why bother?

Gym class was a joke in my day. I am all for physical fitness, but it should be actually FITNESS, not just running around aimlessly with a ball. Or playing kickball which only provides the person running the bases any exercise at all.

34

I “dressed down,” but I spent most of gym hiding behind equipment or loitering on the far edges of fields.

Why? I got bullied. It wasn’t just being called names- people were at points throwing rocks at me hard enough to make black bruises. People would break into my locker and throw my clothes and books under the shower. Games provided a great cover to punch or kick me. It was just hellish. So I’d try to stay as far out of sight as I could, so I wouldn’t become a (sometimes literal) target.

Now you know that your experiences are not universal.

35

I HATED gym class, for the most part. I’ve never been athletically competitive or particularly good at team sports (though I was OK at some individual things like swimming or gymnastics). And I was shy and bookwormy, and I got bullied a fair bit. The undiagnosed asthma probably didn’t help much, either.

I did always participate, and the teachers were decent to me and always gave me good grades because they knew I really was trying, but many of my friends blew off gym class and had to make it up in summer school if they wanted to graduate. I also resented that even if I got an A, it would drag down my GPA because my other classes were all honors and AP, which were weigted for GPA purposes (an extra half-point for honors classes and a full point for AP). In a school where hundredths of a point could significantly affect your class rank, that was a big deal.

36

:rolleyes:

Thank you Dr. Science, I had no idea there were bullies in high school until just this moment. Especially since I wasn’t a giant nerd who was bullied.

Oh wait, I was. And it wasn’t anywhere near what people in this thread (or on this board as a whole) have described happening to them everyday. It was annoying sure, but it just wasn’t that bad.

I mean honestly, the “woe is me” posturing that half this board does when it comes to bullies is tiring. They really threw rocks at you so hard you came home bruised? Another person had a dog sicced on them in school, in full view of the gym teacher? That’s just insanity.

37

I wish I could have opted out. As it was, PE taught me shame and fear rather than fitness and control of my body. Expect me to play a game but not show me what to do? Have everyone line up and be chosen by the team captains, and I was always picked last? What kind of teaching is that?

It didn’t help that I was skipped ahead in grade 1 and I was always a year younger, less developed, and weaker than my classmates.

PE was not mandatory after grade 9. I ran as far and as fast as I could to leave it behind. Which is a tragedy, because if the administrartion had just managed to separate the concepts of “physical education” and “team sports”, and provided teaching and class groupings geared to physical development and ability, rather than grade cohort, I would probably have learned something and been in better shape!

All I needed was the equivalent of a health club or the kind of gym you pay to go to and use the machines. If there had been coaching for that, with the football and rugby and so on as options, I’d have been a lot happier. But as it was, we couldn’t even use the “universal” weight machine unless we were on a team.

38

Gym class was stupid and occasionally very obviously dangerous.

I only refused to do the obviously dangerous stuff, but I would have preferred to do without it.

39

Really?

I was short, skinny, nerdy, looked funny (had buck teeth, giant glasses, awful hair, and 100% out-of-date hand-me-down clothes), talked funny, and never acted like the other kids growing up. I never got bullied, I just got into fights. I was a tough cookie and I made sure anyone who started shit with me paid for it. Other kids learned quickly I was kind crazy, and that as long as they were civil to me I’d be polite in return, so they were.

But I was friends with the nerds, outcasts, and underdogs in the schools I went to, and best friends for years with the fattest girl in my school. That made me understand very well that kids can do and say unspeakable things to each other and that it’s 1000x worse for some kids than others. Just because it didn’t happen to me doesn’t mean it didn’t happen to anyone. Children get physically hurt by bullies ALL THE TIME. The amount of supervision and protection available depends entirely on the school and on your parents. It can be life-destroying (literally, as we can see from the publicized rash of kids as young as 11 and 12 who are attempting/committing suicide because bullying is pushing them over the edge) and it’s offensive and ignorant for you to suggest that people lie about how bad it was, just because YOU never went through it.

Annoying, huh. Lucky you.

40

Dangerous? What was dangerous?