Random “bullying can be bad” anecdote: I had a classmate in grade school who was geeky. His family was poor, his mom was an alcoholic, and he got random nosebleeds that provoked laughter from classmates.
He also had a majorly messy desk, to the point that one day, his desktop (those lift-up tops over a metal bin, actually slanted away from him slightly if he wasn’t leaning on it to hold it down. The teacher had been on him to clean it out, and that day in the middle of class he was so enraged by this, for some reason, that he physically went over there and pushed the desk over with the kid sitting in it, such that the desk spilled everywhere, plus this boy hit the floor pretty hard. He yelled at the kid and made him pick up his stuff and clean the desk, on the spot.
If that isn’t a “it’s OK to pick on this kid” signal from a teacher, I don’t know what is.
I didn’t have to deal with bullying all that much, aside from the few mean girls in middle school. High school wasn’t bad at all for me; I had quite a few friends among various groups. But I will not deny that some kids had it very tough.
Not dressing out or participating wasn’t an option at my high school (class of '81).
I began public school as a HS freshman and gym was required in grades 9 and 10. I was the fat, slightly athsmatic, mostly uncoordinated, somewhat shy kid in the class. Bullies weren’t so much of a factor, but a ninth grade gym teacher who thought we were all USMC recruits was.
She tended to make any girl who wasn’t a prime athlete a cause by singling us out when we screwed up or did something less than graceful. She rarely believed that medical notes were legit, but had to acknowledge them nonetheless. As soon as you were back in class, she went after you with a vengence. I had the misfortune of spraining my ankle in late autumn that year and after my two week rest was up, she had me running laps without easing into it. Not only did I re-injure my ankle, but when I went down, I broke my wrist. Wonderful way of teaching me the joy of athletics. :rolleyes:
On the other hand, my tenth grade gym teacher tended to look upon her students individually; she had an eye for what you were better at and actually enjoyed and tended to give you a bit of extra encouragement in those areas. From her, I found that I wasn’t a bad softball or volleyball player and went on to play in leagues for a few years as an adult. World of difference.
To answer the OP, had I been allowed to not dress or participate, given my freshman year, I definitely wouldn’t have.
I think mostly for me I was just fat and lazy. Not really fat but super lazy. Our gym teacher was the basketball coach so he had the boys playing basketball while the girls had to run the bleachers for the full period just about every day. The boys always made fun of our bouncing down the bleachers, and the coach would laugh along with the male students. Who, by the way, thought it was hilarious to tug their shorts to the side and show of their treasures when we’d pass by.
I hated gym class, not just the dressing out. I would avoid it at any cost. Everything about it was horrible.
I hated everything about school though.
I always went to gym, unless I forged a note to get out of it (I got very good at my Dad’s signature). I would dress in my gym clothes and do the absolute minimum.
I never liked sports. I don’t understand the apeal. I don’t understand why people watch other people participating in sports, I just don’t get it.
The way my gym class was organized was that there were three teachers and each would run a differnt game. everybody got to choose what game to participate in. If there was an option that wasn’t a team sport I chose that every time, and if that wasn’t an option that I would try and pick a sport that the jocks wouldn’t.
Don’t get me wrong, I was an active kid. I was part of the swim club and had dance class three times a week, but I really only did things that were not “team sports”.
The problem was that there was always at least one kid on my team that was super compeditive. They would get frustrated and angry if you missed a shot or made any sort of mistake. Actually now that I think of it, I’m one of those people who hate to make mistakes. I prefer working on my own so I can catch my own mistakes and fix them myself. In gym any weakness is open for everyone to see. If I didn’t try, then no one would see how bad I was.
This was why the administration frowned on the gym teachers letting us use any of the excercise equipment during class. Officially it was because we weren’t “learning anything”, senior year the girls’ PE teacher finally admited to me that it was because they wanted to keep wear & tear to a minimum and “save” the machines for the student-athletes.
Usually the only time we got to use them was when half (or more) of the gym was taken over for something else. Never 2 gym classes (class was every other day) in a row. Only once was she able to manage it as an actual activity with sheets to track our progess and timed rotations and such. Which was a shame. Sure class usually turned into social time, but those tended to also be the only classes I’d leave covered in sweat and feeling some sense of accomplishment.
The school did offer a strengh training elective, but that was in addition to (not instead of) regular gym class. And you had to play an afterschool sport to be allowed to take it.
Until I found the Straight Dope I had no idea that it was common for students to be left unsupervised in the lockerroom. I just assumed every lockerroom had that glass walled office for the PE teachers and coaches. There was always someone in there in middle school and high school (we didn’t dress out in elementary school so that lockerroom was just used as a restroom). Even there when the PE teacher was out sick and the other sex’s taught the entire class they’d put someone in there to supervise us.
(bolding mine)
That was the cause of my only cursing out of a teacher ever. I’m sure he wasn’t closeted or a pervert though. He was the oldest PE teacher, chair of the PE dept, and head football coach. He taught one period a day, and I was unlikey enough to have him that period. He did everything short of calling me a faggot or pussy (he would’ve gotten in huge trouble if he actually did). It was those damn Presidential Fitness Tests. As usual I my performance had been substand. As he repeatedly said I wasn’t even meeting “the girls’ standards”.
Pullups, I couldn’t do a pullup. He wouldn’t let it slide he kept making me try over and over again in from of a small audience at that station. Finally I did one. He congradulated and as I was walking away he gave me a quick pat on the ass (like coaches do all the time with jocks). Well, I was already pretty pissed at him so I took the oppurtunity to turn around, scream (at the top of my lungs) that he was an f-ing pervert, and if he ever put his f-ing hand on my ass again I’d break his fingers.
Everyone stopped. In the entire gym. The girls PE teacher came running over, 2 teachers that had been in the hallway outside the gym heard and came running in. Everybody just started. Boy, was he pissed. He sent me straigth to the office; I didn’t even have a change to change or get my stuff. Naturally our vice-principal was upset that I dared say something like that to a teacher. I kept interupting him and telling him to read the school’s policies on sexual harrasment and unwanted touching from the handbook.
His attidude changed. He got downright apologetic and kept trying convince me that “that’s not how he meant it” and “the football players do it all the time”. Of course I knew all that, hey that class made my life hell every other day why shouldn’t I leap at the chance to make his life hell for awhile. The VP desperatly wanted this go away. I ended up getting myself switched out of that class so I had another PE teacher. The VP escorted me back the lockerroom to get my stuff (& also to have “a talk” with him that I wasn’t privy to). That teacher never said a single word too me for the rest of HS, but boy did I get the evil eye.
Until reading this thread, I had not realized people got graded on participation or effort in gym. We were graded on being athletic, so those of us who did not perform well got the bad grades we deserved for not trying hard. Because the only difference between me and an Olympic athlete is the effort.
I have never heard the term “dressing out” to refer to getting changed for gym/PE. I wonder if it’s a regional thing, or I’m just that oblivious?
I disliked gym class, because I was (and am) a terrible athlete with (literally) no depth perception, but what bothered me the most was that our teacher was a horrible woman who wouldn’t explain the rules but would call penalties anyways (the number of times I got called for being offside in soccer, but with no one ever answering the question as to what offsides WAS…!)
Thing is, I wanted to learn. I knew I sucked, but I wanted to try, and I was never given that opportunity. So it just became an excercise in doing the bare minimum in order not to be blamed for violating some rule you didn’t know existed. Also, the boys got to play all the fun games - football, hockey, baseball. Our teacher turned out to be oddly sexist for a woman, flat out stating that “girls don’t play these sports” so we were doomed to soccer, kickball and broomball. One time we managed to convince her to let us play baseball with the boys, and after a few boys said “why not teach the girls the rules first?”, she got angry and stopped the game and forced us to play another fucking game of kickball while the boys had batting practise instead! Insane.
I played a game of 2 on 2 pickup hockey for the first time in my life a couple of days ago…I sucked, but had a blast. My 15 year old brother in law took a few minutes to teach me a few puck handling and shooting tips, was really patient while I practised, and then we started playing…that’s what it should be like!
In my experience, quite a bit. Gym in my high school mixed upper- and underclassmen, and we all played together. Gym period also alternated with lab periods. If you were in a regular science class, your gym class would be predominantly kids in your grade. If you were in an honors science class, your gym class would be mostly with kids in other grades who didn’t take any science at all. This was the only way to ensure that the gym class sizes were more or less evenly distributed.
I was a very small kid in high school. Aside from one kid with bona fide growth problems, I was the smallest male in my grade quite consistently. I wasn’t entirely unathletic and I definitely wasn’t bullied. Though I didn’t care for team sports in general, I had a great time playing sports among people I was comfortable with.
But gym class my freshman and sophomore years was terrifying. No matter what sport we played, you were going to get thumped by the older, much bigger kids who just hated anyone in honors science. The worst was indoor “touch” football. The goal of the game was to never, ever catch a pass or try to run the ball because if you did, one of the seniors was bound to check you right into the folded-up bleachers. The level of violence was never truly obvious or blatant. These things just “happen” in gym class. By accident.
I did get hurt occasionally, and even fractured both of my hands on separate occasions. Once was in basketball, when one of the seniors unexpectedly passed a ball so hard to me I had to get my hands up in time to keep it from hitting me in the face. I ended up only breaking my hand instead of my nose. There is no doubt he was just fucking with me, since I was about a foot shorter than he was and was standing behind him.
I soldiered through it and just tried to keep a low profile. Things got a little better when I was a junior or senior. Even though I was still quite small, the underclassmen certainly never tried to get physical. It was sad how terrified of us they were, even though the AP science kids weren’t going to kick them around. But word travels, and everyone knew what that class was like.
ETA: Gym grades had no influence on our averages, so no one gave a shit what he got in that class. Once I think I got a 66 because I kept forgetting to bring in fresh clothes to change into or some other lame-brained thing like that. I graduated in 96. Who remembers.
He was the one fucking with his own reputation and livelihood the moment he decided to touch the buttocks of an unwilling underage boy. I’m sure it was so humiliating for him to be called names in public and be unable to do anything about it. :rolleyes: Would you have the same reaction if a he patted a girl on her ass in front everybody and she reacted the same way?
I was small too - virtually always the smallest male in my class, and usually smaller than most of the girls. I still had a blast in gym. What’s a little contact? Dodgeball was the bomb. I also liked football, basketball and floor hockey. I would mix it up with anybody. Dodgeball (or as we called it, “battleball”) was my favorite. I loved those little red rubber balls (now they use these little, pussy, nerf ball things). If you nailed somebody just right you could raise a welt.
A little contact is fine. But there really is a point when a little contact turns into something unpleasant and dangerous. I never got picked on, despite being very small and geeky, because I was so scrappy. I am confident I can tell the difference between fun rough-housing and getting the crap smacked out of you by older and much larger kids.
Again he could’ve avoided the entire incident by either not touching my ass or asking “Hey, Alphaboi do you mind if I give you a pat on the ass?” first. I didn’t show him any less respect than he showed me. And he did violate written policy. It said right there in the student handbook than staff members were never allowed to touch a student other a handshake or administer first aid/break up a fight/self-defence. Ever since first grade we’d have guidence counselors telling us the same thing.
In any other class that wouldn’t have happened. My social studies teacher was also a football coach and I don’t recall him ever patting a student on the ass after a test or public speaking assignment. Nor do I recall anyone ever doing that to a girl. It’s not like I made anything up either, there were plenty of witnesses.
Which is exactly the kind of son-of-a-bitch bullying that made me despise gym and the guys who enjoyed it. Dodgeball is just school-sanctioned bullying.
