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?
I think that anybody who acts in such a narrow-minded way, to the detriment of their childs health, is rather thick.
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.
I agree with this. Sport shouldn't be taught in a competitive, who's the class nerd type of way (and maybe it no longer is). It should be taught as something enjoyable and kids should be encouraged to enjoy it, not made to feel stupid. Also they should be allowed to dress in a way they feel comfortable.
I hated it with a passion, I'm pretty uncordinated and totally non competitive,as a child who pretty well behaved and loved to do well at school, I found the whole thing humilitating and dishearting.
Outside school, I rode my bike for miles, walked everywhere, played football, cricket, tennis and other ball games with my friends, and loved active games like run outs and sticky glue.
When I was about 13 I developed a health problem and was no longer allowed to take part in PE...I remember being pretty relieved at the time.
I think that anybody who acts in such a narrow-minded way, to the detriment of their childs health, is rather thick.
It's not narrow minded. Its an inbuilt aversion to sport which then means they are not naturally building sporting activity into their family life eg going to play ball in the park on a nice evening or taking the kids swimming at the weekend because they associate it with looking stupid or being laughed at. They are not thick and that is an unfair thing to say.
I agree with this. Sport shouldn't be taught in a competitive, who's the class nerd type of way (and maybe it no longer is). It should be taught as something enjoyable and kids should be encouraged to enjoy it, not made to feel stupid. Also they should be allowed to dress in a way they feel comfortable.
Is there any reason that it can't be both?
I coach kids at rugby, and we still have the competition element of the game, as that is the backbone of the sport, but we make it fun and enjoyable.
I agree with the dressing comfortably option, but there has to be some regulation regarding clothing, as some kids would turn up in clothing not suitable for the class.
Having a PE kit ensures the kids are wearing suitable attire for the activity.
I coach kids at rugby, and we still have the competition element of the game, as that is the backbone of the sport, but we make it fun and enjoyable.
I agree with the dressing comfortably option, but there has to be some regulation regarding clothing, as some kids would turn up in clothing not suitable for the class.
Having a PE kit ensures the kids are wearing suitable attire for the activity.
Yes, but for kids who are no good at games the competition element can be a complete turn off and there should be options for them that are simply fun.
When I talked about appropriate dress I meant tracksuits as opposed to skimpy skirts or shorts which many teenagers feel mortified having to wear, particularly if they're overweight.
I hated it. I was small, weedy and uncoordinated, and hated team sports. PE meant that I was unable to enjoy sport for quite a long time after leaving school.
I think the only time I enjoyed it was when the women PE teachers were both off sick, and we all played indoor cricket with the boys. I was okay at cricket, and the dynamic was different with the boys there. Even the vain, annoying head of PE told me I was quite a good batsman.
Sadly, the women teachers returned, so it was back to netball and sicknotes later.
I find it quite amazing how many people assume that PE was deliberately conceived as a form of torture for poor ickle kiddies rather than as an attempt to nurture an interest in physical fitness, competition and teamwork.
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.
But by your own admission - you only really took an interest in PE once you were given the option of the sports YOU wanted to play.
Many of us werent (and many kids probably still arent) given that option, and when you are forced to partake in sports where you dont stand a chance - its easy to become discouraged.
For me - that sport was rugby. I was a relatively small and weak as a child - and not particularly fast. How could I possibly be expected to go up against lads that were almost twice my size and in the school rugby team.
I tried, but nobody wanted to pass the ball to someone they knew was crap. On the rare occasions I did get the ball - I was swiftly flattened by the bigger lads. Rugby for me was about being the last to be picked, followed by 95% running up and down a field on my own, with the remaining 5% being flattened by one or more 6ft brick s#ithouses. Hardly enjoyable.
Hated it, and it was hard to swerve. Oddly, I was quite sporty in my own way - played tennis for hours a day and was in a tennis club; rode horses; rode my bike for miles every week; walked for miles with the dog, and was the best cross country runner in my year at school - or assume I was, as I won every time we did it.
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.
Ditto. They had a fixed clique of favourites and it was hockey in the winter and netball in the summer (bloody single sex grammar schools :mad:) I loathed all team sports.
I swam, played tennis, canoed, did akido and ran 5 miles a day every lunchtime on the school running track until I was 15 and the jubblies got out of hand. They barely knew my name and assumed because I was an unenthusiastic hockey and netball player I wasn't sporty or worth knowing.
I coach kids at rugby, and we still have the competition element of the game, as that is the backbone of the sport, but we make it fun and enjoyable.
I agree with the dressing comfortably option, but there has to be some regulation regarding clothing, as some kids would turn up in clothing not suitable for the class.
Having a PE kit ensures the kids are wearing suitable attire for the activity.
This is a good point.
Thing is, it seems as though there's a lot of people here who just plain don't like sports.
What all the ex PE-dodgers need to understand is that, for those who DID enjoy football or rugby or cricket was that those people really looked forward to sports for the opportunity to compete and test themselves.
I might have turned out as a PE-dodger because I simply don't like football and I didn't enjoy football in PE lessons.
However, once my school adopted a more varied agenda in sports I soon found a whole heap of other sports I DID enjoy immensely. Stuff like tennis, badminton, basketball, rugby and swimming.
We didn't have school teams for swimming or basketball or tennis but if we were part of a group that did swimming in a PE lesson we'd quickly split into teams and make the whole thing competitive between ourselves.
I think what schools should be doing is, firstly, to be making PE fun, so kids actually look forward to the lessons rather than seeing them as 90 minutes of torture chasing a ball around on a muddy field and then, once they've got the kids interested, offering them a variety of sports so they can choose something they enjoy to participate in and learn about being competitive.
That has been addressed now by the International Rugby Board the IRB.
A Continuum has been put in place for rugby up to Under 19 age groups.
It is no longer a full contact sport at all ages.
We start with Tag rugby, where velcro tags attached to a belt replace the tackle.
Levels of physical contact are introduced more as the players get older, with the emphasis now on developing skills better before introducing the contact skills.
This addresses the difference in physical attributes common in adolescents, and levels the playing field significantly.
Rugby is still a team sport that caters for all sizes of player, there is a position for everyone on the field, not everyone has to be big to play rugby.
Thing is, it seems as though there's a lot of people here who just plain don't like sports.
What all the ex PE-dodgers need to understand is that, for those who DID enjoy football or rugby or cricket was that those people really looked forward to sports for the opportunity to compete and test themselves.
I might have turned out as a PE-dodger because I simply don't like football and I didn't enjoy football in PE lessons.
However, once my school adopted a more varied agenda in sports I soon found a whole heap of other sports I DID enjoy immensely. Stuff like tennis, badminton, basketball, rugby and swimming.
We didn't have school teams for swimming or basketball or tennis but if we were part of a group that did swimming in a PE lesson we'd quickly split into teams and make the whole thing competitive between ourselves.
I think what schools should be doing is, firstly, to be making PE fun, so kids actually look forward to the lessons rather than seeing them as 90 minutes of torture chasing a ball around on a muddy field and then, once they've got the kids interested, offering them a variety of sports so they can choose something they enjoy to participate in and learn about being competitive.
But why does it have to be competitive? Can a kid not just enjoy swimming or gymnastics or somesuch without having to compete against other people? Sure, the option for competitive sports should be there, but not compulsory.
If you're not great at English or Maths you have to do it, but you're not made to take part in a public competition every week and come last or let the team down.
I liked PE at my first school, as we could wear tracksuits etc, it was also 2 classes together and split into boys and girls, so we did things like football etc, but as it was just the girls it was enjoyable.
My second school however was mixed sex and you HAD to wear shorts no matter the weather etc, so from then I refused to do it, but I went to Karate 3 times a week outside school!
But why does it have to be competitive? Can a kid not just enjoy swimming or gymnastics or somesuch without having to compete against other people? Sure, the option for competitive sports should be there, but not compulsory.
If you're not great at English or Maths you have to do it, but you're not made to take part in a public competition every week and come last or let the team down.
When you do anything, you always want to be able to do it better, regardless whether you are doing it for your competition or not.
If there is no competition in sport, how do you know you are getting better? there is nothing to compare yourself to.
In sports like swimming, and running, you dont have to compete against other people to improve, just against the clock.
If times dont bother you, then you can improve your technique to increase your own enjoyment of the sport, this is still a form of competition.
Sport is competitive by nature, but there are ways of letting kids compete so they enjoy it.
But why does it have to be competitive? Can a kid not just enjoy swimming or gymnastics or somesuch without having to compete against other people? Sure, the option for competitive sports should be there, but not compulsory.
If you're not great at English or Maths you have to do it, but you're not made to take part in a public competition every week and come last or let the team down.
Well, like it or not, the world IS a competitive place so I think it's good to teach kids that sometimes you're not going to win and that sometimes you need to push yourself to improve.
The thing, though, is that kids who just don't want to BE out on a muddy football pitch aren't going to think like that.
They're just going to think "This sucks and I don't want to be here" so the trick is to get them doing something that they DO enjoy and which they'll want to improve at and win at.
Again, Pirates WAS competitive and yet almost all kids loved it because it was FUN.
It's not competition that kids dislike, it's being forced to do something they don't enjoy.
Hated it...hated the commumal showers,rounders every summer,cross country running. I used to forge letters in my mum's writing so I didn't have to do it. Liked tennis tho.
Hated it, hated it, hated it! Just an excuse for the morons and popular kids to sh!t on everyone else. I used to do as little as i was able to get away with doing. Hit a tennis ball in to a field and then spend ages looking for it, being in defence at football with my best mate and just stepping aside whenever the ball came near us! I still have nightmares now about being back at school and trying to avoid PE/Games. When i got to Upper school in the end i just skived Games and nobody ever knew/found out. But then, it wasn't the best school in the world!
Well, like it or not, the world IS a competitive place so I think it's good to teach kids that sometimes you're not going to win and that sometimes you need to push yourself to improve.
The thing, though, is that kids who just don't want to BE out on a muddy football pitch aren't going to think like that.
They're just going to think "This sucks and I don't want to be here" so the trick is to get them doing something that they DO enjoy and which they'll want to improve at and win at.
Again, Pirates WAS competitive and yet almost all kids loved it because it was FUN.
It's not competition that kids dislike, it's being forced to do something they don't enjoy.
Fair enough. I used to enjoy playing rounders or setting up high jumps in the garden with my friends because it was fun and if you didn't do well no one was laughing at you or making you feel you'd let them down or blowing a whistle and shouting at you or making sure not to pick you for their team next time. I suppose that's what I associate competitiveness in school sports with but if that pressure was removed then yes, competitions could be fun.
Well, like it or not, the world IS a competitive place so I think it's good to teach kids that sometimes you're not going to win and that sometimes you need to push yourself to improve.
i loved it - i was quite tall and beefy when i was younger so i was on a few sports teams. my main role was generally standing around looking threatening, but it was still fun
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.
This was my experience in PE lessons too.
I hated PE, to the point where in Y11 our Assistant Headteacher (who was also a PE teacher) stopped me from doing PE lessons because he said there was no point in making me so unhappy.
I didn't mind badminton because we could work with our friends, and I quite liked athletics. But I hated hockey, netball, football, rounders, gymnastics etc. I was in a class with people who made me hate going to school everyday so PE lessons were hell anyway, I don't cope in social situations again, I couldn't cope with doing sport in front of anyone else - and the more self-conscious you get the less coordination you have in general!
Had we had different teachers maybe I would have felt differently, but I hated our main PE teacher, she treated you like an idiot unless you were good at the team sports, and she just used to humiliate the people who weren't good. They were nicer to me by the end of Y11 when they realised how unhappy I was there, but it was a bit late by then and I got to the point where I wouldn't go into PE anymore.
Our Assistant Head was a great teacher though, and I wish I'd had him for PE, things would have been very different. Our deputy head also was a PE teacher and again was a great teacher, so I think having a teacher you work well with can have a really positive effect.
Left school 6 years ago now and I do lots of sport and training every week, it's probably my favourite thing in the world to do!
Our school was a nightmare for forcing P.E. on kids whether they had any ability or not - it was still forced on all at the same level.
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.
Haha cross country takes me back.
I remember our first cross country run at prep school was like a war zone, me and a friend started to walk and at varying parts of the course we found other boys alone and crying in rhododendron bushes thinking they were lost forever.
Our PE teacher was ok though, his route would come back on it's self and he would let us turn around when he went past us. tbh after the first harrowing experience it became a bit of a doss as you could run halfway play army then run back. I think he cottoned on and start trying different things, orienteering was one of the most fun alternatives he came up with.
Well, like it or not, the world IS a competitive place so I think it's good to teach kids that sometimes you're not going to win and that sometimes you need to push yourself to improve.
The thing, though, is that kids who just don't want to BE out on a muddy football pitch aren't going to think like that.
They're just going to think "This sucks and I don't want to be here" so the trick is to get them doing something that they DO enjoy and which they'll want to improve at and win at.
Again, Pirates WAS competitive and yet almost all kids loved it because it was FUN.
It's not competition that kids dislike, it's being forced to do something they don't enjoy.
Yup I think the competitive aspect is important to teach kids but they need to also address the importance of exercise in general.
One of the things that seems to intimidate people about Gyms is not knowing what to do. Our school had a weights room and a some running machines which our PE teacher did a little induction for all the students and used to give us workout programmes. We had set times we were allowed to use it after school and I think it contributed to my understanding of exercise beyond 'games'.
Well, like it or not, the world IS a competitive place so I think it's good to teach kids that sometimes you're not going to win and that sometimes you need to push yourself to improve.
The thing, though, is that kids who just don't want to BE out on a muddy football pitch aren't going to think like that.
They're just going to think "This sucks and I don't want to be here" so the trick is to get them doing something that they DO enjoy and which they'll want to improve at and win at.
Again, Pirates WAS competitive and yet almost all kids loved it because it was FUN.
It's not competition that kids dislike, it's being forced to do something they don't enjoy.
And that's where the difficulty lies. If you have unimaginitive PE teachers (and I think things are better now than they were in the late70's/early 80's when I was in school) then basically you have kids set up to fail/lose week after week because they have no aptitude or interest in the teachers sport of choice. That is not going to encourage anyone.
Having said that I remember one lovely summer day on the field she dragged out all this athletics stuff ... now her sporty clique made a beeline for the "cool" stuff leaving us to tackle the shotput. We had a ball (no pun intended ) - laughed ourselves silly and generally had a great time getting it as far as we could. I was pretty good at it tbh. But that was the one and only time we did that...
Cross country running - once I stopped messing around taking **** with me and hiding in the cemetery I found I had an aptitude for it and have liked running ever since. Without PE I might never have known. That's what PE is all about. I also liked high-jumping, shot putt/javelin, football and rounders. Swimming was good and it taught me to swim. So there's another bonus.
Being a Scotch school we had Scotch country dancing - the gay bloody gordon and all. Do English schools do this crap? And the crushing moment when the boys had to choose a girl to dance with and there was always the poor cows left till the end. Some of them were so bad the remaining boys tried to dance with each other. Also hated rugby, gymnastics, and badminton. Now that's interesting I spelled it "badmington" and the squiggly line said it was wrong and it would seem I have gone through life wrongly calling it "badMINGton".
Comments
I think that anybody who acts in such a narrow-minded way, to the detriment of their childs health, is rather thick.
I agree with this. Sport shouldn't be taught in a competitive, who's the class nerd type of way (and maybe it no longer is). It should be taught as something enjoyable and kids should be encouraged to enjoy it, not made to feel stupid. Also they should be allowed to dress in a way they feel comfortable.
Outside school, I rode my bike for miles, walked everywhere, played football, cricket, tennis and other ball games with my friends, and loved active games like run outs and sticky glue.
When I was about 13 I developed a health problem and was no longer allowed to take part in PE...I remember being pretty relieved at the time.
It's not narrow minded. Its an inbuilt aversion to sport which then means they are not naturally building sporting activity into their family life eg going to play ball in the park on a nice evening or taking the kids swimming at the weekend because they associate it with looking stupid or being laughed at. They are not thick and that is an unfair thing to say.
Is there any reason that it can't be both?
I coach kids at rugby, and we still have the competition element of the game, as that is the backbone of the sport, but we make it fun and enjoyable.
I agree with the dressing comfortably option, but there has to be some regulation regarding clothing, as some kids would turn up in clothing not suitable for the class.
Having a PE kit ensures the kids are wearing suitable attire for the activity.
Yes, but for kids who are no good at games the competition element can be a complete turn off and there should be options for them that are simply fun.
When I talked about appropriate dress I meant tracksuits as opposed to skimpy skirts or shorts which many teenagers feel mortified having to wear, particularly if they're overweight.
I think the only time I enjoyed it was when the women PE teachers were both off sick, and we all played indoor cricket with the boys. I was okay at cricket, and the dynamic was different with the boys there. Even the vain, annoying head of PE told me I was quite a good batsman.
Sadly, the women teachers returned, so it was back to netball and sicknotes later.
But by your own admission - you only really took an interest in PE once you were given the option of the sports YOU wanted to play.
Many of us werent (and many kids probably still arent) given that option, and when you are forced to partake in sports where you dont stand a chance - its easy to become discouraged.
For me - that sport was rugby. I was a relatively small and weak as a child - and not particularly fast. How could I possibly be expected to go up against lads that were almost twice my size and in the school rugby team.
I tried, but nobody wanted to pass the ball to someone they knew was crap. On the rare occasions I did get the ball - I was swiftly flattened by the bigger lads. Rugby for me was about being the last to be picked, followed by 95% running up and down a field on my own, with the remaining 5% being flattened by one or more 6ft brick s#ithouses. Hardly enjoyable.
Ditto. They had a fixed clique of favourites and it was hockey in the winter and netball in the summer (bloody single sex grammar schools :mad:) I loathed all team sports.
I swam, played tennis, canoed, did akido and ran 5 miles a day every lunchtime on the school running track until I was 15 and the jubblies got out of hand.
This is a good point.
Thing is, it seems as though there's a lot of people here who just plain don't like sports.
What all the ex PE-dodgers need to understand is that, for those who DID enjoy football or rugby or cricket was that those people really looked forward to sports for the opportunity to compete and test themselves.
I might have turned out as a PE-dodger because I simply don't like football and I didn't enjoy football in PE lessons.
However, once my school adopted a more varied agenda in sports I soon found a whole heap of other sports I DID enjoy immensely. Stuff like tennis, badminton, basketball, rugby and swimming.
We didn't have school teams for swimming or basketball or tennis but if we were part of a group that did swimming in a PE lesson we'd quickly split into teams and make the whole thing competitive between ourselves.
I think what schools should be doing is, firstly, to be making PE fun, so kids actually look forward to the lessons rather than seeing them as 90 minutes of torture chasing a ball around on a muddy field and then, once they've got the kids interested, offering them a variety of sports so they can choose something they enjoy to participate in and learn about being competitive.
That has been addressed now by the International Rugby Board the IRB.
A Continuum has been put in place for rugby up to Under 19 age groups.
It is no longer a full contact sport at all ages.
We start with Tag rugby, where velcro tags attached to a belt replace the tackle.
Levels of physical contact are introduced more as the players get older, with the emphasis now on developing skills better before introducing the contact skills.
This addresses the difference in physical attributes common in adolescents, and levels the playing field significantly.
Rugby is still a team sport that caters for all sizes of player, there is a position for everyone on the field, not everyone has to be big to play rugby.
But why does it have to be competitive? Can a kid not just enjoy swimming or gymnastics or somesuch without having to compete against other people? Sure, the option for competitive sports should be there, but not compulsory.
If you're not great at English or Maths you have to do it, but you're not made to take part in a public competition every week and come last or let the team down.
My second school however was mixed sex and you HAD to wear shorts no matter the weather etc, so from then I refused to do it, but I went to Karate 3 times a week outside school!
When you do anything, you always want to be able to do it better, regardless whether you are doing it for your competition or not.
If there is no competition in sport, how do you know you are getting better? there is nothing to compare yourself to.
In sports like swimming, and running, you dont have to compete against other people to improve, just against the clock.
If times dont bother you, then you can improve your technique to increase your own enjoyment of the sport, this is still a form of competition.
Sport is competitive by nature, but there are ways of letting kids compete so they enjoy it.
Well, like it or not, the world IS a competitive place so I think it's good to teach kids that sometimes you're not going to win and that sometimes you need to push yourself to improve.
The thing, though, is that kids who just don't want to BE out on a muddy football pitch aren't going to think like that.
They're just going to think "This sucks and I don't want to be here" so the trick is to get them doing something that they DO enjoy and which they'll want to improve at and win at.
Again, Pirates WAS competitive and yet almost all kids loved it because it was FUN.
It's not competition that kids dislike, it's being forced to do something they don't enjoy.
Fair enough. I used to enjoy playing rounders or setting up high jumps in the garden with my friends because it was fun and if you didn't do well no one was laughing at you or making you feel you'd let them down or blowing a whistle and shouting at you or making sure not to pick you for their team next time. I suppose that's what I associate competitiveness in school sports with but if that pressure was removed then yes, competitions could be fun.
This was my experience in PE lessons too.
I hated PE, to the point where in Y11 our Assistant Headteacher (who was also a PE teacher) stopped me from doing PE lessons because he said there was no point in making me so unhappy.
I didn't mind badminton because we could work with our friends, and I quite liked athletics. But I hated hockey, netball, football, rounders, gymnastics etc. I was in a class with people who made me hate going to school everyday so PE lessons were hell anyway, I don't cope in social situations again, I couldn't cope with doing sport in front of anyone else - and the more self-conscious you get the less coordination you have in general!
Had we had different teachers maybe I would have felt differently, but I hated our main PE teacher, she treated you like an idiot unless you were good at the team sports, and she just used to humiliate the people who weren't good. They were nicer to me by the end of Y11 when they realised how unhappy I was there, but it was a bit late by then and I got to the point where I wouldn't go into PE anymore.
Our Assistant Head was a great teacher though, and I wish I'd had him for PE, things would have been very different. Our deputy head also was a PE teacher and again was a great teacher, so I think having a teacher you work well with can have a really positive effect.
Left school 6 years ago now and I do lots of sport and training every week, it's probably my favourite thing in the world to do!
Haha cross country takes me back.
I remember our first cross country run at prep school was like a war zone, me and a friend started to walk and at varying parts of the course we found other boys alone and crying in rhododendron bushes thinking they were lost forever.
Our PE teacher was ok though, his route would come back on it's self and he would let us turn around when he went past us. tbh after the first harrowing experience it became a bit of a doss as you could run halfway play army then run back. I think he cottoned on and start trying different things, orienteering was one of the most fun alternatives he came up with.
Yup I think the competitive aspect is important to teach kids but they need to also address the importance of exercise in general.
One of the things that seems to intimidate people about Gyms is not knowing what to do. Our school had a weights room and a some running machines which our PE teacher did a little induction for all the students and used to give us workout programmes. We had set times we were allowed to use it after school and I think it contributed to my understanding of exercise beyond 'games'.
And that's where the difficulty lies. If you have unimaginitive PE teachers (and I think things are better now than they were in the late70's/early 80's when I was in school) then basically you have kids set up to fail/lose week after week because they have no aptitude or interest in the teachers sport of choice. That is not going to encourage anyone.
Having said that I remember one lovely summer day on the field she dragged out all this athletics stuff ... now her sporty clique made a beeline for the "cool" stuff leaving us to tackle the shotput. We had a ball (no pun intended
Cross country running - once I stopped messing around taking **** with me and hiding in the cemetery I found I had an aptitude for it and have liked running ever since. Without PE I might never have known. That's what PE is all about. I also liked high-jumping, shot putt/javelin, football and rounders. Swimming was good and it taught me to swim. So there's another bonus.
Being a Scotch school we had Scotch country dancing - the gay bloody gordon and all. Do English schools do this crap? And the crushing moment when the boys had to choose a girl to dance with and there was always the poor cows left till the end. Some of them were so bad the remaining boys tried to dance with each other. Also hated rugby, gymnastics, and badminton. Now that's interesting I spelled it "badmington" and the squiggly line said it was wrong and it would seem I have gone through life wrongly calling it "badMINGton".