posted
Since I left education years ago, having spent almost all my school life being 'the fat kid' I despair whenever I see sports initiatives that are supposed to tackle obesity. They all seem to lack a basic principle :
PE and sports can be pretty unpleasant for unfit overweight kids.
At my school PE towards the end consisted of 4 main sports: cricket, rounders (like softball), football and rubgy. Of all of those one one ever gave me what I'd a real workout (Rugby).
In cricket and rounders the obese kids almost always got put in an outfield position where the ball would rarely travel too so I'd spend most of the time standing around (and when batting a hit would be rare and not getting caught or run out even rarer). In football we're either in goal (cold day + hard,wet football means no one wants to be the keeper) or defenders who never get the ball.
In the playground no one picks the fat kid for football unless they have to. I did actually play football most of the time despite my crapness however one of my worst experiences as a kid was effectively being chucked out of the group of people I considered to be my friends at the time. It's an experience that still hurts today but thankfully I did get some real friends afterwards who were almost as bad as me at football.
To get to my long winded point, the fact is that policy makers simply don't realise how humiliating sport can be for obese kids and when they're forced to play them with classmates, they often get almost no workout anyway.
Yet they think the solution to get unfit kids to play more sports is afterschool sports clubs and the like. These tend to be populated by semi or fully fit kids as it's too embarassing and uncomfortable for the people who really need the excersize to play.
Why can't the people behind schemes realise that rather than introducing things that only benefit the regular kids that they need to work on finding ways so that overweight kids can feel good about themselves playing sports, that they aren't humiliated when they're in swimming costumes or feel guilty about being at the back of cross country just walking and still being breathless?
Posts: 824 | From: England | Registered: Mar 2005
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Agree. In my experience, gym teachers also don't make things terribly easier. I remember once in middle school playing blind-folded soccer. (Yeah, that's going to lead to totally fit people...)
Speaking as someone who abhorrs team sports of all kinds, but who does enjoy working out, why not introduce kids to gym equipment early on? Early on, I found workout machines a bit intimidating and so forth, but teaching kids ways to work out that don't necessarily involve dealing with other people and their issues.
-------------------- "You can't play Electro-magnetic Golf according to the rules of Centrifugal Bumble Puppy." -Mustapha Mond, "Brave New World" Posts: 679 | From: New York | Registered: Oct 2001
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Agree here also. Part of the problem, I think, is that most P.E. teachers are in relatively good physical shape. And many of the problems of P.E. class relative to being humiliated and/or exhausted are easy to overlook if you haven't been there. When I see the kids at gym class, running laps around the block, I automatically look at the heavy kids and wonder if they are in pain, because I remember that I usually was. But I have heard others say things like "Oh, good, so and so needs the exercise". Well... yes, but not quite that much all at once!
It wasn't until I was a junior in high school that I finally had a gym teacher who understood anything about setting personalized goals rather than one goal for everyone. It was like a magic door opened for me.
Posts: 193 | From: Seymour, Indiana | Registered: Oct 2005
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I've been out of school a lot longer than you so maybe I'm looking back through rose coloured glasses but even though I hated gym with a white hot passion I still managed to get in some exercise. It was only when I went on to university that I appreciated that those gym classes actually were somewhat beneficial.
Today with obesity levels the way they are the last thing a school should be doing is cutting back on their PE programs but unfortunately that's exactly what seems to be happening. At my children's Canadian high school they didn't need to take any PE class after grade 9. And they certainly were not compelled to get involved in dance or football or anything school related that would get them moving.
There has to be a middle ground between evil gym teachers with unrealistic expectations (yes Mrs Jennings I'm looking at YOU) and no gym class at all.
-------------------- If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it's just possible you haven't grasped the situation. - Jean Kerr Posts: 18428 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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While not overweight I have sympathy for the dislike of PE/Sports due to my poor level of co-ordination and low athletic ability. (Plus I was tiny, and franky Rugby scared the NFBSK out of me.) For me sports day was torture and felt like targeted humiliation. While I feel it is important to act to raise fitness and reduce childhood obesity, competitive sports are not the way to do it. (And as you point out, after school clubs are largely populated by those who enjoy/are good at competative sports.)
Programs need to be created that allow kids to work at their own pace without the public show of aptitude that leads to humiliation. Part of this is as simple of providing a range of sports/activities rather than forcing the football/rugby hocky/netball combo that is common at many schools. Also more aerobics based programs are suited to raising fitness without the levels of competition which exist elsewhwere.
posted
Count me in as another one who loathed Gym. the thing is, I like sports; I'm just no damn good at them. I'm asthmatic, and therefore never really ran much, or did anything that required much aerobic exercise if I could help it (except fencing...which I liked, but again, I wasn't very good at it). When we ran laps for Gym or had to do the mile run, I was always one of the last to finish, if not the last. Just one of the many reasons for the other kids to pick on me throughout my school years...
-------------------- "Seize the day! Make your lives extraordinary!" -John Keating, "Dead Poets Society" Posts: 2861 | From: New Jersey | Registered: May 2004
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I agree with everyone who's said that competetive teams sports are not the way to get some exercise into overweight/unathletic kids. What I'd like to see is gym groups that are targeted to different ability levels, much the way reading and sometimes math groups are now. Let the natural jocks play netball, football etc. while the clumsy kids work on their coordination through dance and yoga/tai chi-like stuff; the chubby kids swim, walk, and maybe, if they feel like it, sumo-wrestle; and the little scrawny kids do a little light weight-training and a lot of gymnastics.
Nonny
-------------------- When there isn't anything else worth analyzing, we examine our collective navel. I found thirty-six cents in change in mine the other day. Let no one say that there is no profit in philosophy. -- Silas Sparkhammer Posts: 10141 | From: Toronto, Ontario | Registered: Apr 2000
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Udonny Mouse, I agree with you on all counts except swimming and wrestling. I understand how swimming can be good for overweight kids... But I weighed over 200 pounds in 8th grade. To force me to wear a swimsuit in front of my class would have been traumatic to the point where I would have been intentionally ill on gym days. And I loved school. And if I had wrestled, I imagine I would have gotten remarks like "Better watch out, Bonnie will fall on you and smash you."
Posts: 193 | From: Seymour, Indiana | Registered: Oct 2005
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Back when I was in school, from 6th grade until 9th, PE consisted of a type of "unit study" program--for a few weeks it was volleyball, then baseball, then soccer, then flag football, then basketball, then a type of track and field, or some combination of the above and so forth until the end of the year. ALL were team sports and ALL consisted of picking team mates.
For me being overweight, the funny part was I did good at certain ones--I could outrun the lot of them and I could play volleyball quite well. But I wasn't good **enough** for track team (tried out once, got shot down because and I quote "you just aren't the popular one, are you"--yeah I had a shitty gym teacher), nor was I good **enough** for volleyball (didn't help that I was pretty short too, still only stand at 5'2)...
It would be nice if the focus was taken off of team sports and put on individual goals. I remember one time, we had a fitness program going and part of it was watching and working out to Sweatin' to the Oldies.
Wanna guess the kind of jokes I had swing towards my way? Wasn't pretty nice at all...
Individual goals, with individual type training. Kind of like what you get at a gym, only one teacher to help us all.
-------------------- Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate and wine in hand, body thoroughly used up, and screaming WoW what a ride! Posts: 2924 | From: Flori-duh | Registered: Oct 2001
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Oh, I HATED PE in school because it was assumed everyone just adored sports. I *haaaaaaaaate* sports. In particular sports involving inexpensive equipment such as spherical rubber objects. Expensive sports like downhill skiing, I can tolerate, but schools never offer those.
I totally agree PE should be about fitness. Fitness has nothing to do whatsoever with your ability to sink a ball into some stupid hoop up in the air.
I used to fantasize about picking teams for reading so I could jeer at the jocks for mispronouncing words. Funny how that never happened.
They give remedial reading special help to poor readers, but kids with terrible vision and eye hand co-ordination like me, were just SOL in PE. My revenge is that I have raised two kids who also hate sports and will not be contributing to the sports industry. So there, stupid sadistic PE teachers of my past. Nyeah.
(ps I didn't deliberately make them hate sports...they just have my genes, I guess. But let me say it didn't hurt my feelings at all that I get to hear concerts and watch dances instead of sitting through mind numbingly boring ball games with a bunch of overly competitive parents...yay.)
-------------------- "Wolves, dragons and vampires, man. Draw the nut-bars like big ol' nut-bar magnets." ~evilrabbit
(snurched because one of my nutbar family members is all about wolves and another one is all about dragons...)(with apologies to surfcitydogdad) Posts: 2397 | From: Texarkana, TX | Registered: Mar 2006
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What about raquet sports, like tennis or badminton? Or what about golf? If you don't use a cart, you can get good exercise walking between the shots. In my high school in the winter we took cross country skiing. (This was MN and the municipal golf course was right across the street.) We also had ballroom dancing; polkas, watzes, mazurkas, scottishes, lendlers, etc. are all good workouts.
We also had the usual (and a few not-so-usual)sports--football, soccer, ice hockey, lacrosse, basketball--as well as aquatics (swimming, diving, synchronized swimming), wrestling, archery and track & field.
One big thing, though, that contributed to fitness was that so many kids walked or rode their bikes to school. I rode my bike from 5th through 12th grade, and I was not unusual. Now, here in Charleston--and I am told that this is not unusual nationally--students are FORBIDDEN to ride their bikes to school.
-------------------- "The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart."--Iris Murdoch Posts: 3307 | From: Charleston, WV | Registered: Oct 2002
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Our elementary schools just had basketball, kickball, softball, and relay races. Rubber balls were the only things provided for in the budget, that and salary for the most sadistic coaches they could find.
By my senior year, we had bowling and badminton but by then it was too late, I hated PE so bad that nothing could be done about it. Anyway I hate bowling and badminton and tennis and soccer and hockey and lascrosse and pool and wresting and everything everything EVERYTHING sports AAAAA! *head explodes* -except for horseback riding and downhill skiing and floating around with my lifejacket on upside down in the lake with a big huge margarita in my hand. I guess that's not really a sport but it's as close as I get.
-------------------- "Wolves, dragons and vampires, man. Draw the nut-bars like big ol' nut-bar magnets." ~evilrabbit
(snurched because one of my nutbar family members is all about wolves and another one is all about dragons...)(with apologies to surfcitydogdad) Posts: 2397 | From: Texarkana, TX | Registered: Mar 2006
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But don't you guys think that they would still get picked on if they were in the "remedial" fitness classes? I mean, we assume they will still have regular class, recesses, and lunch with the more athletically gifted kids, right? As such, wouldn't the jocks still pick on the "remedials"? I am not sure that would solve the alienation problem and may even contribute to it, kind of like the "Special Ed" phenomenon. What do you think?
I really don't know what the answer is on this. I mean, I agree absolutely with everything abigsmurf said. I didn't become overweight until I became an adult, but I was never much good at most of the sports we were required to play in gym so I know at least a little of how he feels.
Personally, I think the ultimate answer is something that is probably impossible to implement, and that is teaching a more fundamental understanding and tolerance of overweight people. It is odd to me that, even though the statistics say that more than half of Americans are overweight, the stigma on "fat people" seems to be getting worse every day. It's almost like the obesity epidemic has created this fear that has itself given birth to a real hatred and animosity toward fat people. Obesity needs to be treated as the *disease* it is, not as a character weakness. Unfortunately, most people who do not suffer from it still see it as nothing more than a character flaw. And they teach their children that. And until that stops, I don't think any special classes or individualized programs will help.
In the same way that you can't shame an alcoholic into sobriety, you can't shame an overeater into eating moderately (or exercising when it is very painful and often humiliating). Food is the worst of all the addictions simply because you can't ever go "cold turkey". You can say "I will never drink again" or "I will never gamble or take drugs again", but you *can't* say, "I'll never eat again." Asking someone who is addicted to food (and not ALL fat people are addicted to food) to "just stop at one small piece of cake" is the equivalent of asking an alcoholic to "just stop at one shot of whiskey". I wish society would get that and start treating it as such.
CeCe DeVille of Poison once said, "I got treated better as a junkie than I did as a fat person". I think that is where the biggest problem lies.
Maybe that was a bit off topic...it's a soapbox topic for me, being a fatty myself.
-------------------- "I bet a funny thing about driving a car off a cliff is, while you're in midair, you still hit those brakes. Hey, better try the emergency brake." -Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey Posts: 245 | From: Gladstone, MO | Registered: Apr 2006
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I agree with everything abigsmurf said. PE lessons are horrible for the people who are bad at sport. My PE teacher was an absolute star. He was the strictest most sadistic person you can imagine when you first went there, but absolutely fair and did congratulate you if you tried your best. Brilliant guy.
Our schools offered football, rugby, cricket, basketball, softball, athletics. I had asthma and was overweight so I was terrible at running, but could hold my own enough to at least enjoy basketball and rugby even if I sucked at them. Upon leaving school at 16 I went on a crash diet (one too many jeers) and took up exercising in private, running, cycling and lots of weight training. Best decision I ever made.
A good friend of mine was also terrible at sport and hated PE class. He has since gone to university and taken up lacrosse which he loves. I sincerely believe that it's only the "right" sport that needs to be put on offer and everyone will like something. I wish I'd been given a chance to bench press at 14 but alas no money.
The great irony is that my brother is the absolute greatest sportsman you'll ever see. Ridiculously good at everything and incredibly fit. I'm off similar strength but have no skill at anything besides golf!
Posts: 1985 | From: Reading, England | Registered: Dec 2002
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quote:Originally posted by collegefreshman: In my area, they're gettin rid of soda machines and all.. that's a good sign
As from today all secondary schools in England (and Wales?) have to remove soft drink vending machines. I think machines that sell water are all right, but schools cannot sell coke, lemonade and other unhealthy drinks. (I presume that's what 'soda' means.)
I believe all schools have to provide at least two veg with every meal from today onwards and cut down on or eliminate unhealthy food options. I do not think these are compulsary. (I presume this is something to do with the Jamie Oliver initiative.)
-------------------- Andrew, Ware, England Posts: 1709 | From: Ware, England | Registered: Apr 2003
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Being another chubby kid in school, I also hated PE.
NONE of the instructors I had seemed to understand that a chubby kid would have to work twice as hard and be in twice as much pain in order to keep up to their lofty standards.
I remember when I moved to Colorado how thin the air was. Now not only am I fat, but also out of breath. One time I was running around the track, practically DYING, and the instructor was starting to YELL at me for periodically slowing down or walking. Here I am, lungs on fire, legs ready to give out, and she's YELLING at me! Did I mention she wasn't the most fit instructor I had?
Well, let's just say she was a lot easier on me after I shouted "Will you PLEASE leave me the F@#! alone?!"
Relic "Now short of breath thanks to smoking" Man
-------------------- It can't rain all the time. Posts: 1102 | From: Iowa | Registered: Oct 2004
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I wasn't overweight, but I still hated PE. From elementary school on, they would divide the girls and boys up. The girls would play some wussy game with a soft kickball while the boys got to play baseball. Since hitting a baseball was one thing I could actually do well, I was not a happy camper. The "girly" games were often downright stupid. I also wasn't very popular, so I got picked close to last every time and received the blame if our team didn't win - excuse me for not being able to compete in soccer against a bunch of girls who have been playing on competitive teams since they were four years old
A lot of the games were also based on elimination. If you weren't good at the game or athletic, you ended up going "out" faster, so you spent the rest of the period sitting on the grass. Not the smartest idea for trying to get kids in shape, and it only feeds the ostracism the kids on the sidelines are usually facing anyway.
I don't want to go all carebear on PE, but I really think that these classes need to focus on actual physical education rather than "pick teams and try not to kill anyone." I think activities like aerobics, basic weight training, and things of that nature would be far more useful in the long run. Educate kids on what exercise actually does and how different activities strengthen different muscles and help keep them healthier. If you look at the classes I had, they were centered around team sports. If you don't have a team to play with or aren't good at the game, that isn't an activity that is likely to carry over into adulthood. I'm not saying a little competition here and there is bad, but I think focusing on it as much as my PE classes did isn't the best way to go about getting kids to maintain healthy amounts of activity.
-------------------- This has been yet another... USELESS POST. Posts: 6105 | From: Mississippi | Registered: Sep 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Elkhound: What about raquet sports, like tennis or badminton? Or what about golf? If you don't use a cart, you can get good exercise walking between the shots. In my high school in the winter we took cross country skiing. (This was MN and the municipal golf course was right across the street.) We also had ballroom dancing; polkas, watzes, mazurkas, scottishes, lendlers, etc. are all good workouts.
I'm betting the reason is probably funding and supervision. We had one coach for upwards of 30 kids in elementary school. It middle school, it was closer to 60. For each kid to get a racquet, that's quite an expense, especially to maintain them, plus that assumes the school has nets. You could only have a handful of kids playing at a time and would have to find another activity for the rest of them and try to keep an eye on all of them at once. Golf, unless you're just looking at hitting balls and seeing how far they can go, also requires potentially expensive equipment and access to a golf course.
It's cool that you had those opportunities, but unfortunately I don't think they are truly realistic for most PE classes.
-------------------- This has been yet another... USELESS POST. Posts: 6105 | From: Mississippi | Registered: Sep 2001
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quote:Originally posted by RelicMan: Being another chubby kid in school, I also hated PE.
NONE of the instructors I had seemed to understand that a chubby kid would have to work twice as hard and be in twice as much pain in order to keep up to their lofty standards.
I agree with Astra's points. You don't have to be chubby to suck at sports. I was always slender and also rather athletic looking, with muscular legs, but - when a ball is coming at my quickly, my hypothalamus (or whatever part of the brain takes over) screams "DUCK, you moron! Get AWAY from the object hurtling at you with great velocity!!!" And I do! Which makes hitting a softball or catching a basketball rather difficult.
If the sporty kids were separated from the non sporty kids in PE, there wouldn't be an opportunity in PE for them to be picked on, so yes, in fact, I do think remedial PE would help things. Especially if remedial PE (though we need a better name for it) improved skills, like remedial reading does.
If PE is supposed to be about fitness, I don't even understand why they screw around with team sports - you stand around for all of maybe 4 minutes anyway. If fitness is REALLY the goal it ought to be an aerobics and weight training class. Which would in fact have been fine with me.
-------------------- "Wolves, dragons and vampires, man. Draw the nut-bars like big ol' nut-bar magnets." ~evilrabbit
(snurched because one of my nutbar family members is all about wolves and another one is all about dragons...)(with apologies to surfcitydogdad) Posts: 2397 | From: Texarkana, TX | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Elkhound: What about raquet sports, like tennis or badminton? Or what about golf? If you don't use a cart, you can get good exercise walking between the shots. In my high school in the winter we took cross country skiing. (This was MN and the municipal golf course was right across the street.) We also had ballroom dancing; polkas, watzes, mazurkas, scottishes, lendlers, etc. are all good workouts.
I'm betting the reason is probably funding and supervision. We had one coach for upwards of 30 kids in elementary school. It middle school, it was closer to 60. For each kid to get a racquet, that's quite an expense, especially to maintain them, plus that assumes the school has nets. You could only have a handful of kids playing at a time and would have to find another activity for the rest of them and try to keep an eye on all of them at once. Golf, unless you're just looking at hitting balls and seeing how far they can go, also requires potentially expensive equipment and access to a golf course.
It's cool that you had those opportunities, but unfortunately I don't think they are truly realistic for most PE classes.
I already made that point, and I agree - there are thousands of schools that don't, and won't, have money for stuff like that - they are cutting programs left and right, especially the arts (RRR) so the idea that they could offer something expensive like golfing is unrealistic. - Our high school does offer these things as an elective but the kids have to pay extra.
-------------------- "Wolves, dragons and vampires, man. Draw the nut-bars like big ol' nut-bar magnets." ~evilrabbit
(snurched because one of my nutbar family members is all about wolves and another one is all about dragons...)(with apologies to surfcitydogdad) Posts: 2397 | From: Texarkana, TX | Registered: Mar 2006
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Whilst I imagine this will be unpopular, I don't think asking parents for a contribution towards sporting activity is out of question. A school should always be able to offer sports activity cheaper than a private club but there are some sports which do require expensive equipment.
Reading this thread however has made me realise that PE class in school is less about keeping kids fit and more about promoting team sports (which make the school look good of course!). One addendum to the above post, both myself and my lacrosse playing friend were ostracised from everything in school and both left severely depressed. Now we are surely fitter than any of those who teased us, and both took a roundabout way to good university grades. Those who ostracised us are unhealthy and failing. I am reminded of a Henry Rollins quote;
If you hate your parents, the man or the establishment, don't show them up by getting wasted and wrapping your car around a tree. If you really want to rebel against your parents: outearn them, outlive them, and know more than they do. This post-depression reaction brought to you by Prozac, removes the blues three times better than the next leading brand
Posts: 1985 | From: Reading, England | Registered: Dec 2002
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quote:Originally posted by erinker74: But don't you guys think that they would still get picked on if they were in the "remedial" fitness classes? I mean, we assume they will still have regular class, recesses, and lunch with the more athletically gifted kids, right? As such, wouldn't the jocks still pick on the "remedials"? I am not sure that would solve the alienation problem and may even contribute to it, kind of like the "Special Ed" phenomenon. What do you think?
Kids on the debating team and the chess club are picked on by the kids on the sports teams, but this doesn't mean that debating and chess aren't good for the kids in the clubs...being on the debating team still helped my self-esteem in the long term because I got to develop and excell at skills I actually had.
If the "remedial" (I think it ought to be called "alternate" myself, since not being good at team sports isn't necessarily something that needs to be remedied) gym classes could be structured around creative and/or intellectually stimulating activities of some sort...
Nonny "Mime 101?" Mouse
-------------------- When there isn't anything else worth analyzing, we examine our collective navel. I found thirty-six cents in change in mine the other day. Let no one say that there is no profit in philosophy. -- Silas Sparkhammer Posts: 10141 | From: Toronto, Ontario | Registered: Apr 2000
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Spooky Cactus
I'll Be Home for After Christmas Sales
posted
My experience of school (fairly recent) has left me with the opinion that school PE is nothing more or less than slacking off for the sporty kids and torture for the non-sporty. I also believe that its presence in school diverts funds from academic and creative subjects.
The answer to the child obesity problem is not to subject fat kids to pain and humiliation in front of the rest of their class. There should be government or health insurance-funded exercise groups outside of school strictly for those who need them, away from the jeers of the popular kids.
School PE lessons also reinforce a kind of warped value system in which sporting achievement, prettiness and popularity are prized above all, and brains are a defect.
-------------------- 'When the world is dead and gone, we will still be Rocking On!' (J.P.McCartney) Posts: 154 | From: Yorkshire, England | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Spooky Cactus: School PE lessons also reinforce a kind of warped value system in which sporting achievement, prettiness and popularity are prized above all, and brains are a defect.
Gotta disagree with you in the entirety there. Since you are a member here, it is a safe bet that you are of above average intelligence (let's all give ourselves a pat on the back ). Sports require brains too, they are certainly not a hinderance. Sports are by their very nature competitive, just as academia is when you get into the preposterousness of the university application process. The idea that sports somehow promote a competitive culture that isn't present anywhere else in the school system is daft.
Finally, imagine how the stupid kids feel in math class. Probably something like I did in football.
Posts: 1985 | From: Reading, England | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
PE was always a bit of a mix for me. Overweight but not obese and generally whilst never up with the best, I was safely not the worst for any team sport. Although I do remember one cricket game where they got the two best players to pick and one surprised the other by picking me quite early (the guy who didn't pick me was quite vocally surprised I'd been picked so early). Of course what he didn't realise was that I actually was not the worst player. Very defensive batsman (stayed in with the one who'd picked me after avoiding the hattrick ball, as the low scoring partner) and then frustrated and took the wicket of the one who didn't. You don't play a slow bowler the same way you play a fast one.
I always enjoyed football (and it's the sport I'll always watch), couldn't care for rugby (which for some reason seemed to refer to union, not league), couldn't stand athletics (never beat 50sec for the 200m - through apathy though) swimming, basketball, gymnastics, tennis or circuit training, but liked orienteering (was actually one of the best at this, I can read a map well), shinty, squash, badminton and cross country.
Best thing to do would be to try and offer a variety, let pupils have the experience of different sports, but allow some freedom of choice later on. Plus try and create ability based groups. Some weaker players certainly take more interest when they have a chance (as I've seen on teaching practice).
And they can try some more unusual 'sports'. Quite interesting to observe (and try actually) archery, shooting, falconry and ferreting. Some pupils who were hard to motivate to do more common activities enjoyed those and got involved.
Posts: 121 | From: Berkshire, UK | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:Originally posted by L: And they can try some more unusual 'sports'. Quite interesting to observe (and try actually) archery, shooting, falconry and ferreting. Some pupils who were hard to motivate to do more common activities enjoyed those and got involved.
I second this. Although I spoke about really disliking my PE classes, I did really enjoy one aspect of it. Sometimes we would do a project adventure type deal. That is, in the gym, there were bricks/steps on the side of the wall, and (using harnesses and such), we would climb the walls. This was enjoyable for me because it didn't involve direct competition, and because there was more of the mind element (figuring out the most effective way of getting up the wall).
Also, we had golf one year (when our school was undergoing renovations. But our golf basically consisted of a bunch of kids hitting balls out on the field--no golf course or anything. We also did the same thing with bowling in the gym.
Posts: 679 | From: New York | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Spooky Cactus: School PE lessons also reinforce a kind of warped value system in which sporting achievement, prettiness and popularity are prized above all, and brains are a defect.
Gotta disagree with you in the entirety there. Since you are a member here, it is a safe bet that you are of above average intelligence (let's all give ourselves a pat on the back ). Sports require brains too, they are certainly not a hinderance. Sports are by their very nature competitive, just as academia is when you get into the preposterousness of the university application process. The idea that sports somehow promote a competitive culture that isn't present anywhere else in the school system is daft.
Finally, imagine how the stupid kids feel in math class. Probably something like I did in football.
I dunno...remembering back on PE, I can see the phenomenon Spooky Cactus is talking about. Sports may or may not require brains, *shrug* I avoid them like I do the plague so I don't know, I'll take your word for it. But whatever the truth is matters not a hill of beans to a bunch of insecure and mean little preadolescents. (and they are a MEAN bunch.) All that matters is stereotype and figuring out which label fits you and everyone else. Jocks are dumb, braniacs are wimpy.
There may be a competitive nature in other areas of school, but team sports are a uniquely and dramatically graphic way to show up who is the least skilled. The whole class won't know you flunked your math test unless you wave it around. (teachers are not supposed to permit anyone else but the student to see tests) Maybe someone sitting next to you. But when you miss that NFBSKing stupid ass GOAL and the whole damn PE class groans...there is nothing in any other area of school I can think of to compare to that level of humiliation.
And some athletes were, and are, really decent, level headed folk, even as kids, but some sure enough did all they could to live up to the asshat jock image, and did it quite well, and that includes the girls.
snap-gee, I sure wish I'd done better at softball because it's just like SOOO important to me now as an adult - NOT - dragonfly
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(snurched because one of my nutbar family members is all about wolves and another one is all about dragons...)(with apologies to surfcitydogdad) Posts: 2397 | From: Texarkana, TX | Registered: Mar 2006
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PE done well is excellent. PE done badly is Lord of the Flies.
The goal of PE was circular: one played competitive sports in order to get better at competitive sports, and perhaps represent your year/house/school at competitive sports. Why this should be a goal was never questioned. What a waste; half my friends were on diets, but there was no suggestion that exercise could help you control your weight or become toned or make you healthier. Oh yes; and laps as punishment? What an excellent attitude to inculcate toward running!
-------------------- ~~Ai am in mai prrrrrraime!~~ Posts: 10111 | From: Oklahoma | Registered: Sep 2004
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My most evilest gym teacher in high school used to call me fat because I hated gym and would take every opportunity I could to get out of it (think - "Malaria? People only get malaria in the tropics.*) I was about a size 9 in high school and I was not fat. But yeah her telling me stuff like that was really going to get me interested in sports .
*5 points for the film reference
-------------------- If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it's just possible you haven't grasped the situation. - Jean Kerr Posts: 18428 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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quote:Originally posted by snapdragonfly: And some athletes were, and are, really decent, level headed folk, even as kids, but some sure enough did all they could to live up to the asshat jock image, and did it quite well, and that includes the girls.
snap-gee, I sure wish I'd done better at softball because it's just like SOOO important to me now as an adult - NOT - dragonfly
I'm in something of a unique position of having been bullied by both jocks and nerds. That's depressing! I guess I don't see the stereotypes. I see lots of mean mean people no matter what their stereotype. Also a rabid, almost scary desire to never have that happen again.
Regards softball being unimportant now, I feel the same about art and drama. Most of what you learn at school won't be put into practice, but it's all important, sports included.
Posts: 1985 | From: Reading, England | Registered: Dec 2002
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Ah yes, all the old bitterness floods back.
My PE teacher was obsessed with winning interschool contests. As a result, a group of us once spent an entire tennis lesson sitting around on the court chatting to find out whether she'd notice.
She didn't.
I once got a D+ in PE despite being second or third best in the class at what we were doing that term - I suspect that a) the PE teacher didn't believe I could actually be good at anything and b) she was still angry that I'd argued with her when she insisted I was holding my racquet 'wrong'. My point of view was that I'd been playing just fine like that for ten years, I was never going to win any medals at badminton, so why did she feel the urge to make me completely relearn what I was doing?
IMO, the goal of PE lessons at school should be less get those fat unfit children winning sporting awards immediately OMG and more setting up a good attitude to sports for life. And right now they fail at that, badly.
-------------------- "For God has seven thousand names, and one of them is bastard" Posts: 420 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote:Originally posted by snapdragonfly: And some athletes were, and are, really decent, level headed folk, even as kids, but some sure enough did all they could to live up to the asshat jock image, and did it quite well, and that includes the girls.
snap-gee, I sure wish I'd done better at softball because it's just like SOOO important to me now as an adult - NOT - dragonfly
I'm in something of a unique position of having been bullied by both jocks and nerds. That's depressing! I guess I don't see the stereotypes. I see lots of mean mean people no matter what their stereotype. Also a rabid, almost scary desire to never have that happen again.
Regards softball being unimportant now, I feel the same about art and drama. Most of what you learn at school won't be put into practice, but it's all important, sports included.
But art and drama barely exist in elementary schools and are completely an elective in high school. Some schools require one or two fine arts credits to graduate but you get to choose from which kind you want. Whereas one is forced to submit to gym for almost every year of school, unless you get out because you are in marching band or some other way.
Why is sports important? Seems to me Chloe had it right...it's circular. The only thing I learned from having to do sports is that I suck at it. I certainly didn't attain any fitness or health from it.
-------------------- "Wolves, dragons and vampires, man. Draw the nut-bars like big ol' nut-bar magnets." ~evilrabbit
(snurched because one of my nutbar family members is all about wolves and another one is all about dragons...)(with apologies to surfcitydogdad) Posts: 2397 | From: Texarkana, TX | Registered: Mar 2006
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my problem with all this is that a lot of overweight children also have overweight parents, who lead a sentiary lifestyle, forcing kids to extercise/eat right is fine if they go home and keep going with the same style, but that's not what really happens and the parents are as much to blaim as the schools
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Read at your own risk. Posts: 667 | From: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada | Registered: Jan 2006
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). Sports require brains too, they are certainly not a hinderance. Sports are by their very nature competitive, just as academia is when you get into the preposterousness of the university application process. The idea that sports somehow promote a competitive culture that isn't present anywhere else in the school system is daft.
