Why We Can No Longer Afford to Treat Gym As a Throwaway Class

“Sport in school is the worst thing you can possibly inflict on children, particularly girls who are going through puberty and are necessarily self-conscious, often in pain and often vulnerable. Rather than being promoted as life-enhancing, health-giving and a fun way of giving you a fantastic body, sport is turned by school, and the frankly pervy gym mistresses who police it with really loud whistles, into an assault course to be avoided at all costs.”

So says the ever-controversial (pervy gym mistresses? You went there? Really??) Liz Jones in the Daily Mail. (In an article criticizing a British sports star for being “too sinewy” with “breasts like slabs in a sea of testosterone”, no less.)

The thing is, for a long time I would have heartily agreed with her. Man I hated gym class.

Every society has its own coming-of-age challenge that adolescents of that culture must pass before being accepted as adults. Some African societies force feed adolescent girls to fatten them up for marriage. To progress to manhood in the Amazon’s Satere Mawé tribe you have to wear gloves filled with stinging ants – ants whose sting is 30 times more painful than a wasp’s – for 20 minutes. American children have Middle School.

If your experience was anything like mine, you just had an involuntary shiver go up your spine. During those three short years I got loogies hawked into my hair (bonus points for spatter on my big ol’ plastic ’80s glasses!), sloppy joes dumped in my ridiculously inefficient Esprit bag, and, in retrospect the most horrifying thing of all, a lecture on the birth control Norplant from my 12-year-old locker partner. But in the highlight reel of the horror movie that was my middle school, the scene that holds the most Carrie-like prominence is the day I not only threw up but also simultaneously peed myself in front of all my classmates in gym class.

It happened on the day of the dreaded Presidential Fitness Exam. Perhaps you remember it: sit-ups, push-ups, the sit-n-reach, the arm hang and the mile run. Each event had a certain number you had to meet to pass. Winners got an ugly little patch to sew on to something (I think – I never won so I wouldn’t know) and losers got a lifetime of bad self esteem. Well my particular gym teacher that year had an evil streak a mile wide and decided that the only way to pass his P.E. class (or “Phy. Ed.” if you’re Minnesotan) was to pass the Presidential Fitness Exam. (Side note: I always wondered who is this president they kept referring to? While President Obama could probably pass with flying colors, I doubt Bush Sr. – the president during my middle school tenure – could even manage the second half of a sit up without assistance.) Anyhow, being the straight-A student I was, I was horrified at the thought of a stupid gym class ruining my precious 4.0 G.P.A. My downfall every year was the mile run.

Well that year, Senor Satan decided to help me keep my G.P.A. … by chasing me around the track throwing footballs at my head and screaming “MOVE IT HILTON!” while my classmates roared with laughter. Terror stricken and jelly legged, I not only passed the mile run but beat the boys’ time as well – only to ruin my moment of wind-sucking glory by vomiting right on the finish line. And then peeing my blue polyester gym shorts while trying to run off the field to hide. After that I did everything I could to avoid P.E. in school, something I was fairly successful at.

This bad early experience with gym class not only gave me the best “My Most Embarrassing Moment Story*” to tell at parties but it also had the unfortunate consequence of making me h-a-t-e running. And volleyball and soccer and basketball and football and pretty much every other team sport I was forced to play with the lone exception of archery. I kicked blue-polyester-butt in archery.

When I met my husband many post-traumatic years later, it took him months just to get me to play a little tennis with him. Despite enjoying dancing and gymnastics and hiking and rock climbing and many other sweaty pursuits I still thought I was a terrible athlete and moreover I hated anything that said “team sport.” This fallacy might have persisted had I not had a bunch of pregnancy weight and post-sexual-assault angst to work off. Thankfully I discovered fitness in my mid-twenties and it’s been a love affair ever since – something that one gym teacher came mighty close to ruining. (I’ve even discovered a love for team sports! The Gym Buddies and I have been playing a little basketball – read: calvinball rules – and it’s been a riot!)

Research says I’m not alone in my middle school reaction, saying that negative interactions with physical education teachers can cause a lifelong hatred of exercise. One woman in the study wrote, “I am a 51-year-old-woman whose childhood experiences with sports, particularly as handled in school, were so negative that even as I write this my hands are sweating and I feel on the verge of tears. I have never experienced the humiliation nor felt the antipathy toward any other aspect of life as I do toward sports.” I feel for her. Even 20 years later I still feel nauseated remembering the gym class that inspired a 100 angst-ridden diary entries.

Fortunately, the converse is also true. If a bad gym teacher or coach can inspire lifelong bad habits, a good teacher is even more powerful. Thankfully there are many P.E. teachers (like our own Turbo Jennie!) who realize the importance of what they are doing and work long and hard to help the vulnerable kids in their care. These teachers do a lot of good and deserve more attention, respect and pay than we currently give them. Sure there’s the much ballyhooed obesity crisis to think about but I think P.E. is even more important for teaching kids how good it can feel to exercise, how fun movement can be and, at the risk of getting all after-school special up in here, serious life skills. And we do this by helping kids find an activity they love – something you can’t do by belittling, criticizing or humiliating them. We can no longer afford to treat physical education like a throwaway class nor can we keep treating gym teachers as a joke – their role is so influential and important to our kids’ well being.

We need good P.E. classes in schools and to do that we need more great P.E. teachers – anything less and the consequences are simply too severe.

What was your school gym experience like? Did you have a particular physical education teacher who really stood out to you, good or bad? Can anyone top my embarrassing middle school moment??

*This story was a great “most embarrassing moment story” for several years as a teen but I have since topped it with waaaay more embarrassing moments. Like the time I peed my pants all over the gym floor as a grown adult. I blame the Gym Buddies – they made me laugh too hard!

44 Comments

  1. Ugh – high school PE. I hate that all comes back to that stupid mile. I could never run the mile. Despite being incredibly athletic and an elite level figure skater I just couldn’t do it. I tried to get out of it, only to promptly be told that I wasn’t actually an athlete. I exercised some willpower not telling my obese PE teacher/varsity football coach that I was quite an excellent athlete but I didn’t want to run around a black rubber track. Fast foward to now when I’m a marathon runner… but that is beside the point.

    What frustrates me is that I could have avoided all that torture if they would have just given us some bleeping advice. When we would take to the track, the cc and track people would take off. There would be the kids that were going to move as slow as possible without actually moving backwards, and then there was the rest of us that tried but failed BECAUSE WE HAD NO IDEA WHAT WE WERE DOING. We tried to chase the cc runners, which believe it or not didn’t work. If they would have just explained that we should go out slower or breathe easier or whatever we might have succeeded. Nope, jerkface just stood there yelling out times and the associated grades.

  2. Yeah…I hated gym in elementary and high school (my area does away with middle school, and splits at grade 9 to high school).

    I think that there is so much emphasis on achievement in gym, and not enough emphasis on trying. It always seemed so pointless to even try when it came to team sports, because I was (am?) so bad at anything involving hand-eye coordination.

    Things got better when I learned I was a decent swimmer, and generally not bad (though not good…just proficient) at anything that was free of balls or pucks or sticks (basketball, baseball, volleyball, lacross, ringette, hockey, rugby, field hockey….etc.).

    So now I focus on the idea that “trying my best” is good enough, and that having fun is the actual goal, and the salutary effects of exercise are just side benefits.

    Law school also helped, because there are a LOT of uncoordinated smart people, which made me feel more normal.

    • Also, we don’t have the presidential fitness test. We had the beep test. *shudder*

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-stage_fitness_test

      And, we had to do it with the boys. When some of us were just beginning to grow chests..and had not yet learned that we actually needed to wear sports bras when running. Those boys were so cruel, and the test was already so crappy…it was just a disaster all around.

  3. Oh gym class! As a perpetually chubby gal, I was never anyone’s first choice, ever, from elementary through HS.

    My freshman year of high school, I was the ONLY 9th grader in a class filled with all juniors and seniors (11th and 12th graders). It was horrible. I was terrified of everyone, despite going to a tiny school. I think I got a “pity” A from the gym teacher, who felt super bad for me!

    My senior year, however, I was one of three girls in a class of mostly (get this) jerky, mouthy, FRESHMAN guys! hahahaha! So the three of us just told the kids off a lot and we mostly had fun, despite my supremely out-of-shapeness.

    Our P.E. teacher was really decent in HS. He understood not everyone is a natural athlete. If you showed up and at least attempted to do something other than roll your eyes, mouth off or stand around, you got a decent grade. For that, I am forever grateful!

    As for the Presidential Fitness Test, the only ones I could ever do were sit-ups and the V Sit Reach. Oh, and it was started either by Eisenhower or JFK, I can’t remember who.

  4. I loathed PE and sport in High School and that has spilled over to adulthood. We had a PE teacher who should have been fired the first time she ‘dried’ someone after a shower, however it was a different time .

    I refused point-blank to do it (there’s only so many times teachers can put you on detention before the passive-aggressive just wears them down, I sat in the sun and read a book, or checked myself into the sick bay and took a nap). We also had an afternoon of sport each week. I loved roller-skating (dating myself a bit here !) but we were only supposed to do one term (semester) at each sport. They decided that since I’d actually turn up for that I could do it all the time without too much whinging on their part.

    I still hate sport. The thought of doing a team sport still makes me shakey !

  5. Huh, PE was a non-class/non-issue for me. So long as you dressed everyday, you were guaranteed a B in the class. So long as you TRIED and IMPROVED, you got the A. Sure, I was the un-coordinated geek kid with glasses and gum on my butt, but I never got picked on in class. (Or maybe I was too dense to get picked on? I made the mistake of sitting on gum in gym class, so I had it on my butt. We tried freezing and peanut butter, but it never really came out. Some people did mention that I had a stain on my butt, and I always asked them why they were looking at my butt…but I did it sincerely, not in the comeback response kind of way…and not ONCE did it EVER occur to me to just buy a new set of shorts…me smart? Apparently not…I still have those shorts…)

    I get that sports are supposed to make exercise fun, but it was never my thing. We had 2 years of required PE in high school, but then no one took it unless you were on a team. I gained 30 lbs during those 2 years, only to lose them when I discovered the gym in college. Apparently weight lifting was my thing (we had a weight lifting unit, by far my favorite, I only wish we had it longer so that I could lift the olympic bar…which at the time I thought I could never do…now I can…WHOO HOO…15 year old me would be so proud)

    If they made a PE class where we exercise like we do as adults (kickboxing, step, weights, calisthenics…yea, all that, but while listening to POP MUSIC), then I could see PE being a fond memory. Or teaching us basic exercise principles (other than to warm up, but actually teaching us a PROPER warmup, not just telling us what to do). It’s physical EDUCATION, but most people don’t come out knowing how to properly squat or do a pushup. If they could include nutrition in PE instead of health (which is basically sex ed and don’t do drugs), that would kinda be useful. Along with some equipment-less strength training, that would be GREAT.

    I dunno, I should sleep now, past my bedtime and I’m getting rambly. Sorry if I’m incoherent. I didn’t have any life-changing PE teachers, but they didn’t screw me up, so I’m happy. I still wish I were a sports person, though.

  6. Most of my PE teachers all through school really were wonderful and we even had square dancing (hell-loooo 80’s!) as one of our subjects! But, there was one time in a gymnastics section in high school where the teacher was so certain she could teach me how to do a cartwheel, she had everyone sit down and all we did the ENTIRE class was watch me over and over again fail at the cartwheel. Now, the teacher was very encouraging and wasn’t trying to humiliate me and everyone in my class was great (I was one of those middle-of-the-road kids: not popular, not loathed), so it wasn’t as horrible as it sounds. But still. Now that I have a kiddo in middle school who isn’t a stellar athlete, I do worry. So far, he has been encouraged by his teachers and his park and rec coaches and so he loves PE and his basketball team. I am very very grateful for them all.

  7. The only thing I liked in middle school PE was the presidential fitness test. I was the best in my group, since it didn’t involve any ball throwing. I do remember lots of horrible days in PE, like when we played dodgeball or kickball, or soccer, or basketball, or badmitton:(

  8. While my PE classes weren’t as horrible as yours, they were quite unpleasant most of the time. I failed miserably at running, jumping, throwing, etc. Thankfully, I wasn’t that bad at ball games, gymnastics, and all those technical sports, so my grades balanced out.
    Looking back, what bothers me the most is that when we had to run the 1/2 mile or so (I don’t remember the exact distance), nobody ever taught us how to do it right! We never really trained for it, or were told how to properly pace ourselves, instead we just ran and got grades. It’s no surprise that a few of my classmates passed out, after running their hearts out on a hot July afternoon (they probably also didn’t have enough food and/or water that day, but that’s beside the point).
    Because of those PE classes, I hated running for many years, until I spontaneously started a Couch-to-5k programm about a year ago. And I found out that running can be fun! I really wish I learned that a little earlier in my life.

  9. ahhhhh my pe classes were filled with embarrassment till I feigned injuries etc and got notes from the doc to sit on sidelines.
    then they rocked 🙂

    this is such an important important post, charlotte.
    and Im woman enough to admit Id never framed it that way in my mind (‘throwaway class’) until this morning.
    You nailed it and Ill be musing it all day.
    and remembering my traumatic volleyball experience 🙂

  10. Am I the only one who thought Liz Jones’s little ramble at the top was pretty sexist? Maybe I’m overreacting… but I’d always thought that middle school was pretty tough on kids in general. Guys are usually insecure and vulnerable too – and usually VERY insecure about how they look. Are they too short, too tall, too fat, too thin, are they growing facial hair fast enough? It’s different than the pressure girls feel, definitely, but they still have pressure. It’s part of middle school, not part of middle school for girls – why does that make us some vulnerable little doll that needs to be protected while it makes guys, well, not need to be protected?

    That said, I’m a little younger than you Charlotte – not a lot but enough that maybe it makes a difference in this case. We were able to choose gym classes as electives, choosing what focus they took, and while they weren’t always my favorite, I don’t remember hating them. Of course by that point, there was a LOT more oversight on the gym teachers (especially male ones teaching girls) and I don’t think any of them would have gotten away with throwing a football and chasing a student like that (unless they were coaching the football team and it was a training exercise).

  11. I didn’t have the teacher-from-Hell like you had; mine would just look in the other direction as the pack established pecking-order in Lord of the Flies Fashion.

  12. Oh Gym class. I HATED gym, first in the elementary years as a “fatter” child, always picked last and please don’t even talk about the Presidental Fitness stuff. I couldn’t do anything and my 14 minute miles rendered me a sweaty red faced child the rest of the day. Worse. Thing. Ever.

    High school gym was only better in that we could take it during the summer and get it out of the way with better things like bowling, canoeing,etc. I wasn’t big anymore, but instead was severly anorexic and always uncoordinated (and still am!).

    I don’t think there was any one moement that stood out, but rather all of them. Same for the gym teachers. In fact they were all rather scary individuals. One of them was a women who had a office in the locker room. We were all bothered by that especially b/c she was a lesbian. That didn’t go over well with a bunch of middle school girls! (please don’t read that as being homophobic! Not the case!)

  13. Too bad you didn’t throw up all over that PE teacher.

    I hated gym class and was convinced that I hated exercise until my mid to late 20’s. I still want nothing to do with team sports.

    I think for Phys Ed class to work, it needs to be about fun and not performance. The problem with that being: not everyone has the same idea of fun. There are lots of people who love team sports. I’m not one of them and never will be. Plus, that’s hard to grade (gym class was always the lowest mark on my report card).

    I wish we’d had archery at my school – that I would have loved to try.

  14. I hated P.E. I hated it for all of the reasons listed here about middle school insecurity and angst (I swear the only place I was more picked on and tormented than PE was youth group).

    But looking back, what I actually am most frustrated by is the Presidential Fitness tests. Not that they exist, I actually don’t think it’s a terrible idea to do spring and fall fitness assessments. I hate that we never did anything to train for them! If you never, ever do any kind of running, how on earth are you supposed to be able to run a mile at all,let alone improve your time?

    I guess I feel like our PE classes were a waste of time since they so rarely focused on teaching fitness/athletic skills or attempting any kind of progressive, consistent improvement

    I agree with Charlotte that our kids need PE or some other regular, structured fitness activity that helps them build a love for activity as well as confidence.

  15. Ph ys ed, art and music need to be n schools!

    I had one gym teacher who I respected very much! I had another who was a complete a$$! That’s the way the world goes round!

  16. Charlotte- I had a very similar experience in junior high! I have exercise induced asthma and hadn’t yet learned the zen-like breathing techqniques I currently use when exercising. Instead of a mile run, we had something called the beep test. You had to run across the gym between a series of beeps that got progressively closer together. If you didn’t make it before the second beep, you had to stop. I never made it very far, and would spend the rest of the class making squeaking noises when I breathed and feeling like my throat was bleeding.
    I did a lot of sports growing up- hiking, biking, swimming and skiing specifically, but I always thought of myself as out of shape because I couldn’t run. It took me until me late teens/early twenties to realize that I was fit and athletic, despite my lack of running prowess. I still don’t play many team sports because my memories from middle school involve too many cases of having volleyballs spiked at my head, but I am working on it.

    • I forgot about the beep test! I had exercise-induced asthma as well, and I swear that darn test was designed to provoke it! I almost passed out a couple of times trying to stick with the class on that one

  17. I was one of the few who liked P.E., but I hear such horror stories I realize how lucky I was! We had the good, encouraging sort of P.E. teachers; that helped.

    It’s funny though, now when I see kids in P.E. classes it looks awful to me. I feel such relief that I’m an adult and no one can tell me when I have to run, or what I have to wear, or what sort of exercise I have to do, like it or not. Ick!

  18. I was lucky. Growing up in a small town where there were only 10 girls in high school we all got to play all the sports or we wouldn’t have a team. Consequently, there wasn’t a hope in hell of us doing particularly well, so we just had fun with it. Pudgy unathletic me still got to play every sport but broom ball and, for the most part, had fun. I wasn’t really any good, but none made too big of a deal out of it, it us *was* that way. Our PE classes were pretty low key and seemed to consist of a lot of soccer and floor hockey, which I enjoy. Sometimes we got pushed to run or do other things, but out teacher was never evil about it. His goal was to just get us moving doing *something*. I remember hating the fact that I couldn’t keep up with some of the fit girls, but the teasing and other crap I got from people didn’t really enter into gym class, which now that I look back on it is rather amazing…I remember wishing I could do more, but never having the nerve to ask about how. It was funny, because at my 20 year reunion this summer a lot of my classmates were quite amazed that I was now an athletic person. A lot of the old athletes were very unathletic now…how time changes things huh? 🙂

  19. Luckily, I never had bad experiences in gym and was an athletic kid, with the exception of running. I could power-walk the mile “run” with the best of them! Thank goodness my awesome sit-n-reach numbers evened out the poor mile numbers.

    Anyway, did you see that a Florida Congressman is trying to ban gym class in his state? My thought, “yeah, let’s do that when our country has the highest obesity rate…” Dumb. But, I do think that the quality of teacher really makes the difference on whether someone loves or hates gym class.

    Sorry your gym experiences were so terrible, but at least you’ve learned to love exercise. Not everyone is that lucky even without the terrible gym teachers.

  20. I was a total gym class hero. big time. I remember the highlight of my junior year was being picked as the captain of one of the gym class volleyball teams. Wow, that just sounds so sad right now.

  21. Gym should be a priority in school. We should be focused on the mental aspect of learning, but also on the physical. I fortunately had a good experience with gym. I’m sure it had something to do with me being good at sports, but I can see how a teacher can make or break it for you. I have a horrible public speaking fear, and depending on what teacher I had, it either made it better, or is was like throwing me into a pit of fire. The problem is gym class, the way it’s being taught, and by whom it’s being taught by.

  22. My high school PE teacher was AMAZING!!!!! I was far from athletic, but she was very creative. She split us into groups, letting friends stay together, and we rotated through activities. We also did aerobics (this was the 80’s) and other activities that would actually get us moving, rather than cringing in shame and fear. Even I enjoyed gym class, despite years of humiliation while attempting various athletic endeavors and failing miserably. She also, secretly, gave us a talk on safe sex and preventing STDs, putting her job at risk.

  23. No 14 year old girl should ever have to waddle down a gym floor with a ball between her knees as part of an obstacle course. Ever. My regular gym classes were a mix of humiliating activities, rampant sexism (“Girls’s can’t pitch softball… you’re pitching too fast! Slow down!”), and vicious fellow students (who slammed my head in a door). On the other hand, my senior year I took a pretty awesome Tae Kwon Do class, which actually improved my physical fitness. I think the typical phys ed classes just need a LOT more structure, more thoughtful supervision — which isn’t the same thing as MORE supervision — and a better understanding of the adolescent mind, really. It’s a tall order for classes typically staffed by coaches who were hired for their expertise in one sport, or who simply can’t empathize with certain groups of students (unfit, female, etc).

  24. Yes yes yes yes YES! I was a very active person growing up- lots of hiking, skiing etc.- but I was terribly uncoordinated. My years of Gym in grades 4-10 have left me not only with an extreme dislike of ANY team sports, but I feel so embarrassed by my lack of skill that I would avoid it at all costs- even if all my friends joined in. I tried hard, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t magically create hand-eye co-ordination. Rather than being supportive, most of my gym teachers mocked me and told me I was lazy. I was the kid who accidentally threw a badminton racket at my teacher’s head! Especially living in a small town, I would say that had there not been gym class, I would have had many more friends and been bullied much less. No one wants to be seen with the dork who can’t catch a ball to save her life. It’s great if you are good at sports, but if you aren’t, the whole thing is just designed to make you feel ashamed and terrible, and encourage your classmates to mock you. Funny how the students who couldn’t do math never became the unpopular ones who got mocked even by the teachers.

  25. Actually, being good in certain gym things was the one thing I was proud of BUT I hated the having to dress & undress in front of others being a fat kid.. that is the part I despised the most because I was so self-conscious. This was in high school & then with the period each month & what we had back when I first started – UGH! 😉

    I do think it is important to have physical fitness & music & art in schools but the fitness part in a more accepting way to all vs. the competitive way so that we engage kids. Those that want the competition can try out for sports.

  26. Just a quick note (in case you didn’t know it) that Bush the Elder was a pretty spry little tennis player at least up until the time I was in college (I’m almost exactly your age). I’d be willing to bet he could have held his own at those Presidential challenges, even against our current Commander, Smokey McSmokerson. 😉

  27. I always had good P.E. Teachers and ones that always inspired you to workout and do well. I wanted to play soccer for my school team until, I feel face first and broke my shoulder during a soccer game in P.E. I also wanted to play softball until I got a softball thrown at my head. I think we still need P.E. in schools just like we need music and art programs too! I want my baby to be fit, not that I’m not going to take him out on runs with me when he isn’t a newborn anymore and Dad is going to play ball with him. I think just having a P.E. teacher that inspires their students to at least want to try some sports out like I did is enough.

  28. Wow. I just did a post a couple weeks ago on this topic. There was a boy in my daughter’s classs that hurled while running sprints. They made him rinse his mouth and continue on. I’m still on the fence as to whether this is helpful or hurtful to do to kids. I’m leaning towards hurtful based on my own experience in non-coordination. Especially now that I read your story too. Very insightful.

  29. I loved PE, but I think coming from a family that was very active helped to develop body awareness,coordination and stamina so I didn’t dread going. Group showering on the other hand was torture…and who thought it’d be a good idea to have teachers check-off if a student’s showered?

    Showers aside, I wasn’t aware of any PE teacher belittling/mocking a student or allowing another student to do so. That, obviously, should not be tolerated. Schools should be doing everything they can to encourage students to become active, whether that’s in a team sport or as an individual. There are soooo many options—one I’d like to see employed more: YOGA. Yoga and students are made for each other! Yoga fosters acceptance, understanding and compassion. Each yoga journey is unique and individual just as each student.

    Sports–individual and team–are a great way to develop/grow in many ways not just physically. One of the hardest, but very valuable is learning to deal with defeat. Why people started handing out ‘trophies’ to young children for basically just for showing up is beyond me–the kids quickly catch on; it undermines their work ethic and dilutes true accomplishments.

    I have an embarrassing moment (several) that are as cringe-worthy as yours, but not connected to PE.

  30. PE at my high school was just physical enough to require you to change clothes, get sweaty, and ruin your makeup during the school day, but not physical enough to actually give you any meaningful exercise. As a cross-country and track runner, I resented having to waste time on half-assed, half-hearted “sports” when I already running 5-6 miles every day after school. Many students in my school did sports, so they were in the same boat; and for those who didn’t, PE was hardly strenuous enough to make a difference. Fortunately I only had to take it one semester freshman year; I would be LIVID if I had to take it all four years as opposed to a more beneficial and interesting class.

    I believe that PE is important for elementary schoolers and middle schoolers, as are other “specials” (as my school called them) like music, art, technology education, home economics, etc. It’s a good way to teach kids the importance of exercise and introduce them to a variety of sports. The playing field is also more level at this age–you don’t have the all-star soccer forward who practices 4 hours a day playing with kids who can barely kick a ball, which is frustrating and embarrassing for the latter, mind-numbingly boring and pointless for the former. But just as not every high school student wants or needs to, say, play an instrument, not every high school student needs to play sports. If they haven’t sought out a sport by themselves at this point then they’re probably not interested, and if they have then they don’t need to waste their time playing a half-assed version in PE class.

    What I think would be ideal is if high schools offered classes like yoga, weight lifting, martial arts, boxing, aerobics, etc. Having a class dedicated to just one or two forms of exercise would be more effective and meaningful, and it would be a great option for teenagers who aren’t into traditional competitive sports. It’s also more similar to the way that most people exercise post-high school; very few adults are on, say, a competitive basketball league, but many work out or attend yoga classes. Making these classes optional, not mandatory, would also ensure that they only attracted students who were interested and dedicated, and there would be less of a need to cater to the lowest common denominator.

  31. My main memory of gym classes was of the once dreaded mandatory group showers that followed each and every gym class from 6th grade through 12th grade. We had to undress at our lockers and walk naked through the locker room to the shower-room, and then after we were done showering we had to walk naked up to the gym teacher so she could check-off that we had showered, and then she would hand us a towel. In the 6th grade at my middle school, my gym teacher taught health class the next period. Since she didn’t want to be sweaty during that class, she would shower with us after gym class. She was married, and she never said or did anything inappropriate. Nevertheless, it was a bit awkward showering with a teacher. Especially when she would talk to us while we showered.

  32. I don’t remember a lot about middle school gym, so either I blocked it or nothing traumatic happened. In high school, we had a huge gym with different options. We always began with half of us running the indoor track and the other half doing sit ups and toe touches, those types of things. Then we would go to our activity. There was square dancing, disco, archery, badmitton, table tennis, weight lifting, volleyball,etc. I enjoyed having the choice, even tho I pretty much stunk at any type of sport. What I HATED was changing in the locker room and taking the showers. I was always a skinny little thing, but so embarrassed to show my body. We were allowed 5 “wash ups” a month without it affecting our grades. Believe you me, I took many more than 5. I didn’t care about my grade..wasn’t worth the embarrassment!

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  41. P.E. wreaked havoc on my self-esteem, to the point where I flinched violently whenever the ball/birdie/puck/other people came towards me. For me it was rarely the teachers that were awful- it was the athletic boys. They teased me about my flinch and went out of their ways to make it worse, pretending to slam the ball into my face only to toss it gently in front of me. And they always had a way to show exactly how frustrated they were with your poor athletic capabilities. I was actually a pretty confident kid who enjoyed performing, but from the moment I stepped into the gym I became self-conscious, and that just heightened the feeling of humiliation and worthlessness I felt every time I tripped, missed, or just failed in general while trying to play whichever sport was the poison of the day. I actually developed mild anxiety, and swung between wanting to cry and wanting to punch the guy next to me. PE made me very aware of my movement so that I enjoyed performing less.

    I had two teachers that stand out, one was military-strict, but she never put up with nasty behavior, and was always encouraging. The other was unfortunately the teacher when they dumped you into the co-ed class in grade 9, and he not only let all the mockery slide, but laughed along with it and favoured the boys who did it because they were athletic. He taught bouncing the ball off your chest as part of the soccer unit- and being a particularly busty girl, this went poorly.

    Ultimately, there needs to be a combination of, I think, two things for a gym class that doesn’t make unathletic kids feel awful. There needs to be a good teacher, and there need to be classes split for gender. I’m not trying to be sexist, it’s just a lot less humiliating when it’s thirty girls with a female teacher.And honestly, by the end of that class, I was done with dealing with guys that don’t understand that bouncing a soccer ball off my boobs is like him bouncing a soccer ball off his balls.