Dreaded Phys. Ed.
Thanks to a couple of people who sent in this link to a story about girls feeling too embarrassed to exercise.
One link-sender-inner, Clarrie, had this to say about it:
"We should be teaching them that they can play hard, play competetive sports, run about, lift weights, jump, throw, climb, whatever - and it doesn't matter if they get sweaty and red in the face and mess their hair up in the process. By all means offer a range of physical activities, but don't tell girls they can only do graceful, ladylike pursuits and should leave the good stuff to the boys."
This sentence hit home for me, though: "The...problem is that a lot of the sport is competitive and only the children who are best at it end up getting picked and enjoying it."
That reminded me of why I hated P.E. when I was in school, although I liked other forms of physical activity. But the whole "getting picked last" thing really killed my desire to exercise at school; my coach was a bitch who did nothing but make me feel klutzy and fat; and I became a sedentary kid. That shouldn't have happened, and I bet I'm not the only kid to whom it did happen. I think a emphasis on less competitive physical exercise would have made a huge difference in my childhood.
One link-sender-inner, Clarrie, had this to say about it:
"We should be teaching them that they can play hard, play competetive sports, run about, lift weights, jump, throw, climb, whatever - and it doesn't matter if they get sweaty and red in the face and mess their hair up in the process. By all means offer a range of physical activities, but don't tell girls they can only do graceful, ladylike pursuits and should leave the good stuff to the boys."
This sentence hit home for me, though: "The...problem is that a lot of the sport is competitive and only the children who are best at it end up getting picked and enjoying it."
That reminded me of why I hated P.E. when I was in school, although I liked other forms of physical activity. But the whole "getting picked last" thing really killed my desire to exercise at school; my coach was a bitch who did nothing but make me feel klutzy and fat; and I became a sedentary kid. That shouldn't have happened, and I bet I'm not the only kid to whom it did happen. I think a emphasis on less competitive physical exercise would have made a huge difference in my childhood.
posted by mo pie at 11:15 AM
15 Comments:
Hi, I'm Dolley, I'm not Anonymous. Just challenged.
I was so annoyed by the story I shot off the following to the BBC:
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'Report author Professor Helen Haste, of Bath University, said: "The study showed appearance is particularly important to girls so we need to think about what forms of exercise we should encourage them to do." '
How Jurassic. Here's a suggestion, Professor Haste: Why not teach girls IT'S NOT IMPORTANT HOW THEY LOOK WHILE EXERCISING. IT'S IMPORTANT THAT THEY EXERCISE!!
In fact, why not teach them that health is more important than just appearance? Why not make non-competitive sports available for boys AND girls who prefer non-team-oriented sports?
There's an important lesson to be learned from this, gentle readers: Conclusions should not be drawn in HASTE.
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I was a classic pariah in high school, and certainly not picked for sports. But I did work out every night, with an exercise program I designed myself, for me. And guess what? When the weevil President's Physical Fitness testing came around, I was more fit than any of the competitive female athletes in school.
I predate the President's Fitness Challenge, but I had the "getting picked last" experience just about every day I attended PE. I also had the "can't throw a football to save his life" experience, and the "can't make a basket to save his life" experience, and the "let's all gang up and make his life a living hell because he's a klutzy uncoordinated kid" experience. I even had a coach once ask me what the hell was the matter with me that I never learned to do the sorts of sports-related skills that everyone else seemed to manage instinctively. I told him where to get off and spent my hour in detention reading "Star Wars."
My point is that this is a common experience for a lot of people, girls and boys, and I blame a cultural system that overvalues athletic excellence instead of genuine physical fitness. To this day, I have little use for sports of any kind, but I have learned to appreciate exercise and physical activity. I could've saved a lot of wear and tear on my body if I'd been encouraged to enjoy those things at a much younger age, and to enjoy them for their own sakes instead of framing everything in competitive terms.
(I'm a man, by the way...)
Jason
Wow, does this issue ever rub up against a whole bunch of raw nerves.
My experience in school re: Phys. Ed. was the girl's version of Jason's experience. The P.E. teachers would shove us into highly competitive sports just to keep us busy during class. None of my teachers had us do anything that would lead to actual fitness development until the tenth grade, when the teach introduced more varied activity, much of it designed to improve balance and muscle tone AND graded us solely on how much we improved our performance over the year. That last year, I almost enjoyed phys. ed. (gasp!)
As for the girls wanting to do "more ladylike" exercises such as dance or yoga? Both of these, if properly taught, are very demanding forms of exercise. You wanna improve your stamina, strength, flexibility, balance, posture, etc. all at the same time? Try classical ballet. Warning: it will kick your ass, doesn't matter how many hours you've been spending at the gym.
The problem isn't so much 'competitive' as 'team' sports - as a kid, it's far worse to strike out and make your team lose the game (and hate you for it) than it is to finish last in a race.
After spending a year and a half miserable in junior high PE, I actually discovered that I didn't mind running (no hand-eye coordination needed!) and then went on to be a varsity athlete in high school. I do think kids can learn a lot from team sports about working hard and competitive spirit, etc. etc. but there's no way in hell they're going to get that kind of benefit out of a 35-minute PE class with 40 other kids in the middle of the school day taught by one burnt-out ex-jock teacher.
-Cindy
I also remember the torture that was PE--I was so bad at team sports I ended up, at one point, being locked in a supply closet by my PE teacher to "practice" my eye-hand coordination with a badminton racquet and a birdie. Which seems kind of, well, cruel when I think about it (not to mention totally illegal). The thing was, though, that it was the competition, or rather the social pecking-order and humilation of so much of my school sports experience, that made me perform so badly, not any innate lack of ability; I later became an excellent freestyle rockclimber, a kayaker, and a runner. It's unfortunate that we can't seem to come up with less tension-fraught ways of getting kids, even awkward kids, to exercise...
I grew up in the Dark Ages of PE class, with the PFFC and all sorts of testing and horrible endurance exercises. Not surprisingly, I hated PE and exercise in general - the entire experience was always pain and humiliation. Classic aversion training, eh? The only thing that assauged it somewhat was that athletics weren't considered important for girls, so there wasn't much harassment from other kids or teachers. So a bad message both ways.
It's the "choosing sides" part that's so painful; it's simply a popularity contest, it's not even entirely based on physical ability. I know kids have to experience a certain amount of adversity to mature, but school sometimes seems expressly designed to bring out the worst in human nature and let bullies and creeps rule. Which is not unlike the working world, so perhaps it's good prep.
I have hopes it might be a little different these days, it seems like most things in school are more inclusive and offer more alternatives.
I was the picked-last-for-everything, trip-over-lines-in-the-floor, stick-'er-in-right-field kid too. Mandatory PE was the only thing that prevented me from having a 4.0 average in HS. Man, I dreaded that class.
My senior year was the only time I didn't hate it. By a stroke of luck and scheduling, I picked up a class that only had 8 people in it, with a teacher just a year or two out of college.
Since there were so few of us, we didn't do any team sports (those were always the worst for me, because I hated that feeling I was letting my team down with my zero athletic ability) and were cleared to do a lot of off-campus stuff. We went canoeing, bowling, biking, cross-country skiing. 6 of the 7 other kids in the class were varsity athletes, so they were still better at everything than I was (well, except maybe biking), but the teacher seemed to get that I soo wasn't an athlete. He made a point of congratulating me on my 8-minute mile during the PPFC, even though the rest of the class had finished long before me. And when it became obvious that I was incapable of cross-country skiing (fell on my back 3 times in the first 5 minutes on the trail!), he let me stop without making a huge production of it.
I can't say I liked PE that year exactly, and it still messed with my GPA (I think he gave me a B+, which was fair). But at least I didn't dread it, and I still carry a lot of respect for that particular teacher. He made me try everything, but never made me feel like a loser when I couldn't do it (unlike a few others I've had).
Joy
Wow, I wonder how many of us this raises issues for? I wonder how many plus size adult women and men had these same experiences?
I have a few horror stories...
- The RIDICULOUS PFFC -- when it came to the pull up, I would tell the teacher, "Trust me, I can't do even one pull up." They'd say, "Okay, just get up there and try to hang." And I'd say, "Trust me, I can't hang." They'd make me do it anyway. The chair that I was standing on was removed, I dropped to the floor. HELLO, I HAVE NO UPPER BODY STRENGTH. TRUST ME.
- 7th grade PE, forced to take gymnastics. Hated it, hated it, hated it. Even went to the doctor's try to try wrangle some kind of excuse (failed). Day after day of running at the stupid horse, jumping on the stupid platform, and smacking right into (not on TOP as intended) the stupid horse.
Best PE experience ever? When we didn't have enough teachers so they would rotate among groups doing different activities. Some friends and non-friends and I played volleyball with our own rules (eg the ball could bounce on the ground twice before you had to hit it back). Guess what? We had fun AND got exercise -- isn't that the point?
Can I just point out that we were GRADED on our physical abilities? Something tells me that grade wasn't just an A for effort kind of thing.
Things turned around for me when I went to a lovely private school (previous experiences were public) -- took modern dance and was relatively okay at it. What made the difference was having a teacher who would give comments like, "BEAUTIFUL work!" Even played JV and varsity basketball and because the team was so small, it didn't really matter that I sucked at getting the stupid ball in the basket, plus I discovered that I was really good at defense.
The most shocking thing to me ever was when I was in college and discovered that I was (and still am) an excellent ballroom dancer. If only physical activity could have been fun (and no, it doesn't just have to be all "graceful" activities -- but the emphasis needs to be on FUN not winning!), I really do think I would have a different body and a different relationship with it today.
"Can I just point out that we were GRADED on our physical abilities? Something tells me that grade wasn't just an A for effort kind of thing."
I'm sort of conflicted about this. Sure, I was bitter about PE bringing my GPA down for a long time (I'm the same Joy with the windy comment about the good gym class above--I just don't have or want a blogger account), since it kept me from being valedictorian and getting the full-ride scholarship that went with that at my (small) school.
However, when I grumbled to my husband about PE being graded on athletic ability, he said something that cast it in a different light for me--"well, aren't all classes graded on ability? Should kids get As in English classes if they try their hardest but still can't write a decent sentence?"
Hmm. It's odd that I had never thought about it that way. Why should PE be graded on effort alone, when academic classes are graded on ability to understand the subject matter?
I'm never going to be able to throw a football to anyone's satisfaction, and I'm more likely to get a basketball in the face than in the basket, and I consistently got Cs and Bs in PE and As in everything else. Why should I be bitter about that, but expect a star athlete who can't do algebra to be content with a C in Math?
Like I say, I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I know the kind of impact being bad at sports had on my activity level as an adult, and I wish the focus in PE was more on improvement and less on natural ability. On the other, I imagine that a lot of people that don't have a good memory for names and dates could get the same kind of bitter about their history grades.
In other words, I wonder if the reason I think PE should be graded on effort/improvement is that I sucked at it. :)
Joy
Another perspective: as a fat, klutzy, smart kid, I tried, and tried, and tried again to learn the basic skills that would allow me to succeed in phys ed and enjoy the same activities the rest of the kids in my class bonded over.
Neither my elementary school nor my high school would let us scrimmage or play games until the teachers were confident we had mastered the basic skills and rules of game play. I worked my ass off in every class, even when other kids made fun of me. I joined recreational basketball and soccer leagues to practice; I took skating and swimming lessons after school; I even showed up early for track and cross country practices before school. I tried as hard as I could, got positive comments from my teachers for attitude and effort, and still my skills were never even close to average.
It was painfully evident that I had a lot of learning to do when it came to physical activities, and I put the effort in (and more). I just never got any good at it.
Do I think I can't learn? No, but I know what my limits are, and I know it from pushing them HARD, even when it was physically and emotionally difficult to do so.
All that said, it's still my job to find ways to be an active, healthy adult. The wounds of Phys Ed run deep, but I'll keep trying new activities until I find something I enjoy (or can at least tolerate three or four times a week :) ). Not being good at Phys Ed hasn't absolved me of my responsibility to my own body, it's just made active living seem like a bigger challenge for me.
Lots of great comments so far. My 2 cents:
1. Yes, we need fewer team/competitive sports, or at least an emphasis on fun and fitness instead of being the best.
2. In High school we were graded on knowing the RULES of the sport (flag football, soccer, basketball) which were handed out in advance. My Gym teacher (she taught both HS and Elementary, oddly) gave us the complete rules, then we'd play for a few weeks, then there would be a test. One would think the jocks would do better... but varsity football rules and, say, flag football rules are different. It was something that sorta leveled the playing field of jocks and nerds in regards to PE.
I doubt I would have liked PE any better if we had yoga. In middle school we split by gender in the spring; the guys did wrestling, the girls did interpretive dance. Yeah, I didn't like that either. In College "Health Dynamics" was required, we lifted weights and ran. Didn't like that either. But honestly, now that I've made a personal commitment to being healthier, I'm glad to have the foundation, the knowledge of nutrition, fitness, stretching, etc.
And as for the presidential fitness challenge: Nope, I never did well at that, but now I'm using that as a goal: I am working toward being as fit as 50% of 17 yr old girls.
"Now, I will gladly agree if you say that you're not likely to ever be a professional athelete. But come on now. Did you ever, seriously, try to learn how to make a basket? Or to throw a football? I mean dedicating the time to it even after you know that you can't do it right now. Or did you give it a go, fail the first few times, and then give up and either never try again, or at least never try seriously?"
Well, first, I was being facetious with the "never throw a football..." line. I know that if I spent hours practicing, I would be able to do it. And I played basketball in school in 4th and 6th grade (badly), played football with my brothers and cousins, did little league. I did try to learn, enough that I do understand the techniques of throwing a ball or shooting a basket. Though I did catch a basketball with my face more than a couple times, I can play a respectable game of HORSE if I really concentrate.
That said, my point in the grading comment wasn't to be defeatist about my ability to play sports, because I no longer care if I can or not. There are plenty of other forms of exercise out there that I can do well, so why torture myself learning to be mediocre at something I don't enjoy? My point was that I wasn't sure I had any right to be upset about my lower PE grades because I had less natural sports ability than the ones who aced it.
Joy
The point, for me, isn't whether I am fat or not fat today. The point is that I feel like there was something in me, some potential that was extinguished by the system. I could shoot a basketball, but I would rather have died than try to do it in front of my classmates. I was too embarrassed, didn't have the self-esteem. I wish I had grown out of that earlier than I did. This whole conversation is making me want to join a basketball team for beginners or something. I want a do-over!
And yes, thanks for all your thoughtful comments. This discussion has been really fascinating.
Hi...
A little late coming into the discussion here....
I had no problems with PE during my schooling. In my K - 8 private school, it was once a week, and nobody really cared about it. And my high school didn't count it in the GPA.
My fiancee's high school, however, used PE as the Great Leveller. Jocks definitely had an advantage there. And there was one teacher whose behavior boredered on the abusive.
Her experiences, and those of others, have led me to resolve to do these things when my children go to school:
1) If my child has any physical/medical limitations, I will have our doctor document them and send them to the PE teacher, with the understanding that these factors will be taken into account.
2) Fight any grading policy which grades on physical ability. I will not have my child penalized for something he/she is physically unable to do. Tactics may include civil disobedience (refusing to cooperate with the teacher) and litigation if necessary.
3) Make life hell for any gym teacher who crosses me regarding 1) or 2).
4) Encourage the "New PE", in which students set individual fitness goals and are graded on improvement.
That with team sports all during PE taught me one "valuable" lesson:
Never attempt team sports unless you're good at it.
I was always picked last as I was a net detriment to the team assigned. I couldn't be worse even if I was an operative for the the opposing team. THAT'S bad. If that wasn't bad enough, there is the infamous American Water Torture - and I don't mean Abu Ghraib.
The way high school PE taught swimming was the worst. They merely used the "class" to farm for varsity swimmers, and non-swimmers need not apply to learn in the first place. To have learned, you needed to pre-know how to swim a little. If you couldn't swim at all, forget it. You learn that other "valuable" lesson:
If you don't learn while real young, you can never learn to swim.
The most athletic thing I ever do is speed-walk. I always used that talent for a transportation method and nothing else. It allowed me to take evasive routes home to avoid bullies. How sad.
If they don't reform PE, they may as well just ban it.
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