PE at school. Have they got the methods wrong?

aliasojo

Dunroamin wrote: »

I can't see what all the fuss is about when it comes to doing things in bad weather ...

Well judging by the replies on this thread it would appear you are in the minority!

Aimless

One thing I think my teenager's school has got right is they stream them for PE. The hideously sporty ones all go off together doing more advanced stuff, leaving the others to wander through the basics at their own speed.

I always used to dodge the showers as there was no way of getting into them without other people seeing you undressed. I've never understood the sort of people who happily bare all in changing rooms!

Our PE got slightly better in the last couple of years at school, because then you were allowed to do step, swimming or cross country instead of team games. As we were older the teachers never ran with us, so I used to treat it as a gentle stroll.

Hermia

I hated PE at school as I was useless at it and asthmatic. So, no one would pick me for teams and I was last at everything (often because I had to stop and have a puff on my inhaler). The only thing I enjoyed was badminton because you were teamed up with someone who was roughly at the same level as you so you were only competing against each other. I think team games are important, but I wish there had been more activities where you were just competing with yourself. Or just more focus on any kind of activity. As an adult I love walking and I love dance classes (which can give you a very good workout if you choose the right ones). But, at school I just assumed exercise = team sports.

I did find that PE at my school was just very humiliating for girls. For example, we had to wear tiny running knickers all year round. They were so small your actual knickers would poke out of the bottom. The boys could wear baggy shorts. The girls had to wear these skin-tight tops. The boys had baggy t-shirts. Why? If the boys were able to exercise in shorts and t-shirts why not the girls. It just made no sense to me.

BigBlackcat

Reading this has brought back some horrible memories:rotfl:. I was absolutely [EMAIL="!!!!"]!!!![/EMAIL] at PE, as I am quite possibly the most uncoordinated person in the world.

Still, I didn't have it as bad as some of you. At least we got to wear a skirt over our gym knickers and showers were optional. Most of us just used to douse ourselves in Impulse and call it a day!

flora48

As a primary teacher for many years I hated any activities that didn't have all the kids active. Not only did those who were out or waiting to bat get fed up and usually cold in our climate they became a huge pain in the proverbial as they were bored to tears.
I think what the OP saw was a very poor lesson.

Welshwoofs

I always picked the cross country option if we had a choice...but there was a good reason for that. My best friend's parents owned a pub in the village so we would jog just out of sight of the school (the PE teacher never ran with us), then saunter off to her pub, have a game of pool and a bag of crisps and then get a lift to the end of the school road where we'd smear a bit of mud on our plimsoles and socks and then pelt up the road so we looked a bit out of breath.

Our avoidance techniques were quite wide-ranging. For instance we pretended we couldn't catch in rounders so you'd get dumped into far left field where the team were a mere speck on the horizon. The way to get out of hockey was to deliberately foul the other side - essentially you just whacked the crap out of your opposite number's ankles/feet until you got sent off mock innocent complaints of "It's not my fault! I was trying to hit the ball" Mind you, that technique did sometimes go a little array - one of my friends was a strapping farm lass and broke a few toes with foul tackles.

hazyjo

I was also gonna suggest Zumba. I Think it'd be great if they had say netball/hockey/running outside, and a class inside. Let the kids decide what they want to do...

We had to wear a red polo shirt (I seem to remember) and black knickers. A pathetic little skirt for hockey. Swimming hats for swimming (yuck) and red cossies.

Some were terrible at running (me included). We had an evil teacher who used to call the rubbish ones 'clutz'. My friend Rachel was equally as pathetic and she was known as Rachel Clutz in PE. Just awful!

The last few round the pitch had to do another lap or two. PE was the last lesson of the day so that meant we missed our coach home (school not on our doorstep). My poor mum used to just turn up on a Friday knowing I'd miss the coach to give me and Rachel a lift home.

I was rubbish at everything except gymnastics and dance (not that we did that much!) at school. I am the least competitive person I know when it comes to sports.

I would always go down the shallow end in swimming as I had no faith in myself - yet when I went to the pool when I'd finished with school, I could swim over 20 lengths. I'm sure I could easily throw a ball through a hoop now, but was rubbish at school. Played tennis a decade or so ago (not something I do!) and didn't want to join in at first saying I was rubbish. Someone dragged me up for doubles when one person left, and I could actually hit the ball and managed a few impressive shots.

I still surprise myself at what I can actually do as I was never given the confidence at school - because I wasn't one of the better sportspeople. The rest of us were pretty much ignored or taken the p*** out of.

I wish I'd been able to join in with things I liked. Things that I'd maybe have continued as an adult. I think kids would look forward to a zumba class... or spinning... or aerobics, and carry that on in adulthood. How many realistically still play hockey or netball? Really not that many out of a class. They should teach stuff that people do in the 'real world'. The option of netball, etc should remain, but I do think they should be given the option.

Jx

MX5huggy

Oh I remember the weeks of tedium, just sitting waiting in dread for your turn. I've not touched the activity since.

Not read a novel since To Kill a Mocking Bird was the final nail in the coffin of ever being intrested in fiction. Give me a 3 mile x country run over that durdgery any day.

Caroline_a

One of the problems with the 'traditional' school PE is that if you reduce it to just machine-type gym and Zumba, then you will never find the next Jessica Ennis or Tim Henman. Yes, the talented ones will go to coaches outside school, but so often a youngster will first try a new sport in school and discover a wonderful talent for it. Nobody will ever represent their country in Zumba.

This happened to my daughter who is now a national level athlete - but had she not 'had' to do it in school, would never in a million years be considered to be a talent in her event.

daska

Caroline_a wrote: »

One of the problems with the 'traditional' school PE is that if you reduce it to just machine-type gym and Zumba, then you will never find the next Jessica Ennis or Tim Henman. Yes, the talented ones will go to coaches outside school, but so often a youngster will first try a new sport in school and discover a wonderful talent for it. Nobody will ever represent their country in Zumba.

This happened to my daughter who is now a national level athlete - but had she not 'had' to do it in school, would never in a million years be considered to be a talent in her event.

I think this is a fair point but it has to be balanced by the acceptance that not everyone has a talent for sprinting, cross-country running, shotput or long jump and that it is not acceptable to be nasty to kids just because they are not talented in the particular sporting area that the games teacher wants to promote.

Being encouraged to try something is one thing, being ridiculed in public or forced to do extra laps because you're not good at it, or made to sit in the cold and rain because you have an injury is quite another.

The other point to make is that not all schools bother with tennis or hurdles or a myriad of other sports (olympic gold medal alert - how many schools do rowing?), so even if a sadistic games teacher forces them to join in with whatever is on offer that doesn't mean their talent will be spotted - in fact it may mean that they are so put off sports that they never try anything outside school and that talent is completely wasted.

Oh, and congratulations to your daughter, I'm glad she discovered her talent and went on to be successful at it