More Schools Benching P.E.

Frankly I think this is a really bad idea.

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Now that everyone who knows me the bookworm has picked his or her jaw off the floor... :-)

I hated gym class with a passion. But I think the idea of no gym class is bad. Kids are getting fatter. They're driven everywhere instead of walking. They play videogames instead of tag. And the exercise does clear the cobwebs of the school day away.

But what P.E. needs to be is user-friendly to the kids like me, who are bad at games and have phobias. Gym class was a horror most of the time simply because every kid got stuck in a generalized class that included participation in softball, basketball, volleyball, and (gah) field hockey. These games were great for the kids who had competitive spirit and who were actually coordinated enough to hit a baseball or get a basket. The rest of us were miserable being trampled on by the aggressive players (once we played volleyball with the boys—what a nightmare! to get the ball the boys would knock other players down; the competitive girls only pushed you out of the way) or being teased and harassed and called named when we couldn't hit/kick/spike the ball correctly.

(The teachers also assumed because it was a well-known sport that everyone knew the rules. I never did figure out who I was supposed to throw the ball to when I played outfield in softball, but I didn't want to ask the teacher lest she exclaim scornfully about this kid who didn't know the rules of the National Sport, for Gossakes.)

Other kids had problems with certain things, I had my problems. I have a very strong phobia about heights and also about being upside down. As a kid I wouldn't even let my dad carry me on his shoulders as so many dads did, or hold me upside down. Even if I were strongly supported, I was afraid of falling. I lived in fear of the gym classes where we had to swing from rung to rung on one of those horizontal ladders above the floor (whatever they're called). The one we had in elementary school was eight feet off the floor and even though Miss Moran said she was spotting you and there was a mat underneath, it was a heck of a long way down for a 12-year-old! I had nightmares about that thing.

Then there was swimming class. You couldn't learn to swim until you put your head under the water. I wouldn't do it. So every two weeks for three years in junior high there was the misery of being bussed out to the Gladstone pool and their cold changing room and standing waist-deep in water either being ignored or being clucked at by an impatient teacher who kept telling you there was nothing to be afraid of. God knows how many kids caught cold that winter going out in frigid weather with wet hair (no blow dryers back then and the bathing caps leaked). I never learned to swim and frankly don't care.

The article talks about a school in Victor, New York, having alternative choices:

Victor's nationally recognized program includes rock-climbing, kayaking, cross-country skiing, archery and aerobic dance as options for students.

Man, I would have killed for options like that in gym class! I loved to run, but there was no track team for girls back then. I liked to square dance. Heck, I didn't mind doing calesthenics--jumping jacks were one of my favorite exercises. I loved to bicycle and didn't mind walking. Archery and aerobic dance would have been wonderful.

Showers were also horrible. Maybe the kids today are less body shy, but I couldn't think of anything worse than having to strip naked in front of a bunch of strangers to take a shower. Worse, the teacher used to come by and make sure you weren't cowering in the corner of the shower stall covering yourself with your hands and make you shower. I think if a kid wants to smell all day after having P.E., that's his problem. Showers shouldn't be mandatory.

So I don't advise getting rid of gym--but I think the teachers need to be a little more considerate of kids who aren't jocks and don't do well in team sports and offer them more alternatives.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 3:59:00 PM

Comments:

Hi, this is my first time visiting your blog, I came across it by accident.

I saw that you said that maybe the girls are less embarrassed by showering in school these days. I can tell you that the teen girls who go to the YWCA that I go to are definitely very comfortable in general showering and even walking around the locker room nude.

But I'm currious as to when you attended High school? The reason I ask is because I attended High school in the 1880's, and when I was there I, and I would say most of the other girls really had no problem at all with showering in the cummunal shower-room in the girls locker room. From what I've been told it was the boys who would not shower after gym class.

We did not have a mandatory shower rule, in fact we girls had to pressure the male gym teacher to let us go to the locker room sooner so we could shower.

The boys did not want to shower, so they would stay in the gym for an extra 10 to 15 minutes while us girls would go take a shower before the next class.

I actually have to say that I do think that showers should be mandatory after gym class! We could always smell a strong smell of sweat on the boys the rest of the day and it was pretty grosse! I think it just makes things a lot easier if everyone just has the same rules and routines as one another.

And really, at least for most girls, I think, it is not really that embarrassing to shower in front of the other girls. We all have the same body parts, and it's not like anyone else was really looking anyway. And I think that showering in a cummunal shower-room in high school made it a lot easier for me to do so now as an adult at the Y! I don't stand around having totally nude conversations for long periods of time in the women's locker room like many of the other women or teen girls do, but I really don't have any problem with showering and changing which makes things a lot easier.

Anyway, I'm currious as to what decade you attended High school, if you don't mind telling me? Thanks!

Jennifer

# posted by  Anonymous : 1:34:00 AM

 

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