PE in schools
BlueEyedMrsP
Posts: 12,178 Forum Member
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Did you enjoy doing PE in school? Do you remember it as being fun or tough? Are schools doing enough for our kids, or should the parents be more responsible for making sure their kids get enough exercise?
Also, did you have a unit on gymnastics when you were in school? I was talking to my daughter about it last week and she said they basically put the equipment out, have a student who already knows gymnastics demonstrate something and then they goof around for the rest of the class on the apparatus. My first thought was 'gee, things haven't changed much'. Lol, any of you had a teacher that actually knew how to do any gymnastic maneuvers? It seems like a bit of a time-waster, and as much as I think those who are good at are probably healthy and athletic, I don't see it as a general good-fitness type of thing, it's too specialized (I'm not sure if that's the word I'm looking for). A class on yoga with emphasis on proper warming up and stretching would be more useful, imo. Too new-age?
Your thoughts?:)
Also, did you have a unit on gymnastics when you were in school? I was talking to my daughter about it last week and she said they basically put the equipment out, have a student who already knows gymnastics demonstrate something and then they goof around for the rest of the class on the apparatus. My first thought was 'gee, things haven't changed much'. Lol, any of you had a teacher that actually knew how to do any gymnastic maneuvers? It seems like a bit of a time-waster, and as much as I think those who are good at are probably healthy and athletic, I don't see it as a general good-fitness type of thing, it's too specialized (I'm not sure if that's the word I'm looking for). A class on yoga with emphasis on proper warming up and stretching would be more useful, imo. Too new-age?
Your thoughts?:)
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Comments
But I can see how some would have hated it, such as the fat wheezy boys with a note from matron.
I loved PE at school but in those days it wasnt a subject like it is now.And yes, that did incluge gymnastics though not at a high level, just enough to improve balance and coordination.
Especially liked football and long distance running. Great memories of running alongside the canal in freezing cold weather.
Even as a teenager I could never understand why four or five kids had to huddle round one tatty old biology text book that had seen better days twenty years back yet the gym was full of fancy expensive equipment.
School put me off any sort of exercise for years and years. I like to keep fit these days and enjoy cycling. The mere sight of a hockey stick brings back hideous memories of dribbling a ball up and down an icy field, my thighs red and numb, no feeling at all in my frozen fingers while the bitch of a pe teacher was nice and cosy and in her tracksuit while the rest of us battled frost bite in flimsy shorts and t shirts, blowing her flaming whistle if you dared to cheat and whack the ball up the field. Bitch!
Hated gym classes, climbing ropes, vaults etc.
Assume you're not a Blackadder fan!
Did you dislike PE before having that teacher, or was it that experience with her that put you off?
Always think if I was a PE teacher I would encourage the less able ones and show them how to enjoy sport and fitness. As surely these are the ones that can be helped and taught how beneficial healthy exercise.
This was in the late early 90s so I'm assuming its a lot different now.
Rugby was a bit better.
they kept trying to get me to climb the bars, which I refused because I don't like heights. My mum wrote a letter to them about it, but they still tried until she went down there and played hell.
We'd take off trousers, jumpers and socks and leave them on our chairs in the classroom. We'd then walk along the school corridor in underpants/knickers and vests to the hall/gym when we'd do floor exercises etc.
Football, Indoor Football, Rugby, Tennis, table tennis, Hand ball, Soft ball, Athletics, gymnastics, Basketball, Rounders, Cricket etc etc
I think PE is invaluable in schools, it'll teach kids some very important values in life which will help them for ever such as
Discipline, the value of Hard Work and Sacrifice, team work abilities, the experience of success and failure, striving for goals setting targets to aim for, value of patience and preparation and over coming adversity.
I'd say PE is one the most important classes in School.
loved track and field especially long distance running
swallocks
Ok........rolls eyes
Unfortunately there wasn't a special group at GCSE level so I was put back with the rest of year. It was humiliating and while for some people that may have encouraged them to get fit to keep up it encouraged me to get out of PE so I wouldn't be embarrassed. When I have kids I will be encouraging them to get involved with sports from a young age so they don't suffer like I did.
It was an effort, I was a bit crap at tennis and athletics, but I enjoyed it all.
I've never enjoyed sports anyway so being "forced" to do it at school didn't exactly make it any more enjoyable.
It was the same for us at that time too.
I have a male friend who, in the early 80s, had to do PE with no underpants on under their shorts. The PE master would line them up and look into their shorts to check they were naked underneath and not wearing underpants. Can you imagine the outcry today!
Gymnastics was pretty big in both the secondaries i went to. The teachers did know the moves, I got all four BAGA awards quite quickly and was entered into a few competitions. This was in the early 70s.
By the time I was in the third year, however, I was really too big for the sport, and turned to Dance.
That sounds a bit dodgy.
I'd add to that "winning and losing gracefully" but can't agree with you more.
These values are sorely lacking in many modern adults and adolescents.
Parents giving their spoiled gets the option to miss PE is pathetic. If we encouraged more children to get more physical exercise and be involved with sports we wouldn't have 61% of the country being fatties.
I was never very good at sport, but I tried and did enjoy it at first.
Netball - enjoyed but was put off because I always got put as goal keeper just because I'm tall, and ended up cold and bored every week.
Hockey - quiet enjoyed it, but was put off by sadistic PE teacher who made the slow ones run round the pitch rather than playing
Swimming - a sport I have always enjoyed, but never dared do at secondary school due to sadistic PE teacher who didn't think your period was a good excuse not to swim
Tennis - the less said about that the better
Rounders - slow kids were only allowed to field, so got bored.
Athletics - I enjoyed running and jumping, and was actually not bad at hurdles, high jump and long jump, but because we had already had 2 terms of hockey and netball, the PE teacher had already written me off as useless.
Trampolining - did this in 4th and 5th year, with the nice PE teacher. I was never much good, but she encouraged us all the same. Took me 2 years to master a somersault, but I got there eventually
Outside of school I loved kayaking and sailing, but these weren't offered at school.
These days I see posters about netball at the leisure centre when I take my daughter swimming, and it does appeal to me, but my lack of confidence at sport as the result of 2 sadistic PE teachers makes me too scared to try it.
I think PE is important at school, but there needs to be a large range of sports and good teachers that encourage ALL kids.