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Did you like PE/Games at school?
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On a thread about younger days and things people don't miss PE and games seem to be getting frequent mentions.
Did anyone actually enjoy being made to run around in a short skirt/trousers on freezing cold winter days doing something you had no natural aptitude for and being humiliated by some dragon in a track suit?
I don't think I ever went near a PE class for my last three years in school. I either mitched, forged letters from my mum or made up an excuse. My parents didn't really care because they knew I was never, ever, ever going to be the sporty type.
Did anyone actually enjoy being made to run around in a short skirt/trousers on freezing cold winter days doing something you had no natural aptitude for and being humiliated by some dragon in a track suit?
I don't think I ever went near a PE class for my last three years in school. I either mitched, forged letters from my mum or made up an excuse. My parents didn't really care because they knew I was never, ever, ever going to be the sporty type.
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I didn't mind if it was a sport I enjoyed (football, x-country), but being the speccy unathletic type, it could be pretty rubbish. My second high school was better, because you could choose the sports you took in each block, which made avoiding rugby very easy
It helped that we had friendly PE teachers who understood what we were able to and not able to do. For example, instead of rugby, we did things like table tennis and just general fitness related activities, along with various games. At primary school it was okay as well, we just did things such as tag-rugby.
Most people seemed to enjoy PE at my school. Not sure if that's typical of all schools nowadays. But I'm glad that I didn't have to go through some of the horribleness others went through during PE.
I used every inventive excuse under the sun to get out of PE for the whole of year 11. My Head of Year just gave up in the end.
But the PE teachers thought of me as useless and uninterested in it (mainly because I hated team sports), and didn't even bother to get to know me to the point they even knew all the sporty stuff I did outside school... Which to me now, is the sign of a bad teacher - the fact that they knew so little about me. They only really had time for the girls who liked netball or hockey.
So me and PE, never mixed, I was quite good at netball as well but ended up refusing to do any PE at all.
It really was taught in a way that only suited sporty, teamplayer types. Everyone else was made to feel mortified. And as for asking two teenagers to pick sides....... Who ever thought that was a good idea.
I know what you mean. Most teenagers go through a really self concious stage and forcing them to wear swimming stuff or little short skirts is really insensitive. What was wrong with track suits and making swimming voluntary.
I had awful memories of that so when I was a teacher, I bloody well picked the sides myself.:) I can't believe teachers weren't always trained to do that. I had always been picked last cos I was an active saboteur of team sports and we were forced to do PE with our form - who hated me.:D The PE teachers hated me cos they thought I was gobby and I was cleverer and faster than them (ie: made them look stupid). Yet in every other class, I wouldn;t say boo to a goose. Just PE, At the end of the fifth year, one of the PE teachers actually said to me she had always thought of me as a troublemaker. No other teacher would have said that of me in a million years as I was the quietest and best behaved in every other lesson.:D
I got on well with the male PE teachers, though - if they ahd to have us as our own teacher was away, I'd always be their favourite.:)
Totally changed my attitude towards PE. Came to really look forward to it.
I liked Badmington, Softball, Basketball and Field athletics.
Hated football, rugby and cross country.
I was crap at them all though.
I used to hide in the French classroom in the secret cupboard with some mates.
Was very 'up it's self' when it came to wanting to be viewed as a high achieving school in sports - they didn't give a toss about academic achievement as long as you were recognised by others as being in xx's rugby or football or cricket team.
Luckily I was adept at rugby but when it came to the number one nightmareish P.E. subject - cross country, I sucked.
Once on cross country I genuinely hurt my ankle and given the fact that the teacher only stayed with the leaders and expected everyone to be up with this pace or they could just fend for themselves - I became detached and lost.
No thought for my personal safety or wellbeing despite the fact that I was a child - the point that was rammed down my throat after was that it wasn't acceptable to do what I did and my behaviour in coming last, getting lost in woodland thus turning up back at school over an hour late - was unacceptable.
A few days later when my detention had rolled around, my sadistic (and I don't use that word lightly) P.E. teacher had decided an appropriate (and evil) form of punishment would be to re-walk the entire course after school with my parents.
- His thinking was that by dragging my mum and dad into it and me feeling bad for them - it would really make me see how ashamed I should be with my actions.
Parents who care though - he hadn't banked on encountering and needless to say that we didn't walk the cross country course and after my mum had let rip at him about looking out for pupils welfare rather than the schools rep. - he strangely left me alone for the next few years.
*shudder*
So he thought he was entitled to boss your parents around as well?? He sounds like a power mad lunatic who should have been disciplined himself and given a final warning.
Given the current statistics for what proportion of kids are lard-asses, I can't help thinking that all those sadistic PE teachers were actually right after all.
What I disliked was being forced to have a cold shower afterwards in an unheated changing block in winter.
I also disliked not being allowed to wear tracksuit bottoms in winter even in the snow
And I really disliked the generally sadistic nature of the PE teachers towards the less able kids
In the final years of school I ended up bunking off most PE lessons which was a shame as I was really sporty and was on most of the school teams in my early school years
We didn't have computers and X Boxes, and there wasn't the same public terror of 'funny men in raincoats' there is now. Society has changed and it's that change that has led to the obesity epidemic.
Also parents are less likely to want younger kids to ride bikes on the road, for example - people are over-protective, in some cases.
I was physically fit in spite of my vicious PE teachers - not because of them.
Do you not think those sadistic PE teachers are responsible for putting so many people off sport and transmitting that dislike to their 'lard assed' children?
Pretty much yeah!
He was a teacher and my mum and dad just worked in a factory so that probably gave him reason in his mind too.
I think the main reason though was really to give me the ultimate shame as I thought more of my parents and doing well for them than anyone at that hell-hole.
I did well in sport at school.
I was in the football team, athletics team. I captained the Rugby Team and Cricket Team.
I also went on to captain the county and region in Rugby, and received an award from my school for sporting excellence.
I still participate in organised sport aged 35, refereeing rugby to a good standard now I have retired from playing. I coach kids rugby. I am a member of a running club, albeit still not very good at running. I coach kids cricket and play golf off a decent handicap.
My wife and kids are very much involved in sport, with my wife having completed 3 half marathons since she met me and took up running. My daughter goes to a gymnastics class, and my son plays rugby through Rugbytots, where I am the lead coach for the class.
Sport has, and continues to play a major part in my life, and will hopefully carry on for many years to come.
It seems that I am in the minority on here though, as my experience has been very positive regarding sport.
Indeed but, that being the case, you'd think that'd encourage people to take advantage of the opportunities for supervised physical excercise that PE lessons create.
Must say, I think schools should (if they don't already) steer away from the ancient "football/rugby in winter - athletics in summer" regime and consider new ways to make this stuff enjoyable.
Was there ANYBODY, for example, who didn't enjoy PE lessons when it was raining and they ended up playing "Pirates" or "British Bulldogs" in the gym instead?
I always used to think it was quite funny because there'd always be a group of kids who'd forgot their PE kits but if it turned out the PE lesson was going to involve a game of Pirates or something they'd suddenly realise they had their kit with them after all.