When I taught in South Korea at an all-boys school, I noticed that their PE classes were less like dodgeball and more like aerobic exercises, which seemed to test your obedience. And they have compulsory military service there, so I wonder if there is a link between PE classes and conscription there.
For sure. A hangover from the past. Decades ago in the cold war authoritarian era, everyone - people starting the day at work, not just school kids - used to do these morning stretches and physical movements set to this propaganda style tune - exactly the same movements synchronized in time to each other. In the 70s and 80s factories would have their workers do it, I guess doubling as a warm-up before they start work whilst reinforcing that they're part of a unit. And back then they had civilian drills and so on, where they practiced what to do during a military attack etc.
That would be quite similar to what we have in Singapore too, as we have compulsory conscription to the armed forces, police and civil defence forces for men. On this note, our fitness exam more or less mirrors that in the armed forces. Half the year is usually spent training for fitness exams (till we pass) and another half a year is spent doing more fun stuff like sports and games. As a bonus, clearing one's fitness exam with a high enough score would shorten one's conscription period by 2 months, so that's a huge motivating factor for most guys. Beyond that, there is also a lot of health and sport promotion by various government agencies to all age and gender groups as part of the national public health campaign beyond national defence.
@Natalia Ryzak Yeah, it's super weird but I can't find videos of it. Basically imagine jumping jacks, arm lifts, etc. all rhythmically on a gravel field in front of the school, sometimes while the gym teacher keeps the beat. It was very weird to see with my Canadian eyes.
As an American, I learned in the mid 1970's that Japanese companies had group calisthenics in the morning before work. I thought that was a very cool idea. What a great way to start the day by getting the blood pumping and lungs blowing and muscles going. I still think it's a great idea. But then I was in Marching Band in high school and college. We were all goofy except on the field (well, a little there, too). I loved Marching Band. Maybe calisthenics and marching band? I'm all for it.
My PE class we barely did any exercise. Our teacher was basically "ok the ones who want to play baseball go and grab some bats and the ones that wanna play basketball grab a ball and hit the court i don't care much"
Mine were like this too, but when we were outside we just had to complete a lap around the track before we could go off and do whatever. Even then, some students would just walk around the track the whole period.
That's how gym was when I was in high school, sorta. We'd do basketball for a few weeks, then baseball, maybe touch football and in winter when it got stormy, square dancing. I grew up in the Midwest.
The 20 meter pacer test will begin in 30 seconds. Line up at the start. The running speed starts slowly, but gets faster each minute after you hear this signal. [beep]
@@sarahstewart7680 a single lap should be completed when you hear this signal. [Ding] remember to run in a straight line, and run as long as possible. The second time you fail to complete a lap before the sound, your test is over.
Oh god, I hated this test and other distance running tests with a burning fiery passion. I would always get short of breath and start feeling a cramping pain in my side. I suspected it was asthma, but my mom would always say "I'm sure you're fine, a doctor would have noticed that by now." Fast forward to age 17, and I'm at my first appointment with a peds sleep specialist. We talk for a bit about why I'm there, then he starts doing the physical exam. He listens to my heart for a couple seconds, then switches to my back... and immediately I could tell something was different. He stayed on each area a little longer, went back to a couple of areas again, all while I'm still doing those deep breaths (and getting a little lightheaded). Finally, he hangs his stethoscope back around his neck and asks "have you ever been diagnosed with asthma? Because you're wheezing a bit right now." And that's when I found that he was also a peds pulmonologist. I was quickly booked for a pulmonary function test that ended with a trial test after a dose of Pro-Air, and I could immediately feel the difference in my lungs. It was definitely asthma, and I was immediately put on maintenance and rescue inhalers. I took 2 doses of my rescue inhaler before my senior year Pacer Test, and got a noticably higher score than any of the years prior. If only I'd been diagnosed sooner 😭
My teacher in high school did something I absolutely love for PE. I’m disabled and cannot participate in regular gym activities well. Ball games were scary and often left me hurt. Previous teachers always forced me to play anyway, and I was always getting hurt and having panic attacks and getting screamed at. Then this angel of a PE teacher taught grades 9-12. She had the main activity with ball games or whatever the curriculum needed. But she also gave us the choice to do cardio (walk the track, do the elliptical, use the stationary bike, etc) it was normalized not just for those with an IEP. And the rule was that we have to actually do that cardio work or she’d take that privilege from us and make us do the structured PE. I loved it! I actually enjoyed gym class when my chronic illness was chill and could still handle it when it was flaring. The things that were mandatory testing, she’d give us all warning and explain what those of us not participating traditionally should be focused on to pass those tests months ahead of time. I felt so proud excelling in a class that I thought I’d never do well in! I even could do homework for the classes that weren’t following my IEP while I did the stationary bike, lending me an hour of extra time to get things done instead of pulling all nighters every night trying to keep up with my peers.
I’m a special Ed Phys Ed teacher and I do that will all of my students my thought behind it is with allowing the student to chose the structured lesson versus the alternate activity like walking teaches the student that physical fitness is a choice that you should make keeping in mind what works best for you and more importantly something you enjoy doing making you more likely to continue doing it later in life post high school.
That’s awesome! I hated PE from 7th through 11th grade, and thought that it was my fault. But finally started liking it when I found out I had severe allergies and was constantly coughing, sneezing, puffy eyed, and basically suffering from asthma every time we went outside to play sports, which, in addition to being raised by parents who never tossed a ball with me, made playing team sports very traumatizing and unpleasant. Once I got dismissed from team sports I actually enjoyed exercising and being active
I don’t really remember much about PE class before the 4th grade, but by the 8th grade I hated it (particularly for the emphasis on sports) more than any other activity I had ever done. So imagine how relieved I was that there was a Fitness class in my highschool that you could take instead of the regular PE class. I was a 15y/o girl actively choosing to lift weights and do pure cardio workouts daily rather than suffer through sports in PE.
PE could be more educational too, focusing on gym knowledge, exercise form, nutrition and healthy body weight knowledge. I still can't believe schools never taught how to do a proper pull up or how to do a bench press. People still don't know how to have a healthy diet. It's not about how many reps of exercises you can do in school, but knowledge that will adequately prepare the students should they wish to exercise in the future. Really there's still so much more. The role of supplements and drugs, body image issues and targeted advertising from the fitness industry. Instead we throw balls around and aim to perform x reps of terrible form push ups.
@@evilsharkey8954 the health class is too packed. They run from the time to test all of the bodily bones, have less than 2 months to run everything regarding sociology and psychology while completely butchering of how people should react, have less than a month to touch all the bodily systems at the same period of time to do a retry of teaching the importance of cells. Seriously... In one year, how are you supposed to get everything? It would be better to get a class on psychology, another on the bodily functions, and a third one in more distinct things, but that won't happen. As for the fiscal education, the issue with it is that schools basically use that time as a time to insure that students time sitting in a chair doesn't affect their health that much by giving a break, other groups just don't want to overhaul or revamp it, it can be a nice way to cut costs and stuff along with the pride thing over sports... Thanks for teaching me rules of the same sports in 4 different years and I never managing to get it. Nope... Don't like current gym class. The school system likes a class that in its 89% is physical activity. The students get rid of energy and as long as no student starts being bullied in gym class, they can cut bullying reactions out of class, though admittedly I have no idea of how that actually works(there is a correlation, that's all I know).
No, it is more about doing team sport activities, where they pit you against the athletes from the basketball team and football team, and the track stars, all in the same class, and all you do is get laughed at and harassed because you cannot play as good as those team athletes can, yet are expected to be teammates with them (after being chosen last). And then they make you all get naked and shower together. Good for the team athletes who have been doing it for years, not so good for the shy ones who are not athletic and are not used to that sort of gang shower thing. And then the sociopathic gym teacher, yells at you and makes fun of you, because he is also the school football coach and favors his football team players. And if you f*** up one little bit, he makes the entire class run laps around the gym for one hour straight, and everyone in the class then blames you for it. And then you all go down into the locker room to shower and the coach sits in his office with the big glass window and watches all the boys undress and shower. And then they name the newly built sports facility after this abusive psycho because he was a beloved winning football coach. It really is a disincentive to want to learn about your actual physical fitness, and nutrition, and just want to get it over with. Who is going to want to engage in a lifetime of fitness after all that trauma?
I agree, as someone who barely knows how to exercise as an adult and who eventually saw the old footage of PE from the 50’s and thought “why didn’t they make us do this??” Adults are supposed to make children do things that are good for them even if they don’t like it. I’m not sure that sacrificing exercise knowledge for the majority so that the feelings of less capable kids are spared is a worthy trade as the obesity crisis worsens.
Never been active til adulthood, gym class was consistently my least favorite class in school. However, the most positive memory I have was a gym teacher in my remedial swimming section (everyone else who could swim was doing laps in their own section) who praised me in front of the other students for the effort I made. She said, “so-and-so can’t swim very well, but she always tries hard at what I ask of her, and that’s worth celebrating.” It made me feel so special, like the little bit I could do was good enough. THAT is a good gym teacher.
I liked every activity that wasn't sports ball. Tumbling, dancing, parachute, etc. Those were fun. Various kinds of playground games were fun. However, no one explained the rules for kickball, soccer, basketball or flag football to me, though everyone seemed to know what to do. I felt like an outsider 😅
Monkey bars and jungle gyms. Playing British Bull dog. Camping fishing hunting Dirt bikes operating heavy equipment Logging. We should repeal Child labor laws. Teach economics and a foreign language from kindergarten on. Graduate kids in the 8th grade.
@@gene108 you ride the dirt bikes to the farm tractors and go to work. When I was a kid my 1st boy scout troop made money seeling fire wood. So we'd chop down some trees and chop them up for firewood. Hence Logging.
I was a socially inept female nerd, but I loved PE class. I always loved sports and roughhousing, and it's not as if you have to spend a lot of time socializing while you're in the middle of physical activity. Sports can actually make it easier to interact with people when you're an introvert because you're interacting with a group of people in a situation where you don't have to talk much.
Growing up, I enjoyed PE as well. As a small kid, I didn't gravitate towards typical American sports that celebrate size. But, in PE, it was a chance to be active and feel success. I find it funny how people crap on dogdeball. I used to love it. As the smallest kid in class, I felt like I had an advantage. Alas, after that two week unit was over, it was back to football and volleyball.
That’s all well and good unless you suck at sports. I was the outcast female nerd, too, and I could run and dodge, but I couldn’t throw, catch, hit, serve, or anything else. Volleyball was the worst because my scrawny arms couldn’t serve the ball over the net, and my hands were so bony that bumping it hurt, and the ball always flew off in some crazy direction like it was bouncing off of a corner. I was always picked last or close to last when they picked teams. Only the super lazy kids who wouldn’t do anything got picked after me. I wear glasses, too, which seem to attract flying objects to my face. I would get hit in the head even if I wasn’t playing and the ball wasn’t thrown at me.
Yeah, that’s part of the reason why I love to go to gyms/martial arts classes so much. Everyone there mostly are just trying to better themselves and will genuinely help you get better and treat you like an actual person.
I loved being active as a child, then PE ruined it for me, until years later as an adult when I slowly started getting back into it. I honestly believe I would've been much healthier (both mentally and physically) if I had been allowed to drop out of PE sooner.
I can't understand how PE ruined being active for you. I didn't really like PE class that much but it didn't ruin anything for me it was just a class I had to take.
@@matthewatwood8641 well, it made exercise a punishment, my self-esteem lower and I even got some injuries from it, to name a few reasons. I'm glad it didn't have that effect on you, but if you watch the video I'm sure you'll be able to find many more ways it can make it harder for someone to have a positive connection with being active. I'm not the best at explaining but I hope this was helpful anyway, or maybe someone else will come along and explain it better
Same here, the reason was i hated the specific exercises we had to do and unmotivated teachers. Imagine having to do a type of sport with people you wouldnt want to associate with in your private life who, are violent and abusive, for 9 years of school life (same exact discipline for 9 years). It turned into a downwards spiral of me hating the sport and the poeple there and not performing well due to bad teachers not even explaining the rules, competing against kids who did this particular sports in a club so were much better. This lead to low self esteem due to bad performance and low social standing in the class and so i tried even less. Also got intentionally injured by them several times. As a result you think you are bad at any sort of physical activity in general and have an aversion against it due to those bad experiences. People form their worldview and how they view themselfes based on what the world communicates them, and thats especially true for kids. Thats why its important to be positive and encouraging. It leads to better performance and more happiness. In my private life, however, i was very good and highly motivated doing physical activity, before school PE and after school, and was often top in the group and being praised as a good example in several disciplines, so i believe my bad experiences in PE class was not bc of my person.
My gym class was graded by participation, and even though I was extremely physically unfit, I would pass because I participated. But because I was forced to participate, My self esteem was very low because I was unable to keep up with the other kids and couldn't understand why. I was exercising just as much as they were, but had so little endurance that I would be near collapsing from very basic exercises. It took me until I was 20 years old to understand that I am actually physically disabled from a number of chronic illnesses, but the school system doesn't care. They don't care about kids with invisible disabilities. I want to scream at all my old gym teachers. They just let me suffer.
@Br M In my country, PE is graded everywhere and I was about to comment that PE should not be graded because not all children/teens have the same physical abilities and that's not something that you can just study to get better at. Now I'm a little bit jealous. Side note, I had the best grades of my class but I was so horribly bad at PE that I never understood how I managed to approve the class until my grandma, who used to be a teacher, told me that teachers usually raise the PE grades of those kids who are good at every other assignment so it doesn't affect their academic average, because it's really common to nerds like me to be bad at PE. It all made sense.
I think the worst part for me about gym class is everyone was super competitive and took it so seriously that it made me so anxious that I didnt want to participate at all. Im not a competitive person at all and do enjoy exercise but running half way across my town and back being timed and playing competitive sports with people you dont get along with in school is dreadful. Doesnt help that all our gym classes were co-ed. I miss this one teacher who would sometimes let us do yoga or cross country skiing but that was only 1 year
This is how it was for me as well. I didn't have any interest in sports, didn't really know how to play any of them but they'd always make us play. No options given for other activities. I had one teacher that really liked making us run the whole period, so I'd go to the rest of my classes wheezing. There were occasions where we got to do something cool like aerobics, archery, even just lifting weights. I didn't mind PE during those times.
Fair enough but as a competitive person myself I can’t play sports without trying to win, that’s the fun part. I never yelled at anyone on my team though that’s not cool
I usually asked my PE teacher if I can run on the track almost every time, it got up to the point where she thought I liked track when I'm actually not competitive lol.
It makes sense to me because my gym teacher was pretty much a sociopath. He'd shame and ridicule us on our performance and shape, even when we succeeded.
My high school is somewhat similar. It's still a requirement for graduation and freshmen are required to take PE I, but after that you can take PE II and Health whenever you want. I'm saving it for senior year bc I absolutely hate PE
I hated Phys Ed so much I opted to finish off the grade 10 year in summer school right after grade 9 instead. It was one of the hardest, sweatiest, sunburn-iest times of my life, but worth it. It was actually the most fun I'd ever had in gym class.
@Safwaan It was more the fact that we got to do different stuff I hardly ever did in Phys Ed class, like badminton, and going hiking in the river valley, and going on a field trip to the Pitch n' Putt grounds. We didn't just do my least favorite game, Dodgeball (in fact I don't think we did it at all that summer school session). Plus the teacher was a sports coach and good at his job, or at least better than most of my hitherto Phys Ed teachers who were just, well, teachers more proficient in other subjects.
@@DataLal My school had mandatory summer school for everyone. You either retook a class or took a class you didn’t want to take later. I took P.E. 9th grade since it would only be a month instead of a whole school year. We did the hard exercise stuff the first half of the day and then went bowling the second half. It was way more fun that way 😂
PE for me was extremely challenging since I was never super athletic and often lead to being bullied and ridiculed and many times the teachers didn’t stop it or joined in. I felt like for some PE comes at the cost of some students mental health. The anxiety everyday just made it worse.
In no other class is yelling insults at an underperforming student acceptable for students to do; much less for a "educator." PE teacher has always been and will always be, for me, synonymous with second most abusive adult in the school system. They are only outdone in reprehensibility by athletics administrators.
"Well maybe if you weren't so chubby, slow and pathetic the other kids wouldn't have to motivate you by pushing you around." Actual 7th grade gym "teacher" 1981...
Times were different back then (growing up during the Cold War era in the United States). After seeing those film clips (produced by the Soviets and released to the West) of kids in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries doing push ups, chin ups and just looking very fit, the US government felt American kids were "out of shape' and a nationwide physical fitness program for kids was started. I don't think our government was trying to turn P.E. into a military type boot camp, just a competitive need to match them ( the Soviets) at whatever they did. Those film clips were probably propaganda based (a tactic done by both sides ), and the Soviet Union and it's Eastern bloc allies probably had it's share of awkward kids (such as myself) too. I remember a basketball drill the P.E. teacher wanted all the kids to do, dribble a basketball across the court and back. The previous year the P.E. teacher had coached my brother, and just before it came to my turn he reminded me what a fine player my brother was. I proceeded to "double dribble" the entire time, which probably had the P.E. teacher cringing. I think it's quite humorous when I look back on it, so it wasn't "life traumatizing" (just those 5 minutes which felt like a lifetime). I may have endured some "bench warming" jokes, but I have no ill feelings today about it, or at anyone .
Of course you got made fun ofpeople will make fun of you, you can either let it get to you or not. The reality is that these were very basic exercises that you should have been able to do. I received the same kind of taunting that you did. I was a wad of dough. I took it as a challenge and I made myself stronger. I fought my bullies. Respect is something you earn. People will not just grant you respect because you exist. Rise above.
This is making me think that participating in PE is actually why I have a strong aversion to regular exercise and why I have hypertension at 31 years old. I never realized how harmful it is to punish with physical activity. I also didn't realize PE was for the benefit of the army, not the students.
A good example of marriage of sports and war here in Finland is our version of baseball, pesäpallo. It's a copy of American baseball made in the 1920's with small changes and it was promoted to voluntary militias as "combat simulation" and "pleasant militarism". They advertised the sport by saying that throwing a ball is good practice for throwing grenades, advancing to 2nd and 3rd base is like conquering new land and diving into bases was similar to diving into a trench. "Strike" is called "wound" (haava) and "strikeout" was called "death" (kuolema) so that getting wounded and dying would be more familiar and somehow less scary in a real war. Pesäpallo is still quite popular here, but luckily they have renamed "death" as "getting burned". The inventor of pesäpallo called sports "the cousin of national defence".
We played that in Germany as well, I remember. Basically baseball, except the ball isn't hit with a bat, and it's just thrown really far away by the kids who are about to run
Well, in Czechia there is a gymnastic organization called Sokol (meaning falcon in english), based in 1862, which is basically a paramilitary home defence in disguise. They used to have local units and gyms in every town, did frequent trainings and local competitions, they even organized feasts which looked like military parades. Although officially unpolitical, they were quite nationalistic and patriotic, in the Slavic sense, as opposed to then german(austrian) rulers. After the disbanding of Austria-Hungary in 1918 they were really helpful in raising new military, as some neighbours (i am looking in your direction, Hungary and Poland) tried to chip away some parts of the territory of the new state. Sokol was banned under communist regime (1948-1989) and did not get much traction afterwards. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokol
My experience with PE was in a brutal UK boarding school in the 60s where we has 3 afternoons of sport and 3 PE lessons per week, a grim time for a quiet kid who would rather be curled up with a good book. Many of the staff were paedophiles or sadists. At that time abusers were seldom brought to justice if caught, just quietly dismissed to offend elsewhere. I countered this by studying Martial Arts for 3yrs vowing that no one was going to lay a hand on me again. Safeguarding has improved a great deal since then, but we still need to look out for the monsters.
I think safeguarding needs to be even more rigorous. One pedo teacher at my kid's middle school (kid is pursuing a GED now, this was some years back) made headlines that reached ALL THE WAY to The Sun. Toni A. Reiboldt, Horse Heaven Hills Middle School, Kennewick, WA. Easy to find yourself. Yes, the school district took matters seriously, but this was after William Pickerel went to court and was convicted of crimes he did while a teacher at Kennewick High. The school reversed a decision of naming a wing of the high school after him, but the school was also razed and rebuilt. I briefly met Toni- she was irritated at my kid for .. something. Ironically, my kid is a survivor of historical CSA. I am still rather angry the county judge bought her tears. Her ex-husband still works for the school district, and I feel sorry for the guy.
I was a late blooming teen in the 80s & was brutally bullied from 5th to 11th grade... I also had an unhealthy home scene & was, shall we say, hygienically challenged... going into the boy's locker room to change was absolutely terrifying to me... I sat out most gym classes which led to my failing whole years, & I ultimately dropped out of high school... this was for multiple reasons, but not being able to pass a grade for not participating in gym class was definitely a part of it... my feeling is still fuck PE 😕
It's sad to hear, but you have to remember that school is not there for you. It's there to ready you for exploitation and make sure you don't pull on the leash too hard. I already understood that as a young kid.
I loved gym class as a kid! I enjoyed gym, science, music, art and English class. But as a kid who moved ALL THE TIME growing up, I don't know how I would have survived without gym class. It was a chance to play long before I made friends at a new school.
Gym class got so much more bearable for me once I got to high school and we could choose between regular PE or weight training. I love being active, but I don't have a competitive bone in my body. In regular PE, in an effort to combat people feeling like losers for being picked last for teams, the instructors would arbitrarily put people together. This meant each team was made up of a random assortment of people who were really into the game and people who didn't give a shit. If you want to pass the class, you have to participate, but you can't participate if the few people who care won't pass you the ball. Weight training, on the other hand, was just me and my friends at a bench press taking turns lifting, spotting, and shooting the shit. Built up some nice biceps in that class, which is more than I ever got playing floor hockey.
I also found weight training much more enjoyable, but I was very fortunate to be offered it towards the end of middle school. Granted, my father, who was never athletic, decided to do similar training on his own, so I was introduced to resistance and strength training at an even earlier age. I dabbled a little bit more in bodybuilding, but never ever competitive. More specifically, I really wish that U.S. physical education would consider doing more individualized sports as well as strength training; specifically martial arts, at least the ones that have businesses as private schooling. Something like taekwondo or a form that has been long divorced from field combat, so parents and administration don't crap a load of bricks about it.
This. I am currently in my last year of high school and taking a girls weight training class. Its so much better without the competition and the pressure. We just do what we can and thats that. Normal PE I sucked at and was always stressed about letting my team down.
That thing where kid team pick team members is the worst system I can think of. It is garenteed to give low self esteem to the less physicaly skillful kidsw, and a flas sense of supiiriority to kids with a good one. In the end, while exercise will always matter, sports skills will not for most peole. How many of them will go on the be pro-athletes?
I learned nothing about health or physical well being in gym class. I definitely never learned anything I could use as an adult. I was never taught how to be and stay healthy. Instead I watch bullies being encouraged in their violent behavior at the expense of weaker students. PE hindered my overall education because I spent so much time stressing about being beaten up in class and then again in the locker room that I could not focus on my studies. Don't teach bombardment or "sports." Teach things that we can still use at 60 years old like yoga, dance and isometric exercises.
I got into a school who didn't happen to have a gym once, so instead of useless exercises the teacher got us to study the human body. I still miss his classes because it REALLY was useful...
Or how about things like teamwork, rapid analytical skills, Hand-eye co-ordination, perseverance and communication? These skills are not taught with yoga. Dance, a little bit, but unless you are doing a Broadway number, you won't be doing much teamwork with multiple actions happening simultaneously. And I would argue that the ability to work in a large, well-coordinated team facing adversity is much more important than the ability to stay flexible at the age of 60.
Again the purpose of the pe class was never to teach healthy living to children, it was there to make sure that potential soldiers were physically fit if the country ever needed to call upon its young adults to serve. Which makes perfect sense from a global military standpoint. If studies demonstrated that the youth failed more than 50% of the physical capacity tests that the rest of the world could pass easily, then you have a major problem with the health of your youth. I’m fine with PE class being mandatory, it’s a national concern to have physically fit young adults. Not everyone is made to be a soldier but if the need arises we at least don’t have to worry about it as much
@@TheMadmanInTheBush It doesn't have to be just one thing or the other. Multiple activities, such as team sports (which it seems like you are promoting), and yoga and dance can all be taught in gym class.
I recently got into argument with PE teacher (high school) for saluting during beggining of the class. I responded with: why not do it properly just like in the army. Turned out I was onto something.
Gym class was the part of school where the teachers basically said "it's cool to physically bully that kid who's different now! No need to hold back any more"... and they did just that.
I went to special Ed schools so gym class was slightly different and i guess all this stuff you guys were talking about I never experienced. Guess the government didn’t want kids with downs or autism to go to war which is probably a good thing
I have learning and physical disabilities but I wasn't diagnosed until after grade school. I wish I had another option that didn't have contests for who can do the most push ups, or who can sit against a wall the longest. I liked some of the different stuff, like going on walks/runs through the woods, learning how to make human pyramids, or just swinging from a rope. I have ADHD, so I could never concentrate long enough on where a ball was, and if I was playing a sport where it's multiple people on a team, I'd often get bored waiting. I liked badminton as it was one on one and I couldn't get hurt as easily, but I still managed to injure my wrist, something I still struggle with even 6 years later.
I always got out of gym class because I worked in agriculture before and after school, so it was a waste of an hour every day. It allowed me to work as a teacher's assistant or take an extra course every semester. I took weight training class for one year in high school because I wanted to, as well as ROTC in university. I still had to do those random standardized fitness exams, but they weren't difficult.
@@Aaron-uz8xt It only sucked for the lazy people who didn't really want to participate/wants to stand around talking/sit down on their phone.... If you showed effort you were probably gonna get picked over that person who would end up standing/talking instead of playing. I had fond memories of gym class even though I was the school nerd....I was president of debate and ranked 3rd in a class of 600+ students. I hate "nerds" using their excuse as "nerds" to be physically uncoordinated or "unfit". Most of the phD students I met at Berkeley/Oxford were very fit. Most of them exercised/biked/did yoga or whatever exercise EVERY day... My grandpa who is a retired literature dean at 2 chinese universities still walks 1-2 miles daily at 92 years old. Being a nerd and being physically unfit have nothing to do with each other and I dislike the people who say it has a correlation....like nah...they are just lazy. And being lazy prevents them from achieving greatness. And I don't like people who settle for below average...so as much as the lazy people "hate gym class"....same...
In my high school PE class, every year the marines would come and have us do a mock up version of some sort of field test they have, I remember it being not too intense since it was a gym class with a variety of people but, it was harder than anything we’d ever do in gym class. But they legit would pick the good kids and a recruiter would have a chat with them, my buddy actually ended up doing it and went to a few places including Kuwait, wild stuff
That's interesting. In my school the military recruiters always went after the kids on financial aide. Physical skill, whether or not they'd actually be good in the military, seemed a distant second to being desperate to pay for college. Of course, it should be noted, that most positions in the military won't see active combat. And whether we like it or not, it is a way for poor people to get job training, free college, and a retirement pension. Still, preying on people who don't have options always felt kinda seedy to me.
That should be illegal. If some kids want to see if they can do it as an intramural challenge, fine. That's their business. But deliberately trying to make good little soldiers (or whatever) out of schoolchildren has no business in something that ought to be for the enrichment of human persons.
@@odinfromcentr2 Highschool, and almost certainly over 17 meaning its legal for them to enlist at that age. So its recruitment fair game. Also the military is a fine career that pays decently enough if you are smart with your money. Its not just all riflemen. The support of said men runs at a rate of at least 3 non-combat trades for every combatant. Mechanics, carpenters, water purification, IT.
@@ethansloan The military in the US, and in its current form, is more or less a jobs program. I jokingly call it "republican welfare." You learn a skill, do some "work," and get regurgitated back into society with a resume, a skill, and (hopefully) a greater sense of community and self-worth. For those who choose, college is also an option. For those who stay in, they become leaders and run the program for the next batch of kids. I worked with kids who were leaving gangs, broken homes, drug addictions, or trying to dodge prison for juvenile offenses. The military gives America's overlooked lower and lower-middle class a chance to "reset."
I always hated gym class. I was severely asthmatic, with both exercise-induced and allergy-induced asthma. Thus, the only thing I got out of gym class was pain and near-death experiences...
PE was always my favorite class. It felt like a second recess because you just got to run around play, making the rest of the school day more tolerable. When I got to high school and they didn’t have any PE classes, my friends and I were so disappointed, because that meant we had to sit in a chair for 7-8 hours listening to nothing but lectures. PE class really did a lot for our mental health.
I dreaded gym class every day when I was in high school. It always felt so pointless to me, plus I would sometimes get mocked by peers and gym teachers because of how bad I was at sports. The only people who enjoyed gym class were the athletic bros who would play sports really intensely and heavily sweat before going back to class......
Gym class was horrid for me. Never been a fast runner and that's what basically every sport requires. The few weeks a year where we'd get to do something like gymnastics or dance were great, but not often enough to make me not hate the class in general.
I was also relatively slow at running (and maybe still am, but haven't tested as an adult). I'm also terrible at soccer. But I actually liked gym class for the vast majority. Gym and history were my favorite subjects during secondary school. There will always be someone who is bad at something, but if anything that means they should vary the type of activities more so everyone can get to do something they're good at, or at least have potential to get good. I think gym should actually be on every school day, because too many dont get enough exercise to stay healthy. And while at school, the school is at least partially to blame for that when you have to sit in classes for hours during the day and maybe also do homework in addition. They take away opportunity to exercise regularly, and then they should add it back. Regular exercise could also help with better focus on theoretical subjects
For me, cross country at the begining of the year and athletism at the end of the year were pretty much the only moments I enjoyed, as I was a relatively fast runner naturally and was among the best by the time I reached 10th grade, since I had begun training a lot outside of school. The rest of the year was team sport in one way or another, which I mostly despised as a very shy person who's bad at cooperating in a sport. And gymnastics was even worse, cause I'm not flexible, I hate moving my body like that and generally there was also things we did in a team.
PE was the Bane Of My Existence. I was always getting hit in the head too. I almost didn't graduate high school because I kept failing goddamn PE, eventually they had to put me in special ed PE just to get me to pass. Used to pop Vicodin before every class. I swear if they'd forced me into one more game of kickball it woulda been my supervillain origin story. Don't even get me started on public speaking. I had panic attacks. I don't think either of these things should be compulsory.
At my college, one of the teachers I've had would let us do oral presentation in front of her and a few other people, rather than the whole class. Not only was it far less anxiety inducing, it also gave us a bunch of free time since you only had to be present one of the three hours.
For people like you they usually have special education plans,, or whatever your country's equivalent is. It should be compulsory for most people, because always doing what you like is also not good. If you have serious anxiety issues I understand, but for me personally being forced into public speaking helped me deal with anxiety in the long run and helped me find coping mechanisms that I can use outside of public speaking. Children need to be forced to properly develope.
I failed every gym class I was ever in. I passed all my other classes, so it wasn't a huge deal in elementary school, but when I got to high school, it became less about standing at the back of the group during dodge ball and more about individual abilities. Halfway through my first year of high school, I didn't even go to class anymore, I went straight to the office, signed myself in for discipline and hung out in the office. I'm in my mid-30s now and even thinking about sports or movement makes me feel sick
@@natas74d7 Some people just have trash motor skills or never grew up being active. Trash processed diet too. They are lucky to be born in this era. Any earlier and they would be genetic dead ends.
I didn’t realize this until I was an adult but there’s one main thing missing from physical education classes, it’s the education. Getting told to do random exercise routines or sports doesn’t help a child who already doesn’t like being in school period.
I absolutely loathed P.E class with every last fiber of my being. I never liked physical activity and being forced to do it with no apparent reason by asshole teachers really didn't help, and surprise, I never did well because I'm not very fit. It's not like I'm super fat or anything, I just lack strength and coordination.
Similar case here i was always the weak link thanks to my asthma and autistic lack of coordination (like take the entire wooden block you have to jump over kind of lack of coordination.. happened several times and baffled several teachers i do have a lot of muscle mass though) the only times i could keep up were the rare times we did fighting related sports. (Boxing,judo,taekwondo) but unfortunately we rarely did this.
That sounds... dodgy. In Europe our PE classes are focused much more on sports than just exercising, and you'll meet very few people who say they were scarred! Fancy that
That sounds much more appealing than nonstop push-ups / running honestly. I can think of a couple of benefits off the top of my head: 1. Enforces social cohesion 2. Teaching kids the value of cooperation / teaching them no one is a one-man army. 3. More likely to give kids a positive association to exercise because there is an objective other than simply doing nonstop push-ups. 4. Developing different skill sets for different sports. 5. Teaching them that exercise can be fun (I know plenty of people who hate exercising, including myself). 6. There is a good chance that the kids will discover a love for some sport and would be interested in continuing to do it into adulthood (intramural sports like basketball, volleyball, table tennis, disc golf, ultimate frisbee, etc).
I moved around a lot growing up. I never went to a single US school where the focus is just running and push-ups and stuff claimed. We played sports nearly every class. Most general exercise was warming up or on the days we had fitness tests.
In Germany I did. Lots of exercise in school. Didn’t liked at all. Only from 9th or 10th grade it was more interesting, when we started to play more (Football, basketball, gymnastics, athleticism) and work less (Push ups, etc. ) in PE.
Thank you so much for the message at the end of this video. I'm French and PE lessons were not exactly the same as described (I doubt that in France the aim of gym lessons was to make future soldiers... x) )... but I totally agree with the fact that this course in particular determines social skills. Mine were very negative, because if you suck in any other course, the other ones won't say anything, but in THIS course, everybody will laugh at you. I hated a part of my high school years because of that, and I even missed a mention during a quarter because I was good at anything else, but got very bad results in this. And if the intention of gym was to encourage kids to do more activity, for me it was the exact opposite. I suffered so much because of this crap that I decided not to practice sports anymore out of high school, because I had this image of social disintegration linked to sports. It's only when I became an adult that I realized I could practice sports for pleasure, with nobody laughing at me because I'm lame at this. So for me, the aim of gym lessons miserably failed. If kids cannot see the utility and/or the pleasure behind PE lessons, it will be totally counterproductive.
I was one of the last years of the fitness test in high school and I remember being super proud of myself for being one of the last people still doing sit ups. most of the people left were on the football team, I was a dancer who did about 300 sit ups a week, 100 before each class. They turned off the recording in the 80s but man I so wanted to be the last person standing, I thought it would be funny if they lost to a girl.
Not American, but I relate. PE almost always just made me feel worse about myself. I'm not really strong, agile, fast, etc, and I was quite shy so I was always picked last in group activities. I often came last in whatever we were doing. And it was so competitive too. Kinda made me hate physical activity.
PE would be the perfect class to learn all sorts of physical things, from historical to modern! Learn different dances from around the world AND their histories. Go to a working farm for a day and learn how our ancestors lived. Make it FUN! I adored the part of phys ed that was dance. Wish I could have learned more than just highland.
Yeah, it could be all that… or it could be all competitive sports that some kids suck at, resulting in their peers hating them even more and the class being remembered as a nightmare.
Yeah, I hated every group or pair thing. We only learned dance in high school (10-12 grade in Europe) I love dance, but the type I like, noone taught me in school ever
I would love a dance class! I was a fat kid and would definitely complain to no end, but it sounds ages better than constantly getting hit by a football. Our teacher had us do Czech traditional dances once- for funsies, I guess? There wasn't any holiday going on so I dunno- and boi, let me tell you, we adored it. Girls got to wear giant poofy skirts and boys hollered, all stomping around like mad goats. Definitely a highlight of my school experience.
I remember thinking that the only reason bullies got an A in gym was because the class was tailored to them. Opportunities to humiliate, harm, and steal.
I don't think my PE teachers in high school knew much about health generally. On some occasions they made me run or work out when I was already having a serious asthma attack. They insisted that that didn't count as having a pain...
my PE teachers refused to let me take medicine i needed before class. they even claimed i was making up having health conditions to get out of class. keep in mind i had doctors notes… my mom eventually had to email the teachers to explain i wasnt lying.
As a kid, I wasn't very athletic and I hated having to do gym. I was the one kid that was always picked last for the team. Everytime we played something in gym, the jocks always took the game way too seriously.
Oh yes, heavy sigh... I was a fat kid in school in the ’60s. PE for a fat kid was sheer torture, embarrassment and an endless source of bullying and harassment. PE is, in my opinion, the source of my frankly deep hatred of physical training and sports, frankly. The result? I'm still a fat 60 year old who has never really had any success at all, ever, with any kind of conditioning or training. The bullying and harassment never went away, actually. There are some reasons you don't actually see a lot of fat folks at commercial gyms in my opinion. It's still flat out traumatic. So yeah, thanks a lot Mr. Murphy, my 4th grade gym teacher. Sheesh.
Did you ever think of dieting and exercising at home to get your body in better shape so you would NOT be laughed at in school??? common sense, use it.
@@davidm7824 Don’t act like people are stupid. Of course they have thought of that. They just described why dieting and exercising was difficult for them. Not to mention that losing weight is physically and logistically difficult to do.
I was one of those kids who always get chosen last for a team. (If I'd just been second-last, it wouldn't have bothered me.) In one gym class BOTH teams insisted that the other one take me! Now that's just mean--they were drunk with power...
Oh I know what you mean! That happened to me too. I was a skinny, somewhat short girl with glasses, and bad coordination as far as sports were concerned (although very good with my hands as far as arts/crafts and musical playing). And the wrong race. P.E. was my worst, and most hated, subject at school. I would have preferred it if we were forced to run laps individually or do pushups rather than do team sports. The whole picking of teams was miserable. And if you played badly, you'd have to suffer all your teammates' wrath, making you even more of a pariah.
I have experienced that as well! the teacher would assign me then. punishing people with, you know, a person, isn't that nice. And my teams did lose, of course, because I was absolute shit and worthless haha. They weren't wrong, but it was still painful.
I was very athletic, but hated gym class with a passion that still burns to this day at age 73. Rush to put your books and stuff in your locker; rush to change clothes and lock up your non-wearing clothes against theft; go get sweaty for half an hour and ruin your make up and hair; rush to change clothes again, retrieving your regular clothes that are now all wrinkled from being stuffed in a basket. Worst of all we were forced to shower before changing which made the locker room 200% humidity so that you continued sweating into your regular clothes and your hair was total frizz. It was such an unnecessary interruption to the rest of the school day. I resented it very deeply.
I had a lot of fun in gym class when we’d play baseball or other more strategic games like that, but a lot of the really physical exercises you described soured my experience overall. I actually managed to complete my high school PE credit with an online health course over a summer.
Was the exact opposite for me. Basketball in particular was hell. Too many people moving and screaming and unintentionnally pushing each other in a small space with a ball that was making far too much noise for my taste. Give me individual physical challenges any day.
I was the spazzy kid that couldn't swing a bat, climb a rope, or kick a ball - because my father thought that physical activity was a waste of time. I went to college on an ROTC scholarship and started playing sports in the fraternity intramural leagues and discovered that I actually had talent that was never developed in 12 years of public school. By the time I graduated, I could get a max score on the Army Physical Fitness Test (at the time: 82 pushups in 2 minutes, 87 situps in 2 minutes, 2 mile run in 13:06). Today, in my mid-50s, I'm a registered yoga teacher, go skiing about 15 days each winter, and still skateboard, bike, work out etc. all with an AARP card in my pocket. No thanks to P.E. though.
All I can say is, I'll be eternally grateful for my sons PE class. After homework and all other activities, getting a teenager to agree to exercise is daunting at best. The PE program has taken a kid who would rather play video games and turned him into a kid with athletic aspirations. He's looking at joining the swim team now and he's loving the changes his body is making as he's becoming more masculine and muscular. So call it what you will, think of it what you will, I for one am happy it's a thing.
My experience in "physical education" was little short of a nightmare. Not surprising given the school I was forced to attend. I have never done any "sport" or unnecessary exertion since, and am happy about it !
"I have never done any "sport" or unnecessary exertion since" same i can't comprehend how some people can be addicted to exercise, i simply can't comprehend. but they probably dont understand my lack of desire to exercise either
Most of my school years were spent in a school that was just a few years old, and the gym had all kinds of equipment and built-ins. There were ropes, wall racks, pommel horses, parallel bars and so on. I could never understand why they had decided to spend all this money, none of us was going to become an Olympic athlete. Looking back, PE seemed like a waste of time. I feel they should have focused more on instilling good, healthy work out and exercise habits that would benefit us for the rest of our lives instead of making us perform routines we didn't have the shape, strength, or coordination for.
I HATED PE. Fortunatly my HS had lots of options that didn't sound like "running for no reason" and "here's a reason to hate your peers" I ended up with rock climbing and ballroom dance. Fun AND tiring! :)
Yeah, I'm from Germany and we also had that test, which was also kind of traumatic to me because I wasn't very sporty at the time. Since I was 16 I started going jogging very regularly though, so it's fine, but I remember despairing when I couldn't do the situps
That toe reach thing was the worst for me. It has less to do with your fitness than your build. The girl with the long torso and short legs did the best.
PE class, it's where the old saying of 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.' Is expanded to "Those who can't even teach, do PE." Seriously though, the entire US education system has little to do with education and more to do with social programming. I hated PE, I realised in our school it was all about trophies - every year there would be a compulsory 'weightlift' every pupil had to go to the weights room - every year it would be the same argument with the PE teacher (who had been a competitive weightlifter)- "So what was the weight you lifted?", 'The bar', "That doesn't count", 'Yes it does, it had weight and is part of the apparatus to be lifted so of course it counts.', "No it doesn't" 'Yes it does, it says on the international federation rules posted on the wall behind you.' "No one will believe you just lifted the bar." 'Well tell them I lifted a ton then. I've lifted my weight goodbye.' Every year there would be kids being 'encouraged' to lift weights the really shouldn't and getting injured as a result. I was physically fit - outside school I was a military cadet (like an even more militarized boy scouts) and regularly did long distance speed & endurance marches, 10 mile runs and that kind of stuff and I enjoyed that as I was there voluntarily. But PE in school was just a ball ache (I actually got badly concussed in a game of rugby - the only sport I liked in school- the PE teacher & referee refused to substitute me. For 15 mins I stumbled drunkenly around the pitch, until a couple of parents watching the match who happened to be doctors dragged me off the pitch and took me to hospital. And even then the PE teacher was arguing with the doctors). From then on I became extremely belligerent when dealing with the PE staff.
This makes SO much sense. I had always been told that the fitness tests were meant to test how healthy you are, and I always left Gym class in a panic on those test days because I had failed every single one.
When I was in junior high and high school (1960-66) I was pretty convinced that gym class was designed to be preparation for the military; the style of the classes made this seem pretty obvious. As a pacifist I considered refusing to cooperate with it altogether. My parents (also pacifists) would have supported me in that, but they convinced me to reconsider whether I could just suffer through it. It was certainly a matter of suffering since I couldn't even do a single push-up or pull-up (except by cheating, i.e. starting partway up). This experience probably contributed to my lifelong dislike for all competitive sports. Later in life I did adopt a habit of regular exercise to promote my health, but I still consider it a chore rather than a thing to do for fun.
I either loved or hated PE as a child. It depended on the teacher. You had the ones that were football player bully types, and militaristic ones. I had one really awesome one, and I absolutely loved her class. She was a former gymnast. She was genuinely kind and encouraging. I wish there were more PE teachers like her.
I was overweight during my school years, and I always found PE did the exact OPPOSITE of helping me. You'd be forced to exercise, and be the visibly worst at it, in front of mean highschool kids. There was nothing to bring me to the same level as everyone else, I was just expected to be while getting publicly humiliated. I got so bullied that my gym teachers (they were amazing people, bless their hearts) signed papers to let me take my last gym course online. The most important thing I've learned about exercising when I do it on my own, is to do it at your own pace so you don't get hurt.
I'm tired of hearing people complain about having to take math classes in high school. Let's normalize complaining about gym class. You know what I didn't have to do today? Attempt pull-ups in front of a crowd of my judgemental peers.
I always felt that PE was setting you up for failure. Hated it even when I had good teachers. Unlike a lot of people in the comments I was lucky enough to be "excused" from several of the events during the big tests days because of a wonderful lifelong injury, but I still always had to go and try to do things I wasn't capable of just so teachers could put a mark to my name and prove I'd done it, like hanging on a bar for .02245989 seconds. Still passed everything though. Heard about gym class being a military set up many years ago while I was still in school but even knowing during those classes that what I was doing had no practical value wasn't enough to stop being majorly self-conscious. The athletic used it to flex and the rest of us used it to damage our self-esteem. As someone who did ridiculous hikes in the summer and across entire frozen lakes in the winter, to then go to school on Monday and get looked down on for not being able to do a push up, I found the whole thing very unfair. The things us students had the strength to endure in our free time didn't matter like the day long dance events or the farm kids who could haul around metal like it was a pillow. PE decided that if you couldn't sink that ball in a hoop every time or hold your entire bodyweight on a bar you were worthless and unhealthy, and I know now that couldn't be farther from the truth. Sending love to all the students and graduates who grew up having that unnecessary burden and especially to those who still carry it with them today.
scarred and the thought of exercise makes me cringe. Now I have kids, I want them to learn good healthy habits but I cannot bring myself to be their role model. School scarred me in so many horrible ways
I finished Lithuanian high-school a year ago, the classes are still like described at 5:08 and I wouldn't be surprised that the rest of Europe does the same. Also PE grade in Lithuania is taken into account when they select 18-23aged men for compulsory military (I know this, because that's the only reason why they didn't take me)
In Germany, the gymnastics movement (Turnerbewegung) started as a reaction to the initial defeats of the german states' armies in the napoleonic wars. Gymnastics was "the patriotic sport" until WWII, even though its popularity went into a sharp decline with the introduction of football in the late 19th/ early 20th century. It remained a very important part of PE classes for a long time.
Learned I hated any organized sports or public exercise. Was taught nothing of nothing of any value. In the military it was the same for fitness. I was able to stay fit in high school because i was the only one that signed up for a study with one of the coaches. So I was allowed the private use of the weight room, loved it. In the military I would go at really off times to the weight room, sometimes 2 am, if anyone else showed up I would leave.
I'd hardly call the fitness test a 'traumatic experience'. I don't even remember significantly impacting my grade. It's just something we did like once or twice a year.
yeah ive noticed a lot of people throwing around the word "trauma", which I would say seriously lessens its actual meaning. In other words, if everything's traumatic, then nothing is
I remember, back in 2nd grade, my PE teacher always seemed to have it out for me. Not in the ways of letting kids bully me, but by purposefully excluding me because I was “difficult.” I was later to be diagnosed with high-functioning autism, but that permanently left an impression with me. I grew up hating P.E. because of that sensation of being left behind and abandoned, and because, at the end of the day, I was a thinker, not a fighter. I loved writing 10 page long essays on the compositions and histories of the planets in our solar system, but I outright hated playing games. And it only got worse when I was forced to play those games. Hilariously, when Weights was offered as a class in middle school and high school, I signed on immediately. Maybe because there was no social pressure or group activity stuff, just me in my corner, getting SWOL. If I were to guess, just about any artistically or intelligently inclined child hated P.E. Heck, these kids probably hate the schooling system with a burning passion, and that SHOULD be strange. Why should kids, who would probably thrive in free education and expression, be angry and hateful towards it?
Same. I'm undiagnosed but my dad is. Off-topic, but it's probably also why I didn't like Science class. Some of my teachers couldn't understand that I wasn't there to try repeating the same words all the time -- I knew that. I was out there asking if X existed, and took notes diagonally on my notebook. It's not like they checked; they were for my own use... I remember being told that I was disrespectful for narcolepsy. I still passed their tests and participated when called, though. But being laughed at for asking about vibrations in the water put me off. Interestingly, I ended up studying a Science course for college because of my family heritage. Imagine meeting your traumas every day; both from family drama and my fear of Science teachers. Crying every week right now. I could have been doing legal management or journalism...
Lol in Highschool I got my Doctor to write a bullshit note saying my back was not strong enough to participate in gym class. My gym teacher knew it was BS he was always so mad haha
I don't think lying about things like that is even okay, even if you dont like the class. If many people lie about those things it can make people with genuine issues be taken less seriously. Either way its not good to be dishonest.
@@zakosist I know. I was 16. I'm 26 now. Obviously this was one of those dumb high-school mentality moves of mine. Not proud of it, but I still get a chuckle at what lengths I went to, to avoid participating in gym lol
The split between people who like it and people who don't, coupled with the Adam Sandler scene, reminded me of the line from Community: Those aren't just bad people who are good at foosball. They're good at foosball BECAUSE they're bad people. ETA I guess the fact that I made that association tells you what my experience in PE class was like!
One of the greatest joys of my graduating from high school in 1972 was no more gym classes. I hated them with a passion as not athletic but not unhealthy as walked, rode bikes for many miles. There was also many dangers from rope climbing where if fell the padding wasn't enough to save you from serious injury. Gym classes need facilities, schools have to spend a lot of money on facilities and staff while outdated textbooks are being used.
I always had a blast in gym class, and in my high school they offered different classes every semester. I was in the pool every chance I got. I thought it was for socializing skills and team building mentality
The whole reason we have iodized salt was because of the famous “goiter belt “ I am generally all for allowing children to be children… But if a nation cannot field an army to defend itself it does not remain a nation. Surely there has to be a way that we can keep people physically fit and healthy without scarring them emotionally.
I know I'm late, but I don't think the changes are intended to make people less fit. It's intended to do the opposite. With the older system, kids were only fit when in school. After school, many had such poor understanding of exercise, health, nutrition, etc that they rarely remained healthy as adults. Even if they had the knowledge, many ended up associating exercising with the negative feelings they had in PE, making them less likely to choose to work towards physical health as adults. Changes in the PE curriculum are needed. The video said that an emphasis is now being placed on social skills. This will help children feel more comfortable when exercising as a group, making them more likely to do so. The goals set are now more relative, meant to be suited to the child rather than a national standard. This will hopefully help children learn to recognize their own limits and set realistic goals for themselves. That's a skill that is needed when exercising as an adult. Overall, I feel they are trying to push for a curriculum that is more sustainable after a child graduates. If children keep exercising as adults, we will have more people ready for the demands of combat should another large war come. We'll also have a healthier nation in times of peace. Win/Win, in my opinion.
I had gym at both primary school, secondary school and high school, and never would have considered people get emotionally scarred by it. I wasn't good at everything in that class, but actually liked gym for the most part. I dont think it takes away someones childhood to have to do some exercises, and certainly no more than other classes at school. Having no actual time to play may do that. But maybe kids need more genuine free time that isn't taken up by classes or homework
@@mastersnet18 The changes were made ten years ago. Generally, you need around 10-15 years for changes like this to become wide-spread. It is the amount of time it takes for the oldest generation of teachers to retire and the newest generation of teachers who were taught to teach this method to become well established. We will then have to wait another fifteen years for the children who enter school around that time to grow into adults. We have at least another 10 or 15 years before we see results of these changes, and this is me being hopeful. Could just as easily be 25 or more years, which would be when the majority of PE teachers were taught to teach this method.
You just said a bunch of insane bs in every sentence. Health and fitness is about genes and you way of life, you body don't decompose if you stop exercising you didn't notice? It's like you can't accept that people already ok and don't need fixing. But to stay in shape you need exercise everytime and with special routine and diet, so this harassing of kids are totally pointless. People who teach this don't know anything about health and about common sense, care and respect. And war? Seriously? Every child could carry a rifle or knife, you don't need be superhuman fit for this. And you hear anything about artillery and tanks? At war you fittness is a least important thing, good cloth, food and rest have much more impact. And you accept thought about involuntary conscripted students, that can be trown into battle without any training or equipment. Just wow. It's not about "health" it's something 100% psyhotic
I just LOOOOOVED it when I would have an asthma attack when I would run the mile and the teacher didnt care that i nearly died every few weeks for that.
If anything, my kid was traumatized by P.E. Her bully pelted her with basketballs everyday. She's not athletic, so she was picked last for team activities or teased for her lack of ability. Her trauma in that class makes motivating her to do her physical therapy monumentally difficult. Her negativity towards standard exercise is indelible and nearly insurmountable. And I still have to make her do PT and two more semesters of P.E. for her high school requirements. It's the most contentious area of our relationship and I HATE IT!
I have said this for the better part of 50 years. I hated gym class. It only served to embarrass those kids who weren't naturally athletic. To this day I hate the idea of formal exercise. And while I did give the YMCA a try I found them unhelpful in establishing a valid exercise routine. If you have fun exercising then good for you. But leave me the hell alone. By the way, I lost 30lbs after retiring just by a slight modification in diet but no exercise.
Different times and different country. I remember Physical Education being more behind a desk, learning about human anatomy and now it all functions. There where physical activities too, of course, but even that seemed more for learning then just to be physical. For much of the time it was experimenting with different physical activities, such as playing sports we have never heard of before, as if learning the different ways your body works was the primary intention! We also had military on compass, willing to teach you military related skills, but at least they made it voluntary. So maybe we didn't need to hide military training in the other curriculum...?
We had an option to choose between pe or wieghts and conditioning in our middle school I personally chose wieghts and conditioning because I'm into lifting weights but my experience with it was really good
PE was traumatic for me, starting in junior high it became apparent that I wasn't an athlete, and would never be one. From roughly the 6th grade up through my Sophmore year in high school, it was a weekly lesson in physical and psychological torture. At one point my freshmen year, another kid and I skipped gym altogether and ditched school. We actually preferred getting detention to another hour of PE. But it was nothing compared to what went on in the locker room before and after class. I'm certain a lot of the things I witnessed would be classified as sexual assault today, but back in the 80s, it was just "boys being boys," wink, wink. Luckily, the "jocks" never turned their malicious attention on me in the locker room. I had a knack for being invisible or something. But what I witnessed happening to some of the other "geeks" in the locker room was sadistic and criminal.
I had always wondered why PE is a compulsory class. I went to school in Germany, where PE is compulsory and graded, and a failing grade can get you held back (though medical reasons can get you exempt). Fun observations: A great deal of time was spent playing soccer and handball. The rules for these games were never explained to me. I only ever had one PE teacher I liked, who had been an athlete in his youth but had to retire after an injury. He was the only one who never tried to push me past my limits and commented positively on my efforts.
@Natalia Ryzak Ironic how it worked out, though. Choosing the arts to escape the hyper-competitiveness of other aspects of youth and education, only to find out that the economy of the arts is one of the most competitive that one can base a career on. What was the story of your journey from being a theater girl to being a journalist?
@Leandro Aude Yo estudié español y todavia estudio español y portugues. Pasé unas semanas en Punto del Diablo, Uruguay hace muchos años. me gustó mucho.
Yeah, I HATED PE in middle school. Wasn't particularly good at most of the sports and therefore felt like an utter failure, and the attitude of the teachers didn't help. In high school I got a.. somewhat odd, but actually excellent teacher, so my relationship with sports (thankfully) changed for the better. While still getting us through a large gamut of sports, he was more interested in our overall wellbeing than ticking off achievements
My highschool had a unit in using gym equipment/weights, and I think stuff like that is really good for people like me who would otherwise be super intimidated and overwhelmed by going to the gym as an adult if I hadn't had that experience :)
In the mid-west US it is about team sports only. You have to get ready to be on the school team and be the big jock. Old men sit around reliving the glory days of high school sports. Most never did another athletic thing in their entire lives after high school.
I just didn’t want to have to change close. I don’t like being in a locker room with naked people. I it’s inappropriate to force me to undress in front of people. I stay clothed & in open spaces.
PE was my favorite class, and it saddens me that they are making it less orderly and military like. my PE teacher was the only one the other kids feared and they actually listened and it was just heaven (well as close as public school can get)
PE is fine for some kids but for other kids it is HECK. When I was a kid I wasn't athletic. I had to run a mile in gym class, I collapsed after quarter of a mile. Giving a kid PE to make him more athletic is like giving a kid advanced calculus because he is no good in math so you want to improve his math skills.
I remember running laps in high school. Funny thing is that no one cared if you ran or walked the laps. If I felt good I'd jog a bit. If bad I walked. Some times I walked the field taking my time visiting with classmates.
In my school PE experience, it wasn't as much the opinions of classmates that were the most "traumatizing(?)" It was the opinions of the instructors that led, and formed, most of the classmate's opinions. The instructors had their favorites, then the tolerated, and then their "disappointments". If you found yourself in the "disappointing" group, the other classmates were encouraged to harass you. Institutionally sanctioned discrimination, laughingly called "Peer Pressure", which was an acceptable term for Bullying. Instead of "discouraging" Bullies, they were used as a form of "motivation". The instructor's SS. Their Goon Squads. Their Enforcers. AND! The instructors led the teams that won the glory of the town's intramural competitions. Local heroes that could do no wrong. In my time, that included corporal punishment... always viewed as appropriate... justified... necessary. Yeah, great for some. OK for most. Torture for the non-athletic. Not figurative torture, but real torture, in the name of making men out of boys.
this isnt shocking, honestly. i grew up hating gym class because i was bullied, left behind, and was always stinky afterwards. i almost failed during freshman year of highschool not because i wasn't working hard, but because i couldnt do an insane amount of reps "fast enough"
I found it hypocritical that it was called "physical education" but absolutely nothing was explicitly taught. It was all "do what everyone else is doing". I would have much rather done historical research into the topic and written essays about it (the education part of physical education) but this was never an option any of us were presented. The activities are binary in that if you can't (or won't) do them then you didn't have any other option except to sit there and watch. After being shamed / yelled at, of course.
My middle school PE class was very militant, almost perversely so. Coaches behaved exactly like Drill Sargents, yelling and punishing with more physical activity. If one person misbehaved the whole class was often punished. We lined up, answered push ups with "1 sir, 2 sir !" or "1 m'am, 2 m'am!" Hell, the actual army even landed a Huey in our field once and trained with my class. We did jumping jacks and if we didn't land/stop perfectly on "10" we hand to do pushups. One kid would always lead and he led them that day, did them super fast, we landed perfect but the army guys effed up and we all did pushups. If you underperformed you were bullied by the coaches and classmates alike. This was the early 90s and there was absolutely no hiding behind the militant nature of PE, we all knew it. In some ways dealing with those hard knocks can be character building. I was NOT the jock back then, I was the bigger fat kid back then. It was not a time in my life I'd care to repeat if I didn't know then when I know now. NOW THAT SAID: I have to admit I still carry over some of the drive and discipline I absorbed from those classes. I'm much more fit as an adult often in better physical shape than those 15 to 20 years younger than me even if those younger may look better. I notice that I have more stubborn drive as an adult and am apt not to give up or in to mental limitations so easily. It wasn't all good but it wasn't all bad either. Hey, life isn't always about "feel good" and no one knows that better than Europeans. Perspective can build discipline too.
I love that the most important skills from the school system are the social ones yet they are constantly the one skill they go out of their way to diminish I for one have had "no talking lunches" in a full cafeteria
When I taught in South Korea at an all-boys school, I noticed that their PE classes were less like dodgeball and more like aerobic exercises, which seemed to test your obedience. And they have compulsory military service there, so I wonder if there is a link between PE classes and conscription there.
For sure. A hangover from the past.
Decades ago in the cold war authoritarian era, everyone - people starting the day at work, not just school kids - used to do these morning stretches and physical movements set to this propaganda style tune - exactly the same movements synchronized in time to each other. In the 70s and 80s factories would have their workers do it, I guess doubling as a warm-up before they start work whilst reinforcing that they're part of a unit.
And back then they had civilian drills and so on, where they practiced what to do during a military attack etc.
That would be quite similar to what we have in Singapore too, as we have compulsory conscription to the armed forces, police and civil defence forces for men. On this note, our fitness exam more or less mirrors that in the armed forces. Half the year is usually spent training for fitness exams (till we pass) and another half a year is spent doing more fun stuff like sports and games. As a bonus, clearing one's fitness exam with a high enough score would shorten one's conscription period by 2 months, so that's a huge motivating factor for most guys. Beyond that, there is also a lot of health and sport promotion by various government agencies to all age and gender groups as part of the national public health campaign beyond national defence.
@Natalia Ryzak Yeah, it's super weird but I can't find videos of it. Basically imagine jumping jacks, arm lifts, etc. all rhythmically on a gravel field in front of the school, sometimes while the gym teacher keeps the beat. It was very weird to see with my Canadian eyes.
As an American, I learned in the mid 1970's that Japanese companies had group calisthenics in the morning before work. I thought that was a very cool idea. What a great way to start the day by getting the blood pumping and lungs blowing and muscles going.
I still think it's a great idea. But then I was in Marching Band in high school and college. We were all goofy except on the field (well, a little there, too). I loved Marching Band. Maybe calisthenics and marching band? I'm all for it.
@@SY-ok2dq Isn’t this still the case in most factories in Asia?
My PE class we barely did any exercise. Our teacher was basically "ok the ones who want to play baseball go and grab some bats and the ones that wanna play basketball grab a ball and hit the court i don't care much"
and her salary is coming in
same
That sounds great! Basically like recess.
Mine were like this too, but when we were outside we just had to complete a lap around the track before we could go off and do whatever. Even then, some students would just walk around the track the whole period.
That's how gym was when I was in high school, sorta. We'd do basketball for a few weeks, then baseball, maybe touch football and in winter when it got stormy, square dancing. I grew up in the Midwest.
The FitnessGram™ Pacer Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues.
The 20 meter pacer test will begin in 30 seconds. Line up at the start. The running speed starts slowly, but gets faster each minute after you hear this signal. [beep]
@@sarahstewart7680 a single lap should be completed when you hear this signal. [Ding] remember to run in a straight line, and run as long as possible. The second time you fail to complete a lap before the sound, your test is over.
Where are my fellow fastest kids that did the whole test?
Oh god, I hated this test and other distance running tests with a burning fiery passion. I would always get short of breath and start feeling a cramping pain in my side. I suspected it was asthma, but my mom would always say "I'm sure you're fine, a doctor would have noticed that by now."
Fast forward to age 17, and I'm at my first appointment with a peds sleep specialist. We talk for a bit about why I'm there, then he starts doing the physical exam. He listens to my heart for a couple seconds, then switches to my back... and immediately I could tell something was different. He stayed on each area a little longer, went back to a couple of areas again, all while I'm still doing those deep breaths (and getting a little lightheaded). Finally, he hangs his stethoscope back around his neck and asks "have you ever been diagnosed with asthma? Because you're wheezing a bit right now."
And that's when I found that he was also a peds pulmonologist. I was quickly booked for a pulmonary function test that ended with a trial test after a dose of Pro-Air, and I could immediately feel the difference in my lungs. It was definitely asthma, and I was immediately put on maintenance and rescue inhalers.
I took 2 doses of my rescue inhaler before my senior year Pacer Test, and got a noticably higher score than any of the years prior. If only I'd been diagnosed sooner 😭
@@westman8527 OGs loved showing off what number they got
My teacher in high school did something I absolutely love for PE. I’m disabled and cannot participate in regular gym activities well. Ball games were scary and often left me hurt. Previous teachers always forced me to play anyway, and I was always getting hurt and having panic attacks and getting screamed at. Then this angel of a PE teacher taught grades 9-12. She had the main activity with ball games or whatever the curriculum needed. But she also gave us the choice to do cardio (walk the track, do the elliptical, use the stationary bike, etc) it was normalized not just for those with an IEP. And the rule was that we have to actually do that cardio work or she’d take that privilege from us and make us do the structured PE. I loved it! I actually enjoyed gym class when my chronic illness was chill and could still handle it when it was flaring. The things that were mandatory testing, she’d give us all warning and explain what those of us not participating traditionally should be focused on to pass those tests months ahead of time. I felt so proud excelling in a class that I thought I’d never do well in! I even could do homework for the classes that weren’t following my IEP while I did the stationary bike, lending me an hour of extra time to get things done instead of pulling all nighters every night trying to keep up with my peers.
What illness if you dont mind me asking?
yes just give them the choise yes. smart. hope your doing better
I’m a special Ed Phys Ed teacher and I do that will all of my students my thought behind it is with allowing the student to chose the structured lesson versus the alternate activity like walking teaches the student that physical fitness is a choice that you should make keeping in mind what works best for you and more importantly something you enjoy doing making you more likely to continue doing it later in life post high school.
That’s awesome! I hated PE from 7th through 11th grade, and thought that it was my fault. But finally started liking it when I found out I had severe allergies and was constantly coughing, sneezing, puffy eyed, and basically suffering from asthma every time we went outside to play sports, which, in addition to being raised by parents who never tossed a ball with me, made playing team sports very traumatizing and unpleasant. Once I got dismissed from team sports I actually enjoyed exercising and being active
Bro got the paralyzed debuff🗿
I don’t really remember much about PE class before the 4th grade, but by the 8th grade I hated it (particularly for the emphasis on sports) more than any other activity I had ever done. So imagine how relieved I was that there was a Fitness class in my highschool that you could take instead of the regular PE class.
I was a 15y/o girl actively choosing to lift weights and do pure cardio workouts daily rather than suffer through sports in PE.
Wish I'd had that opportunity.
PE could be more educational too, focusing on gym knowledge, exercise form, nutrition and healthy body weight knowledge. I still can't believe schools never taught how to do a proper pull up or how to do a bench press. People still don't know how to have a healthy diet. It's not about how many reps of exercises you can do in school, but knowledge that will adequately prepare the students should they wish to exercise in the future.
Really there's still so much more. The role of supplements and drugs, body image issues and targeted advertising from the fitness industry. Instead we throw balls around and aim to perform x reps of terrible form push ups.
They teach diet in health class, but it’s pretty basic, usually outdated stuff that nobody listens to.
@@evilsharkey8954 the health class is too packed. They run from the time to test all of the bodily bones, have less than 2 months to run everything regarding sociology and psychology while completely butchering of how people should react, have less than a month to touch all the bodily systems at the same period of time to do a retry of teaching the importance of cells. Seriously... In one year, how are you supposed to get everything? It would be better to get a class on psychology, another on the bodily functions, and a third one in more distinct things, but that won't happen.
As for the fiscal education, the issue with it is that schools basically use that time as a time to insure that students time sitting in a chair doesn't affect their health that much by giving a break, other groups just don't want to overhaul or revamp it, it can be a nice way to cut costs and stuff along with the pride thing over sports...
Thanks for teaching me rules of the same sports in 4 different years and I never managing to get it. Nope... Don't like current gym class.
The school system likes a class that in its 89% is physical activity. The students get rid of energy and as long as no student starts being bullied in gym class, they can cut bullying reactions out of class, though admittedly I have no idea of how that actually works(there is a correlation, that's all I know).
I didn't have the strength to do pull-ups until high school, so teaching me a proper pull-up prior to that point would have been pointless.
No, it is more about doing team sport activities, where they pit you against the athletes from the basketball team and football team, and the track stars, all in the same class, and all you do is get laughed at and harassed because you cannot play as good as those team athletes can, yet are expected to be teammates with them (after being chosen last). And then they make you all get naked and shower together. Good for the team athletes who have been doing it for years, not so good for the shy ones who are not athletic and are not used to that sort of gang shower thing. And then the sociopathic gym teacher, yells at you and makes fun of you, because he is also the school football coach and favors his football team players. And if you f*** up one little bit, he makes the entire class run laps around the gym for one hour straight, and everyone in the class then blames you for it. And then you all go down into the locker room to shower and the coach sits in his office with the big glass window and watches all the boys undress and shower. And then they name the newly built sports facility after this abusive psycho because he was a beloved winning football coach. It really is a disincentive to want to learn about your actual physical fitness, and nutrition, and just want to get it over with. Who is going to want to engage in a lifetime of fitness after all that trauma?
I agree, as someone who barely knows how to exercise as an adult and who eventually saw the old footage of PE from the 50’s and thought “why didn’t they make us do this??”
Adults are supposed to make children do things that are good for them even if they don’t like it. I’m not sure that sacrificing exercise knowledge for the majority so that the feelings of less capable kids are spared is a worthy trade as the obesity crisis worsens.
Never been active til adulthood, gym class was consistently my least favorite class in school. However, the most positive memory I have was a gym teacher in my remedial swimming section (everyone else who could swim was doing laps in their own section) who praised me in front of the other students for the effort I made. She said, “so-and-so can’t swim very well, but she always tries hard at what I ask of her, and that’s worth celebrating.” It made me feel so special, like the little bit I could do was good enough. THAT is a good gym teacher.
I liked every activity that wasn't sports ball. Tumbling, dancing, parachute, etc. Those were fun. Various kinds of playground games were fun. However, no one explained the rules for kickball, soccer, basketball or flag football to me, though everyone seemed to know what to do. I felt like an outsider 😅
Monkey bars and jungle gyms. Playing British Bull dog. Camping fishing hunting
Dirt bikes operating heavy equipment
Logging. We should repeal Child labor laws. Teach economics and a foreign language from kindergarten on.
Graduate kids in the 8th grade.
That's such a wholesome story :)
@Jerry Kinnin:
Q: How do dirt bikes operate heavy equipment?
A: Logging!
@@gene108 you ride the dirt bikes to the farm tractors and go to work.
When I was a kid my 1st boy scout troop made money seeling fire wood. So we'd chop down some trees and chop them up for firewood. Hence Logging.
I was a socially inept female nerd, but I loved PE class. I always loved sports and roughhousing, and it's not as if you have to spend a lot of time socializing while you're in the middle of physical activity. Sports can actually make it easier to interact with people when you're an introvert because you're interacting with a group of people in a situation where you don't have to talk much.
Pulling through a tough situation together also breeds comraderie. I imagine that's how soldiers in a unit feel.
Growing up, I enjoyed PE as well.
As a small kid, I didn't gravitate towards typical American sports that celebrate size.
But, in PE, it was a chance to be active and feel success.
I find it funny how people crap on dogdeball. I used to love it. As the smallest kid in class, I felt like I had an advantage. Alas, after that two week unit was over, it was back to football and volleyball.
That’s all well and good unless you suck at sports. I was the outcast female nerd, too, and I could run and dodge, but I couldn’t throw, catch, hit, serve, or anything else. Volleyball was the worst because my scrawny arms couldn’t serve the ball over the net, and my hands were so bony that bumping it hurt, and the ball always flew off in some crazy direction like it was bouncing off of a corner. I was always picked last or close to last when they picked teams. Only the super lazy kids who wouldn’t do anything got picked after me.
I wear glasses, too, which seem to attract flying objects to my face. I would get hit in the head even if I wasn’t playing and the ball wasn’t thrown at me.
Yeah, that’s part of the reason why I love to go to gyms/martial arts classes so much. Everyone there mostly are just trying to better themselves and will genuinely help you get better and treat you like an actual person.
@@evilsharkey8954 you just described my gym class experience, except I was picked dead last, even the lazy kids were picked before me
I loved being active as a child, then PE ruined it for me, until years later as an adult when I slowly started getting back into it. I honestly believe I would've been much healthier (both mentally and physically) if I had been allowed to drop out of PE sooner.
I can't understand how PE ruined being active for you. I didn't really like PE class that much but it didn't ruin anything for me it was just a class I had to take.
@@matthewatwood8641 well, it made exercise a punishment, my self-esteem lower and I even got some injuries from it, to name a few reasons. I'm glad it didn't have that effect on you, but if you watch the video I'm sure you'll be able to find many more ways it can make it harder for someone to have a positive connection with being active. I'm not the best at explaining but I hope this was helpful anyway, or maybe someone else will come along and explain it better
Same here, the reason was i hated the specific exercises we had to do and unmotivated teachers. Imagine having to do a type of sport with people you wouldnt want to associate with in your private life who, are violent and abusive, for 9 years of school life (same exact discipline for 9 years). It turned into a downwards spiral of me hating the sport and the poeple there and not performing well due to bad teachers not even explaining the rules, competing against kids who did this particular sports in a club so were much better. This lead to low self esteem due to bad performance and low social standing in the class and so i tried even less. Also got intentionally injured by them several times.
As a result you think you are bad at any sort of physical activity in general and have an aversion against it due to those bad experiences. People form their worldview and how they view themselfes based on what the world communicates them, and thats especially true for kids. Thats why its important to be positive and encouraging. It leads to better performance and more happiness.
In my private life, however, i was very good and highly motivated doing physical activity, before school PE and after school, and was often top in the group and being praised as a good example in several disciplines, so i believe my bad experiences in PE class was not bc of my person.
@@matthewatwood8641 Similarly to how art class has ruined my artistic ambitions. In both countries in which I attended to
@@kelfablob9823 Yeah exactly, the worst part is when bitchs are given an opportunity to hit you with a ball any amount of times they want
My gym class was graded by participation, and even though I was extremely physically unfit, I would pass because I participated. But because I was forced to participate, My self esteem was very low because I was unable to keep up with the other kids and couldn't understand why. I was exercising just as much as they were, but had so little endurance that I would be near collapsing from very basic exercises. It took me until I was 20 years old to understand that I am actually physically disabled from a number of chronic illnesses, but the school system doesn't care. They don't care about kids with invisible disabilities. I want to scream at all my old gym teachers. They just let me suffer.
@Br M In my country, PE is graded everywhere and I was about to comment that PE should not be graded because not all children/teens have the same physical abilities and that's not something that you can just study to get better at. Now I'm a little bit jealous.
Side note, I had the best grades of my class but I was so horribly bad at PE that I never understood how I managed to approve the class until my grandma, who used to be a teacher, told me that teachers usually raise the PE grades of those kids who are good at every other assignment so it doesn't affect their academic average, because it's really common to nerds like me to be bad at PE. It all made sense.
Your opinion dont matter when you have subpar physique
should’ve later off the donuts and potato chips
I think the worst part for me about gym class is everyone was super competitive and took it so seriously that it made me so anxious that I didnt want to participate at all. Im not a competitive person at all and do enjoy exercise but running half way across my town and back being timed and playing competitive sports with people you dont get along with in school is dreadful. Doesnt help that all our gym classes were co-ed. I miss this one teacher who would sometimes let us do yoga or cross country skiing but that was only 1 year
This is how it was for me as well. I didn't have any interest in sports, didn't really know how to play any of them but they'd always make us play. No options given for other activities. I had one teacher that really liked making us run the whole period, so I'd go to the rest of my classes wheezing. There were occasions where we got to do something cool like aerobics, archery, even just lifting weights. I didn't mind PE during those times.
Fair enough but as a competitive person myself I can’t play sports without trying to win, that’s the fun part. I never yelled at anyone on my team though that’s not cool
Now you know why your life is a failure! Good for you to have this closure
I usually asked my PE teacher if I can run on the track almost every time, it got up to the point where she thought I liked track when I'm actually not competitive lol.
Some schools are trying to change that. For example some will try and put all the competing kids together
It makes sense to me because my gym teacher was pretty much a sociopath. He'd shame and ridicule us on our performance and shape, even when we succeeded.
That's the stories I hear from others. This type of PE is not good for most people and turns them away from the activity.
So it’s funny how all the white kids complain
@@alfredoalcantar8691 ok racist
@Leandro Aude he’s a loser troll. Don’t feed him.
Sociopathy tends to be compulsory for being a PE teacher.
The highlight of my high school career was being told that Phys. Ed. was no longer mandatory after 10th grade.
My high school is somewhat similar. It's still a requirement for graduation and freshmen are required to take PE I, but after that you can take PE II and Health whenever you want. I'm saving it for senior year bc I absolutely hate PE
@@VeeTHis same
I hated Phys Ed so much I opted to finish off the grade 10 year in summer school right after grade 9 instead. It was one of the hardest, sweatiest, sunburn-iest times of my life, but worth it. It was actually the most fun I'd ever had in gym class.
@Safwaan It was more the fact that we got to do different stuff I hardly ever did in Phys Ed class, like badminton, and going hiking in the river valley, and going on a field trip to the Pitch n' Putt grounds. We didn't just do my least favorite game, Dodgeball (in fact I don't think we did it at all that summer school session). Plus the teacher was a sports coach and good at his job, or at least better than most of my hitherto Phys Ed teachers who were just, well, teachers more proficient in other subjects.
@@DataLal My school had mandatory summer school for everyone. You either retook a class or took a class you didn’t want to take later. I took P.E. 9th grade since it would only be a month instead of a whole school year. We did the hard exercise stuff the first half of the day and then went bowling the second half. It was way more fun that way 😂
PE for me was extremely challenging since I was never super athletic and often lead to being bullied and ridiculed and many times the teachers didn’t stop it or joined in. I felt like for some PE comes at the cost of some students mental health. The anxiety everyday just made it worse.
In no other class is yelling insults at an underperforming student acceptable for students to do; much less for a "educator." PE teacher has always been and will always be, for me, synonymous with second most abusive adult in the school system. They are only outdone in reprehensibility by athletics administrators.
"Well maybe if you weren't so chubby, slow and pathetic the other kids wouldn't have to motivate you by pushing you around." Actual 7th grade gym "teacher" 1981...
Damn. I was underweight and used to get bullied. But that motivated me to work for change.
Times were different back then (growing up during the Cold War era in the United States). After seeing those film clips (produced by the Soviets and released to the West) of kids in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries doing push ups, chin ups and just looking very fit, the US government felt American kids were "out of shape' and a nationwide physical fitness program for kids was started. I don't think our government was trying to turn P.E. into a military type boot camp, just a competitive need to match them ( the Soviets) at whatever they did. Those film clips were probably propaganda based (a tactic done by both sides ), and the Soviet Union and it's Eastern bloc allies probably had it's share of awkward kids (such as myself) too.
I remember a basketball drill the P.E. teacher wanted all the kids to do, dribble a basketball across the court and back. The previous year the P.E. teacher had coached my brother, and just before it came to my turn he reminded me what a fine player my brother was. I proceeded to "double dribble" the entire time, which probably had the P.E. teacher cringing. I think it's quite humorous when I look back on it, so it wasn't "life traumatizing" (just those 5 minutes which felt like a lifetime). I may have endured some "bench warming" jokes, but I have no ill feelings today about it, or at anyone .
Of course you got made fun ofpeople will make fun of you, you can either let it get to you or not. The reality is that these were very basic exercises that you should have been able to do. I received the same kind of taunting that you did. I was a wad of dough. I took it as a challenge and I made myself stronger. I fought my bullies. Respect is something you earn. People will not just grant you respect because you exist. Rise above.
This is making me think that participating in PE is actually why I have a strong aversion to regular exercise and why I have hypertension at 31 years old. I never realized how harmful it is to punish with physical activity. I also didn't realize PE was for the benefit of the army, not the students.
Do you really believe that? If you do, you are a fool. PE did not ruin your life.
Yeah, especially think of classical conditioning. If you use something as a punishment, then the person will grow to see it negatively.
Don't be a fool max
You do not have hypertension because of pe lol
@@isaiahhoward8446 no he has hypertension because he doesn’t exercise because PE made him hate exercising.
There was legit an air force commercial at the end of the video. If not in gym class they'll get you while you're watching UA-cam 🤣
If you fail in gym class, Air Force doesnt mind
The chair force lets you walk in pt
@@josephharrison5639 That walk is actually dumb hard unless you train for it
@@josephharrison5639 Can’t call it the “Chair Force” if you haven’t served. You ain’t earn the right to call it that
@@williamsanphy3126 father is army, multiple uncles in Air Force, they themselves admitted how relaxed the Air Force is
A good example of marriage of sports and war here in Finland is our version of baseball, pesäpallo.
It's a copy of American baseball made in the 1920's with small changes and it was promoted to voluntary militias as "combat simulation" and "pleasant militarism". They advertised the sport by saying that throwing a ball is good practice for throwing grenades, advancing to 2nd and 3rd base is like conquering new land and diving into bases was similar to diving into a trench. "Strike" is called "wound" (haava) and "strikeout" was called "death" (kuolema) so that getting wounded and dying would be more familiar and somehow less scary in a real war. Pesäpallo is still quite popular here, but luckily they have renamed "death" as "getting burned".
The inventor of pesäpallo called sports "the cousin of national defence".
super interesting, i had no idea about this as an american. thanks for sharing!
this would've been super interest if baseball is treated like laser tag
We played that in Germany as well, I remember. Basically baseball, except the ball isn't hit with a bat, and it's just thrown really far away by the kids who are about to run
When I learned about the Olympic biathlon, it sounded like something that could very well be inspired by Finnish ski troops in the winter war.
Well, in Czechia there is a gymnastic organization called Sokol (meaning falcon in english), based in 1862, which is basically a paramilitary home defence in disguise. They used to have local units and gyms in every town, did frequent trainings and local competitions, they even organized feasts which looked like military parades. Although officially unpolitical, they were quite nationalistic and patriotic, in the Slavic sense, as opposed to then german(austrian) rulers.
After the disbanding of Austria-Hungary in 1918 they were really helpful in raising new military, as some neighbours (i am looking in your direction, Hungary and Poland) tried to chip away some parts of the territory of the new state.
Sokol was banned under communist regime (1948-1989) and did not get much traction afterwards. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokol
My experience with PE was in a brutal UK boarding school in the 60s where we has 3 afternoons of sport and 3 PE lessons per week, a grim time for a quiet kid who would rather be curled up with a good book. Many of the staff were paedophiles or sadists. At that time abusers were seldom brought to justice if caught, just quietly dismissed to offend elsewhere. I countered this by studying Martial Arts for 3yrs vowing that no one was going to lay a hand on me again. Safeguarding has improved a great deal since then, but we still need to look out for the monsters.
I think safeguarding needs to be even more rigorous. One pedo teacher at my kid's middle school (kid is pursuing a GED now, this was some years back) made headlines that reached ALL THE WAY to The Sun. Toni A. Reiboldt, Horse Heaven Hills Middle School, Kennewick, WA. Easy to find yourself.
Yes, the school district took matters seriously, but this was after William Pickerel went to court and was convicted of crimes he did while a teacher at Kennewick High. The school reversed a decision of naming a wing of the high school after him, but the school was also razed and rebuilt.
I briefly met Toni- she was irritated at my kid for .. something. Ironically, my kid is a survivor of historical CSA. I am still rather angry the county judge bought her tears. Her ex-husband still works for the school district, and I feel sorry for the guy.
Me also in the 60's, pedo haven and heaven all in one... 🤔
I was a late blooming teen in the 80s & was brutally bullied from 5th to 11th grade... I also had an unhealthy home scene & was, shall we say, hygienically challenged... going into the boy's locker room to change was absolutely terrifying to me... I sat out most gym classes which led to my failing whole years, & I ultimately dropped out of high school... this was for multiple reasons, but not being able to pass a grade for not participating in gym class was definitely a part of it... my feeling is still fuck PE 😕
Grow up. That's what you should have been doing then.
It's sad to hear, but you have to remember that school is not there for you. It's there to ready you for exploitation and make sure you don't pull on the leash too hard. I already understood that as a young kid.
@@statinskill Yup
I moved to a new school in 8th grade, and broke the 2km record. LOL to be fair my 8th grade was like 20 kids.
I loved gym class as a kid! I enjoyed gym, science, music, art and English class. But as a kid who moved ALL THE TIME growing up, I don't know how I would have survived without gym class. It was a chance to play long before I made friends at a new school.
Gym class got so much more bearable for me once I got to high school and we could choose between regular PE or weight training. I love being active, but I don't have a competitive bone in my body. In regular PE, in an effort to combat people feeling like losers for being picked last for teams, the instructors would arbitrarily put people together. This meant each team was made up of a random assortment of people who were really into the game and people who didn't give a shit. If you want to pass the class, you have to participate, but you can't participate if the few people who care won't pass you the ball. Weight training, on the other hand, was just me and my friends at a bench press taking turns lifting, spotting, and shooting the shit. Built up some nice biceps in that class, which is more than I ever got playing floor hockey.
I also found weight training much more enjoyable, but I was very fortunate to be offered it towards the end of middle school. Granted, my father, who was never athletic, decided to do similar training on his own, so I was introduced to resistance and strength training at an even earlier age.
I dabbled a little bit more in bodybuilding, but never ever competitive. More specifically, I really wish that U.S. physical education would consider doing more individualized sports as well as strength training; specifically martial arts, at least the ones that have businesses as private schooling. Something like taekwondo or a form that has been long divorced from field combat, so parents and administration don't crap a load of bricks about it.
This. I am currently in my last year of high school and taking a girls weight training class. Its so much better without the competition and the pressure. We just do what we can and thats that. Normal PE I sucked at and was always stressed about letting my team down.
Weight training is some of my fondest memories of highschool
I so wish I had that option. I would have taken it in a heartbeat. Fuck that pseudo-military training horseshit.
That thing where kid team pick team members is the worst system I can think of. It is garenteed to give low self esteem to the less physicaly skillful kidsw, and a flas sense of supiiriority to kids with a good one. In the end, while exercise will always matter, sports skills will not for most peole. How many of them will go on the be pro-athletes?
I learned nothing about health or physical well being in gym class. I definitely never learned anything I could use as an adult. I was never taught how to be and stay healthy. Instead I watch bullies being encouraged in their violent behavior at the expense of weaker students. PE hindered my overall education because I spent so much time stressing about being beaten up in class and then again in the locker room that I could not focus on my studies.
Don't teach bombardment or "sports." Teach things that we can still use at 60 years old like yoga, dance and isometric exercises.
I got into a school who didn't happen to have a gym once, so instead of useless exercises the teacher got us to study the human body. I still miss his classes because it REALLY was useful...
Or how about things like teamwork, rapid analytical skills, Hand-eye co-ordination, perseverance and communication? These skills are not taught with yoga. Dance, a little bit, but unless you are doing a Broadway number, you won't be doing much teamwork with multiple actions happening simultaneously. And I would argue that the ability to work in a large, well-coordinated team facing adversity is much more important than the ability to stay flexible at the age of 60.
I'd still rather throw the ball at people...be it in the locker room our out.
Again the purpose of the pe class was never to teach healthy living to children, it was there to make sure that potential soldiers were physically fit if the country ever needed to call upon its young adults to serve. Which makes perfect sense from a global military standpoint. If studies demonstrated that the youth failed more than 50% of the physical capacity tests that the rest of the world could pass easily, then you have a major problem with the health of your youth. I’m fine with PE class being mandatory, it’s a national concern to have physically fit young adults. Not everyone is made to be a soldier but if the need arises we at least don’t have to worry about it as much
@@TheMadmanInTheBush It doesn't have to be just one thing or the other. Multiple activities, such as team sports (which it seems like you are promoting), and yoga and dance can all be taught in gym class.
I recently got into argument with PE teacher (high school) for saluting during beggining of the class. I responded with: why not do it properly just like in the army. Turned out I was onto something.
that's a stupid thing to get into an argument for
@@tendo649 Belive me, we had arguments for even stranger things.
as a non american i cant understand why you don't see "pledging allegiance to the flag and the US" in schools on a regular basis as indoctrination
@@crazydinosaur8945 I'm non American and I also can't belive it's a normal thing there
people in the 50s: I'm so worried about kids getting fat but i want a neighborhood where i have to drive literally everywhere
Gym class was the part of school where the teachers basically said "it's cool to physically bully that kid who's different now! No need to hold back any more"... and they did just that.
I went to special Ed schools so gym class was slightly different and i guess all this stuff you guys were talking about I never experienced. Guess the government didn’t want kids with downs or autism to go to war which is probably a good thing
Had fun in APE as a kid. Jump rope, mini golf, other games!!! Fun time with a pe teacher and a few pales!!😃
I have learning and physical disabilities but I wasn't diagnosed until after grade school. I wish I had another option that didn't have contests for who can do the most push ups, or who can sit against a wall the longest. I liked some of the different stuff, like going on walks/runs through the woods, learning how to make human pyramids, or just swinging from a rope. I have ADHD, so I could never concentrate long enough on where a ball was, and if I was playing a sport where it's multiple people on a team, I'd often get bored waiting. I liked badminton as it was one on one and I couldn't get hurt as easily, but I still managed to injure my wrist, something I still struggle with even 6 years later.
I was in special ed but got put in mainstream PE. Traumatizing and put me off physical activity for life.
I always got out of gym class because I worked in agriculture before and after school, so it was a waste of an hour every day. It allowed me to work as a teacher's assistant or take an extra course every semester. I took weight training class for one year in high school because I wanted to, as well as ROTC in university.
I still had to do those random standardized fitness exams, but they weren't difficult.
Do you want a cookie?
@@jonathanrouse Yes, please! :D
Yeah the fitness tests were always the easiest part. It's the damn team sports that suck and make people hate PE.
@@Aaron-uz8xt Definitely! I'm terrible at team sports. Horseback riding and kayaking were the only "sports" I've ever been good at.
@@Aaron-uz8xt It only sucked for the lazy people who didn't really want to participate/wants to stand around talking/sit down on their phone.... If you showed effort you were probably gonna get picked over that person who would end up standing/talking instead of playing.
I had fond memories of gym class even though I was the school nerd....I was president of debate and ranked 3rd in a class of 600+ students. I hate "nerds" using their excuse as "nerds" to be physically uncoordinated or "unfit". Most of the phD students I met at Berkeley/Oxford were very fit. Most of them exercised/biked/did yoga or whatever exercise EVERY day...
My grandpa who is a retired literature dean at 2 chinese universities still walks 1-2 miles daily at 92 years old. Being a nerd and being physically unfit have nothing to do with each other and I dislike the people who say it has a correlation....like nah...they are just lazy. And being lazy prevents them from achieving greatness. And I don't like people who settle for below average...so as much as the lazy people "hate gym class"....same...
In my high school PE class, every year the marines would come and have us do a mock up version of some sort of field test they have, I remember it being not too intense since it was a gym class with a variety of people but, it was harder than anything we’d ever do in gym class. But they legit would pick the good kids and a recruiter would have a chat with them, my buddy actually ended up doing it and went to a few places including Kuwait, wild stuff
That's interesting. In my school the military recruiters always went after the kids on financial aide. Physical skill, whether or not they'd actually be good in the military, seemed a distant second to being desperate to pay for college.
Of course, it should be noted, that most positions in the military won't see active combat. And whether we like it or not, it is a way for poor people to get job training, free college, and a retirement pension. Still, preying on people who don't have options always felt kinda seedy to me.
That should be illegal.
If some kids want to see if they can do it as an intramural challenge, fine. That's their business. But deliberately trying to make good little soldiers (or whatever) out of schoolchildren has no business in something that ought to be for the enrichment of human persons.
The military grooms kids. What else is new
@@odinfromcentr2 Highschool, and almost certainly over 17 meaning its legal for them to enlist at that age. So its recruitment fair game. Also the military is a fine career that pays decently enough if you are smart with your money. Its not just all riflemen. The support of said men runs at a rate of at least 3 non-combat trades for every combatant. Mechanics, carpenters, water purification, IT.
@@ethansloan The military in the US, and in its current form, is more or less a jobs program. I jokingly call it "republican welfare." You learn a skill, do some "work," and get regurgitated back into society with a resume, a skill, and (hopefully) a greater sense of community and self-worth. For those who choose, college is also an option. For those who stay in, they become leaders and run the program for the next batch of kids.
I worked with kids who were leaving gangs, broken homes, drug addictions, or trying to dodge prison for juvenile offenses. The military gives America's overlooked lower and lower-middle class a chance to "reset."
I always hated gym class. I was severely asthmatic, with both exercise-induced and allergy-induced asthma. Thus, the only thing I got out of gym class was pain and near-death experiences...
PE was always my favorite class. It felt like a second recess because you just got to run around play, making the rest of the school day more tolerable. When I got to high school and they didn’t have any PE classes, my friends and I were so disappointed, because that meant we had to sit in a chair for 7-8 hours listening to nothing but lectures. PE class really did a lot for our mental health.
Did you have a dictator for a gym teacher that forced you to torture yourself like I do?
I dreaded gym class every day when I was in high school. It always felt so pointless to me, plus I would sometimes get mocked by peers and gym teachers because of how bad I was at sports. The only people who enjoyed gym class were the athletic bros who would play sports really intensely and heavily sweat before going back to class......
Gym class was horrid for me. Never been a fast runner and that's what basically every sport requires. The few weeks a year where we'd get to do something like gymnastics or dance were great, but not often enough to make me not hate the class in general.
Yeah, if you suck at competitive sports, your experience will be hell.
I was also relatively slow at running (and maybe still am, but haven't tested as an adult). I'm also terrible at soccer. But I actually liked gym class for the vast majority. Gym and history were my favorite subjects during secondary school. There will always be someone who is bad at something, but if anything that means they should vary the type of activities more so everyone can get to do something they're good at, or at least have potential to get good.
I think gym should actually be on every school day, because too many dont get enough exercise to stay healthy. And while at school, the school is at least partially to blame for that when you have to sit in classes for hours during the day and maybe also do homework in addition. They take away opportunity to exercise regularly, and then they should add it back. Regular exercise could also help with better focus on theoretical subjects
For me, cross country at the begining of the year and athletism at the end of the year were pretty much the only moments I enjoyed, as I was a relatively fast runner naturally and was among the best by the time I reached 10th grade, since I had begun training a lot outside of school. The rest of the year was team sport in one way or another, which I mostly despised as a very shy person who's bad at cooperating in a sport. And gymnastics was even worse, cause I'm not flexible, I hate moving my body like that and generally there was also things we did in a team.
PE was the Bane Of My Existence. I was always getting hit in the head too. I almost didn't graduate high school because I kept failing goddamn PE, eventually they had to put me in special ed PE just to get me to pass. Used to pop Vicodin before every class. I swear if they'd forced me into one more game of kickball it woulda been my supervillain origin story.
Don't even get me started on public speaking. I had panic attacks. I don't think either of these things should be compulsory.
At my college, one of the teachers I've had would let us do oral presentation in front of her and a few other people, rather than the whole class. Not only was it far less anxiety inducing, it also gave us a bunch of free time since you only had to be present one of the three hours.
Just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be compulsory
For people like you they usually have special education plans,, or whatever your country's equivalent is. It should be compulsory for most people, because always doing what you like is also not good. If you have serious anxiety issues I understand, but for me personally being forced into public speaking helped me deal with anxiety in the long run and helped me find coping mechanisms that I can use outside of public speaking. Children need to be forced to properly develope.
Wtf I'd wrong with you.. it's not hard, move your hooves at something faster than a shuffle and your golden
If you were popping Vicodin in high school you had much bigger problems than pe. Stop whining.
I failed every gym class I was ever in. I passed all my other classes, so it wasn't a huge deal in elementary school, but when I got to high school, it became less about standing at the back of the group during dodge ball and more about individual abilities. Halfway through my first year of high school, I didn't even go to class anymore, I went straight to the office, signed myself in for discipline and hung out in the office. I'm in my mid-30s now and even thinking about sports or movement makes me feel sick
Imagine feeling sick about movement. Lol get rid of your legs.
@@apexcrypto01 I don't understand why Gym class is so difficult for people, At least apply your self and do your best.
@@natas74d7 this person is far more gone than gym class.
Apparently just thinking about movement makes them sick let alone gym class 💀
@@natas74d7 Some people just have trash motor skills or never grew up being active. Trash processed diet too. They are lucky to be born in this era. Any earlier and they would be genetic dead ends.
I didn’t realize this until I was an adult but there’s one main thing missing from physical education classes, it’s the education. Getting told to do random exercise routines or sports doesn’t help a child who already doesn’t like being in school period.
We had a lot of tests on health, map reading etc in Gym class. Im not from the US though
I absolutely loathed P.E class with every last fiber of my being. I never liked physical activity and being forced to do it with no apparent reason by asshole teachers really didn't help, and surprise, I never did well because I'm not very fit. It's not like I'm super fat or anything, I just lack strength and coordination.
or perhaps you are simply lazy ?
It’s just like walking around and running or playing sports not much effort at all
Unless we did a fun activity like rounders
Sounds like a you problem.
Similar case here i was always the weak link thanks to my asthma and autistic lack of coordination (like take the entire wooden block you have to jump over kind of lack of coordination.. happened several times and baffled several teachers i do have a lot of muscle mass though) the only times i could keep up were the rare times we did fighting related sports. (Boxing,judo,taekwondo) but unfortunately we rarely did this.
That sounds... dodgy. In Europe our PE classes are focused much more on sports than just exercising, and you'll meet very few people who say they were scarred! Fancy that
You’ll find a lot of American things are centered around war, and most people here think it’s perfectly normal.
That sounds much more appealing than nonstop push-ups / running honestly. I can think of a couple of benefits off the top of my head:
1. Enforces social cohesion
2. Teaching kids the value of cooperation / teaching them no one is a one-man army.
3. More likely to give kids a positive association to exercise because there is an objective other than simply doing nonstop push-ups.
4. Developing different skill sets for different sports.
5. Teaching them that exercise can be fun (I know plenty of people who hate exercising, including myself).
6. There is a good chance that the kids will discover a love for some sport and would be interested in continuing to do it into adulthood (intramural sports like basketball, volleyball, table tennis, disc golf, ultimate frisbee, etc).
@@hueypautonoman in Mayport it is. We're navy and airforce kids so that's kind of expected even outside of that bubble.
I moved around a lot growing up. I never went to a single US school where the focus is just running and push-ups and stuff claimed. We played sports nearly every class. Most general exercise was warming up or on the days we had fitness tests.
In Germany I did. Lots of exercise in school. Didn’t liked at all. Only from 9th or 10th grade it was more interesting, when we started to play more (Football, basketball, gymnastics, athleticism) and work less (Push ups, etc. ) in PE.
Thank you so much for the message at the end of this video.
I'm French and PE lessons were not exactly the same as described (I doubt that in France the aim of gym lessons was to make future soldiers... x) )... but I totally agree with the fact that this course in particular determines social skills. Mine were very negative, because if you suck in any other course, the other ones won't say anything, but in THIS course, everybody will laugh at you.
I hated a part of my high school years because of that, and I even missed a mention during a quarter because I was good at anything else, but got very bad results in this.
And if the intention of gym was to encourage kids to do more activity, for me it was the exact opposite. I suffered so much because of this crap that I decided not to practice sports anymore out of high school, because I had this image of social disintegration linked to sports. It's only when I became an adult that I realized I could practice sports for pleasure, with nobody laughing at me because I'm lame at this.
So for me, the aim of gym lessons miserably failed. If kids cannot see the utility and/or the pleasure behind PE lessons, it will be totally counterproductive.
I was one of the last years of the fitness test in high school and I remember being super proud of myself for being one of the last people still doing sit ups. most of the people left were on the football team, I was a dancer who did about 300 sit ups a week, 100 before each class. They turned off the recording in the 80s but man I so wanted to be the last person standing, I thought it would be funny if they lost to a girl.
Did they lose to a girl?
@@jackieclan815 I wish, the teacher got tired of watching us once we reached the 80s and said we passed
@@kathrynharring8270 oh ok. Good job though
Not American, but I relate. PE almost always just made me feel worse about myself. I'm not really strong, agile, fast, etc, and I was quite shy so I was always picked last in group activities. I often came last in whatever we were doing. And it was so competitive too. Kinda made me hate physical activity.
PE would be the perfect class to learn all sorts of physical things, from historical to modern!
Learn different dances from around the world AND their histories.
Go to a working farm for a day and learn how our ancestors lived.
Make it FUN!
I adored the part of phys ed that was dance. Wish I could have learned more than just highland.
That doesn't sound much FUN at all 😉
Yeah, it could be all that… or it could be all competitive sports that some kids suck at, resulting in their peers hating them even more and the class being remembered as a nightmare.
@@diegofondoo1780 I doubt all the kids in all the schools would like to climb the Everest or even will have the opportunity to do so
Yeah, I hated every group or pair thing. We only learned dance in high school (10-12 grade in Europe) I love dance, but the type I like, noone taught me in school ever
I would love a dance class! I was a fat kid and would definitely complain to no end, but it sounds ages better than constantly getting hit by a football.
Our teacher had us do Czech traditional dances once- for funsies, I guess? There wasn't any holiday going on so I dunno- and boi, let me tell you, we adored it. Girls got to wear giant poofy skirts and boys hollered, all stomping around like mad goats. Definitely a highlight of my school experience.
I remember thinking that the only reason bullies got an A in gym was because the class was tailored to them. Opportunities to humiliate, harm, and steal.
As Woody Allen said: "Those who can, do; those who can't teach and those who can't teach teach gym".
I don't think my PE teachers in high school knew much about health generally. On some occasions they made me run or work out when I was already having a serious asthma attack. They insisted that that didn't count as having a pain...
my PE teachers refused to let me take medicine i needed before class. they even claimed i was making up having health conditions to get out of class. keep in mind i had doctors notes… my mom eventually had to email the teachers to explain i wasnt lying.
As a kid, I wasn't very athletic and I hated having to do gym. I was the one kid that was always picked last for the team. Everytime we played something in gym, the jocks always took the game way too seriously.
Oh yes, heavy sigh... I was a fat kid in school in the ’60s. PE for a fat kid was sheer torture, embarrassment and an endless source of bullying and harassment. PE is, in my opinion, the source of my frankly deep hatred of physical training and sports, frankly. The result? I'm still a fat 60 year old who has never really had any success at all, ever, with any kind of conditioning or training. The bullying and harassment never went away, actually. There are some reasons you don't actually see a lot of fat folks at commercial gyms in my opinion. It's still flat out traumatic.
So yeah, thanks a lot Mr. Murphy, my 4th grade gym teacher. Sheesh.
Sounds like a personal problem
Did you ever think of dieting and exercising at home to get your body in better shape so you would NOT be laughed at in school??? common sense, use it.
@@davidm7824 Don’t act like people are stupid. Of course they have thought of that. They just described why dieting and exercising was difficult for them. Not to mention that losing weight is physically and logistically difficult to do.
@@hbhb3851 Then don't complain about every other nation on earth stereotyping America as the obesity capital of the world that hates anything healthy.
sounds like you need jesus
I was one of those kids who always get chosen last for a team. (If I'd just been second-last, it wouldn't have bothered me.) In one gym class BOTH teams insisted that the other one take me! Now that's just mean--they were drunk with power...
Oh I know what you mean! That happened to me too. I was a skinny, somewhat short girl with glasses, and bad coordination as far as sports were concerned (although very good with my hands as far as arts/crafts and musical playing). And the wrong race.
P.E. was my worst, and most hated, subject at school. I would have preferred it if we were forced to run laps individually or do pushups rather than do team sports. The whole picking of teams was miserable. And if you played badly, you'd have to suffer all your teammates' wrath, making you even more of a pariah.
@@SY-ok2dq I'd skipped a grade in school, which meant not only that I was a year younger than most of them, but that they hated me!
@@Blaqjaqshellaq That was me too 😄
Same. I suck at sports and I was pretty quiet and awkward. Because of it I was always picked last whenever students could chose teams. :(
I have experienced that as well! the teacher would assign me then. punishing people with, you know, a person, isn't that nice.
And my teams did lose, of course, because I was absolute shit and worthless haha. They weren't wrong, but it was still painful.
I should've known. Even as a kid, I could tell some of the stuff they forced us to do was oddly arbitrary.
Yes, I'm still scarred.
Because of gym class and the resulting jocks and bullies, I utterly despise sports and exercise with all my heart and soul!!!
I was very athletic, but hated gym class with a passion that still burns to this day at age 73. Rush to put your books and stuff in your locker; rush to change clothes and lock up your non-wearing clothes against theft; go get sweaty for half an hour and ruin your make up and hair; rush to change clothes again, retrieving your regular clothes that are now all wrinkled from being stuffed in a basket. Worst of all we were forced to shower before changing which made the locker room 200% humidity so that you continued sweating into your regular clothes and your hair was total frizz. It was such an unnecessary interruption to the rest of the school day. I resented it very deeply.
"So, why does Henry, my pet rabbit, prefers spinach over cabbage? Well during World War II..."
I had a lot of fun in gym class when we’d play baseball or other more strategic games like that, but a lot of the really physical exercises you described soured my experience overall. I actually managed to complete my high school PE credit with an online health course over a summer.
"Traumatic?" Give me a break. Look what we are sending the military now; its a joke.
Was the exact opposite for me. Basketball in particular was hell. Too many people moving and screaming and unintentionnally pushing each other in a small space with a ball that was making far too much noise for my taste. Give me individual physical challenges any day.
I was the spazzy kid that couldn't swing a bat, climb a rope, or kick a ball - because my father thought that physical activity was a waste of time.
I went to college on an ROTC scholarship and started playing sports in the fraternity intramural leagues and discovered that I actually had talent that was never developed in 12 years of public school. By the time I graduated, I could get a max score on the Army Physical Fitness Test (at the time: 82 pushups in 2 minutes, 87 situps in 2 minutes, 2 mile run in 13:06).
Today, in my mid-50s, I'm a registered yoga teacher, go skiing about 15 days each winter, and still skateboard, bike, work out etc. all with an AARP card in my pocket. No thanks to P.E. though.
Doo you know the origin of the word “snazzy” not nice
All I can say is, I'll be eternally grateful for my sons PE class. After homework and all other activities, getting a teenager to agree to exercise is daunting at best. The PE program has taken a kid who would rather play video games and turned him into a kid with athletic aspirations. He's looking at joining the swim team now and he's loving the changes his body is making as he's becoming more masculine and muscular. So call it what you will, think of it what you will, I for one am happy it's a thing.
My experience in "physical education" was little short of a nightmare. Not surprising given the school I was forced to attend. I have never done any "sport" or unnecessary exertion since, and am happy about it !
"I have never done any "sport" or unnecessary exertion since" same
i can't comprehend how some people can be addicted to exercise, i simply can't comprehend. but they probably dont understand my lack of desire to exercise either
@@crazydinosaur8945 you don’t have to be addicted, but it is good for your body to get 1 hours of exercise a week
@@honestfriend767 i know and in my country the advice says "Be physically active for at least 30 minutes a day."
Most of my school years were spent in a school that was just a few years old, and the gym had all kinds of equipment and built-ins. There were ropes, wall racks, pommel horses, parallel bars and so on.
I could never understand why they had decided to spend all this money, none of us was going to become an Olympic athlete.
Looking back, PE seemed like a waste of time. I feel they should have focused more on instilling good, healthy work out and exercise habits that would benefit us for the rest of our lives instead of making us perform routines we didn't have the shape, strength, or coordination for.
Wow 😯 your school had gym equipment
I HATED PE. Fortunatly my HS had lots of options that didn't sound like "running for no reason" and "here's a reason to hate your peers"
I ended up with rock climbing and ballroom dance. Fun AND tiring! :)
Yeah, I'm from Germany and we also had that test, which was also kind of traumatic to me because I wasn't very sporty at the time. Since I was 16 I started going jogging very regularly though, so it's fine, but I remember despairing when I couldn't do the situps
That toe reach thing was the worst for me. It has less to do with your fitness than your build. The girl with the long torso and short legs did the best.
@@evilsharkey8954 I'm extremely fit and I can't do the toe reaching thing.
PE class, it's where the old saying of 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.' Is expanded to "Those who can't even teach, do PE." Seriously though, the entire US education system has little to do with education and more to do with social programming. I hated PE, I realised in our school it was all about trophies - every year there would be a compulsory 'weightlift' every pupil had to go to the weights room - every year it would be the same argument with the PE teacher (who had been a competitive weightlifter)-
"So what was the weight you lifted?",
'The bar',
"That doesn't count",
'Yes it does, it had weight and is part of the apparatus to be lifted so of course it counts.',
"No it doesn't"
'Yes it does, it says on the international federation rules posted on the wall behind you.'
"No one will believe you just lifted the bar."
'Well tell them I lifted a ton then. I've lifted my weight goodbye.'
Every year there would be kids being 'encouraged' to lift weights the really shouldn't and getting injured as a result.
I was physically fit - outside school I was a military cadet (like an even more militarized boy scouts) and regularly did long distance speed & endurance marches, 10 mile runs and that kind of stuff and I enjoyed that as I was there voluntarily. But PE in school was just a ball ache (I actually got badly concussed in a game of rugby - the only sport I liked in school- the PE teacher & referee refused to substitute me. For 15 mins I stumbled drunkenly around the pitch, until a couple of parents watching the match who happened to be doctors dragged me off the pitch and took me to hospital. And even then the PE teacher was arguing with the doctors).
From then on I became extremely belligerent when dealing with the PE staff.
This makes SO much sense. I had always been told that the fitness tests were meant to test how healthy you are, and I always left Gym class in a panic on those test days because I had failed every single one.
When I was in junior high and high school (1960-66) I was pretty convinced that gym class was designed to be preparation for the military; the style of the classes made this seem pretty obvious. As a pacifist I considered refusing to cooperate with it altogether. My parents (also pacifists) would have supported me in that, but they convinced me to reconsider whether I could just suffer through it. It was certainly a matter of suffering since I couldn't even do a single push-up or pull-up (except by cheating, i.e. starting partway up). This experience probably contributed to my lifelong dislike for all competitive sports. Later in life I did adopt a habit of regular exercise to promote my health, but I still consider it a chore rather than a thing to do for fun.
I either loved or hated PE as a child. It depended on the teacher. You had the ones that were football player bully types, and militaristic ones. I had one really awesome one, and I absolutely loved her class. She was a former gymnast. She was genuinely kind and encouraging. I wish there were more PE teachers like her.
I was overweight during my school years, and I always found PE did the exact OPPOSITE of helping me. You'd be forced to exercise, and be the visibly worst at it, in front of mean highschool kids. There was nothing to bring me to the same level as everyone else, I was just expected to be while getting publicly humiliated. I got so bullied that my gym teachers (they were amazing people, bless their hearts) signed papers to let me take my last gym course online. The most important thing I've learned about exercising when I do it on my own, is to do it at your own pace so you don't get hurt.
I'm tired of hearing people complain about having to take math classes in high school.
Let's normalize complaining about gym class.
You know what I didn't have to do today? Attempt pull-ups in front of a crowd of my judgemental peers.
I always felt that PE was setting you up for failure. Hated it even when I had good teachers. Unlike a lot of people in the comments I was lucky enough to be "excused" from several of the events during the big tests days because of a wonderful lifelong injury, but I still always had to go and try to do things I wasn't capable of just so teachers could put a mark to my name and prove I'd done it, like hanging on a bar for .02245989 seconds. Still passed everything though. Heard about gym class being a military set up many years ago while I was still in school but even knowing during those classes that what I was doing had no practical value wasn't enough to stop being majorly self-conscious. The athletic used it to flex and the rest of us used it to damage our self-esteem. As someone who did ridiculous hikes in the summer and across entire frozen lakes in the winter, to then go to school on Monday and get looked down on for not being able to do a push up, I found the whole thing very unfair. The things us students had the strength to endure in our free time didn't matter like the day long dance events or the farm kids who could haul around metal like it was a pillow. PE decided that if you couldn't sink that ball in a hoop every time or hold your entire bodyweight on a bar you were worthless and unhealthy, and I know now that couldn't be farther from the truth. Sending love to all the students and graduates who grew up having that unnecessary burden and especially to those who still carry it with them today.
scarred and the thought of exercise makes me cringe. Now I have kids, I want them to learn good healthy habits but I cannot bring myself to be their role model. School scarred me in so many horrible ways
I finished Lithuanian high-school a year ago, the classes are still like described at 5:08 and I wouldn't be surprised that the rest of Europe does the same. Also PE grade in Lithuania is taken into account when they select 18-23aged men for compulsory military (I know this, because that's the only reason why they didn't take me)
In Germany, the gymnastics movement (Turnerbewegung) started as a reaction to the initial defeats of the german states' armies in the napoleonic wars. Gymnastics was "the patriotic sport" until WWII, even though its popularity went into a sharp decline with the introduction of football in the late 19th/ early 20th century.
It remained a very important part of PE classes for a long time.
Learned I hated any organized sports or public exercise. Was taught nothing of nothing of any value. In the military it was the same for fitness. I was able to stay fit in high school because i was the only one that signed up for a study with one of the coaches. So I was allowed the private use of the weight room, loved it. In the military I would go at really off times to the weight room, sometimes 2 am, if anyone else showed up I would leave.
It was a nightmare. Yes, still marked, 40 years later. I'm pleased to hear things are changing.
I'd hardly call the fitness test a 'traumatic experience'. I don't even remember significantly impacting my grade. It's just something we did like once or twice a year.
Right? Unless they're forcing y'all to do stuff that's physically harmful to your longterm health it couldn't have been that bad.
yeah, if thats traumatic, you got bigger problems
yeah ive noticed a lot of people throwing around the word "trauma", which I would say seriously lessens its actual meaning. In other words, if everything's traumatic, then nothing is
@@gonkdroid4prez539 Right?
I remember, back in 2nd grade, my PE teacher always seemed to have it out for me. Not in the ways of letting kids bully me, but by purposefully excluding me because I was “difficult.” I was later to be diagnosed with high-functioning autism, but that permanently left an impression with me. I grew up hating P.E. because of that sensation of being left behind and abandoned, and because, at the end of the day, I was a thinker, not a fighter. I loved writing 10 page long essays on the compositions and histories of the planets in our solar system, but I outright hated playing games. And it only got worse when I was forced to play those games. Hilariously, when Weights was offered as a class in middle school and high school, I signed on immediately. Maybe because there was no social pressure or group activity stuff, just me in my corner, getting SWOL.
If I were to guess, just about any artistically or intelligently inclined child hated P.E. Heck, these kids probably hate the schooling system with a burning passion, and that SHOULD be strange. Why should kids, who would probably thrive in free education and expression, be angry and hateful towards it?
Same. I'm undiagnosed but my dad is. Off-topic, but it's probably also why I didn't like Science class. Some of my teachers couldn't understand that I wasn't there to try repeating the same words all the time -- I knew that. I was out there asking if X existed, and took notes diagonally on my notebook. It's not like they checked; they were for my own use... I remember being told that I was disrespectful for narcolepsy. I still passed their tests and participated when called, though. But being laughed at for asking about vibrations in the water put me off.
Interestingly, I ended up studying a Science course for college because of my family heritage. Imagine meeting your traumas every day; both from family drama and my fear of Science teachers. Crying every week right now. I could have been doing legal management or journalism...
Lol in Highschool I got my Doctor to write a bullshit note saying my back was not strong enough to participate in gym class. My gym teacher knew it was BS he was always so mad haha
I don't think lying about things like that is even okay, even if you dont like the class. If many people lie about those things it can make people with genuine issues be taken less seriously. Either way its not good to be dishonest.
@@zakosist I know. I was 16. I'm 26 now. Obviously this was one of those dumb high-school mentality moves of mine. Not proud of it, but I still get a chuckle at what lengths I went to, to avoid participating in gym lol
@@shaodynasty1017 Good you know better now at least
@@zakosist You do what is necessary to avoid a miserable, pointless, prison camp experience. Friend had the letter, I only had oppositional behavior.
The split between people who like it and people who don't, coupled with the Adam Sandler scene, reminded me of the line from Community: Those aren't just bad people who are good at foosball. They're good at foosball BECAUSE they're bad people. ETA I guess the fact that I made that association tells you what my experience in PE class was like!
One of the greatest joys of my graduating from high school in 1972 was no more gym classes. I hated them with a passion as not athletic but not unhealthy as walked, rode bikes for many miles. There was also many dangers from rope climbing where if fell the padding wasn't enough to save you from serious injury.
Gym classes need facilities, schools have to spend a lot of money on facilities and staff while outdated textbooks are being used.
I always had a blast in gym class, and in my high school they offered different classes every semester. I was in the pool every chance I got. I thought it was for socializing skills and team building mentality
The whole reason we have iodized salt was because of the famous “goiter belt “
I am generally all for allowing children to be children… But if a nation cannot field an army to defend itself it does not remain a nation.
Surely there has to be a way that we can keep people physically fit and healthy without scarring them emotionally.
I know I'm late, but I don't think the changes are intended to make people less fit. It's intended to do the opposite.
With the older system, kids were only fit when in school. After school, many had such poor understanding of exercise, health, nutrition, etc that they rarely remained healthy as adults. Even if they had the knowledge, many ended up associating exercising with the negative feelings they had in PE, making them less likely to choose to work towards physical health as adults.
Changes in the PE curriculum are needed. The video said that an emphasis is now being placed on social skills. This will help children feel more comfortable when exercising as a group, making them more likely to do so.
The goals set are now more relative, meant to be suited to the child rather than a national standard. This will hopefully help children learn to recognize their own limits and set realistic goals for themselves. That's a skill that is needed when exercising as an adult.
Overall, I feel they are trying to push for a curriculum that is more sustainable after a child graduates. If children keep exercising as adults, we will have more people ready for the demands of combat should another large war come. We'll also have a healthier nation in times of peace. Win/Win, in my opinion.
Well consider how bad the obesity epidemic is, and getting worse every year, I think we’re getting further away from that goal.
I had gym at both primary school, secondary school and high school, and never would have considered people get emotionally scarred by it. I wasn't good at everything in that class, but actually liked gym for the most part. I dont think it takes away someones childhood to have to do some exercises, and certainly no more than other classes at school. Having no actual time to play may do that. But maybe kids need more genuine free time that isn't taken up by classes or homework
@@mastersnet18 The changes were made ten years ago. Generally, you need around 10-15 years for changes like this to become wide-spread. It is the amount of time it takes for the oldest generation of teachers to retire and the newest generation of teachers who were taught to teach this method to become well established. We will then have to wait another fifteen years for the children who enter school around that time to grow into adults.
We have at least another 10 or 15 years before we see results of these changes, and this is me being hopeful. Could just as easily be 25 or more years, which would be when the majority of PE teachers were taught to teach this method.
You just said a bunch of insane bs in every sentence. Health and fitness is about genes and you way of life, you body don't decompose if you stop exercising you didn't notice? It's like you can't accept that people already ok and don't need fixing. But to stay in shape you need exercise everytime and with special routine and diet, so this harassing of kids are totally pointless. People who teach this don't know anything about health and about common sense, care and respect. And war? Seriously? Every child could carry a rifle or knife, you don't need be superhuman fit for this. And you hear anything about artillery and tanks? At war you fittness is a least important thing, good cloth, food and rest have much more impact. And you accept thought about involuntary conscripted students, that can be trown into battle without any training or equipment. Just wow. It's not about "health" it's something 100% psyhotic
I just LOOOOOVED it when I would have an asthma attack when I would run the mile and the teacher didnt care that i nearly died every few weeks for that.
If anything, my kid was traumatized by P.E. Her bully pelted her with basketballs everyday. She's not athletic, so she was picked last for team activities or teased for her lack of ability. Her trauma in that class makes motivating her to do her physical therapy monumentally difficult. Her negativity towards standard exercise is indelible and nearly insurmountable. And I still have to make her do PT and two more semesters of P.E. for her high school requirements. It's the most contentious area of our relationship and I HATE IT!
I have said this for the better part of 50 years. I hated gym class. It only served to embarrass those kids who weren't naturally athletic. To this day I hate the idea of formal exercise. And while I did give the YMCA a try I found them unhelpful in establishing a valid exercise routine. If you have fun exercising then good for you. But leave me the hell alone. By the way, I lost 30lbs after retiring just by a slight modification in diet but no exercise.
Different times and different country.
I remember Physical Education being more behind a desk, learning about human anatomy and now it all functions. There where physical activities too, of course, but even that seemed more for learning then just to be physical. For much of the time it was experimenting with different physical activities, such as playing sports we have never heard of before, as if learning the different ways your body works was the primary intention!
We also had military on compass, willing to teach you military related skills, but at least they made it voluntary.
So maybe we didn't need to hide military training in the other curriculum...?
"... As if learning three different ways your body works was the primary intention!"
By George! I think you've got it!
Please, when and where was that?
We had an option to choose between pe or wieghts and conditioning in our middle school
I personally chose wieghts and conditioning because I'm into lifting weights but my experience with it was really good
PE was traumatic for me, starting in junior high it became apparent that I wasn't an athlete, and would never be one. From roughly the 6th grade up through my Sophmore year in high school, it was a weekly lesson in physical and psychological torture. At one point my freshmen year, another kid and I skipped gym altogether and ditched school. We actually preferred getting detention to another hour of PE. But it was nothing compared to what went on in the locker room before and after class. I'm certain a lot of the things I witnessed would be classified as sexual assault today, but back in the 80s, it was just "boys being boys," wink, wink. Luckily, the "jocks" never turned their malicious attention on me in the locker room. I had a knack for being invisible or something. But what I witnessed happening to some of the other "geeks" in the locker room was sadistic and criminal.
Like all K-12 education, the real reason is to train obedient little workers who won't question their superiors.
I had always wondered why PE is a compulsory class. I went to school in Germany, where PE is compulsory and graded, and a failing grade can get you held back (though medical reasons can get you exempt).
Fun observations: A great deal of time was spent playing soccer and handball. The rules for these games were never explained to me.
I only ever had one PE teacher I liked, who had been an athlete in his youth but had to retire after an injury. He was the only one who never tried to push me past my limits and commented positively on my efforts.
Thank you for sharing this, from the last guy picked for the team every time.
@Natalia Ryzak Ironic how it worked out, though. Choosing the arts to escape the hyper-competitiveness of other aspects of youth and education, only to find out that the economy of the arts is one of the most competitive that one can base a career on. What was the story of your journey from being a theater girl to being a journalist?
@Leandro Aude y cómo te afectó eso?
@Leandro Aude Soy de Colorado, eeuu. Y vos?
@Leandro Aude Yo estudié español y todavia estudio español y portugues. Pasé unas semanas en Punto del Diablo, Uruguay hace muchos años. me gustó mucho.
Yeah, I HATED PE in middle school. Wasn't particularly good at most of the sports and therefore felt like an utter failure, and the attitude of the teachers didn't help. In high school I got a.. somewhat odd, but actually excellent teacher, so my relationship with sports (thankfully) changed for the better. While still getting us through a large gamut of sports, he was more interested in our overall wellbeing than ticking off achievements
Yes we can mentally weak
My highschool had a unit in using gym equipment/weights, and I think stuff like that is really good for people like me who would otherwise be super intimidated and overwhelmed by going to the gym as an adult if I hadn't had that experience :)
In the mid-west US it is about team sports only. You have to get ready to be on the school team and be the big jock. Old men sit around reliving the glory days of high school sports. Most never did another athletic thing in their entire lives after high school.
I just didn’t want to have to change close. I don’t like being in a locker room with naked people. I it’s inappropriate to force me to undress in front of people. I stay clothed & in open spaces.
PE was my favorite class, and it saddens me that they are making it less orderly and military like. my PE teacher was the only one the other kids feared and they actually listened and it was just heaven (well as close as public school can get)
PE is fine for some kids but for other kids it is HECK. When I was a kid I wasn't athletic. I had to run a mile in gym class, I collapsed after quarter of a mile. Giving a kid PE to make him more athletic is like giving a kid advanced calculus because he is no good in math so you want to improve his math skills.
the hardest part of the test was the mile run
I remember running laps in high school. Funny thing is that no one cared if you ran or walked the laps. If I felt good I'd jog a bit. If bad I walked. Some times I walked the field taking my time visiting with classmates.
In my school PE experience, it wasn't as much the opinions of classmates that were the most "traumatizing(?)" It was the opinions of the instructors that led, and formed, most of the classmate's opinions. The instructors had their favorites, then the tolerated, and then their "disappointments". If you found yourself in the "disappointing" group, the other classmates were encouraged to harass you. Institutionally sanctioned discrimination, laughingly called "Peer Pressure", which was an acceptable term for Bullying. Instead of "discouraging" Bullies, they were used as a form of "motivation". The instructor's SS. Their Goon Squads. Their Enforcers. AND! The instructors led the teams that won the glory of the town's intramural competitions. Local heroes that could do no wrong. In my time, that included corporal punishment... always viewed as appropriate... justified... necessary.
Yeah, great for some. OK for most. Torture for the non-athletic. Not figurative torture, but real torture, in the name of making men out of boys.
this isnt shocking, honestly. i grew up hating gym class because i was bullied, left behind, and was always stinky afterwards. i almost failed during freshman year of highschool not because i wasn't working hard, but because i couldnt do an insane amount of reps "fast enough"
I found it hypocritical that it was called "physical education" but absolutely nothing was explicitly taught. It was all "do what everyone else is doing".
I would have much rather done historical research into the topic and written essays about it (the education part of physical education) but this was never an option any of us were presented.
The activities are binary in that if you can't (or won't) do them then you didn't have any other option except to sit there and watch. After being shamed / yelled at, of course.
Went to a US school and PE was scarring. Still have real issues with exercise today because of it. It squashed any possible joy in movement or sports.
Most people believed that gym class was solely for the purpose of giving sadistic bullies jobs as PE teachers.
My middle school PE class was very militant, almost perversely so. Coaches behaved exactly like Drill Sargents, yelling and punishing with more physical activity. If one person misbehaved the whole class was often punished. We lined up, answered push ups with "1 sir, 2 sir !" or "1 m'am, 2 m'am!" Hell, the actual army even landed a Huey in our field once and trained with my class. We did jumping jacks and if we didn't land/stop perfectly on "10" we hand to do pushups. One kid would always lead and he led them that day, did them super fast, we landed perfect but the army guys effed up and we all did pushups. If you underperformed you were bullied by the coaches and classmates alike. This was the early 90s and there was absolutely no hiding behind the militant nature of PE, we all knew it. In some ways dealing with those hard knocks can be character building. I was NOT the jock back then, I was the bigger fat kid back then. It was not a time in my life I'd care to repeat if I didn't know then when I know now. NOW THAT SAID: I have to admit I still carry over some of the drive and discipline I absorbed from those classes. I'm much more fit as an adult often in better physical shape than those 15 to 20 years younger than me even if those younger may look better. I notice that I have more stubborn drive as an adult and am apt not to give up or in to mental limitations so easily. It wasn't all good but it wasn't all bad either. Hey, life isn't always about "feel good" and no one knows that better than Europeans. Perspective can build discipline too.
I love that the most important skills from the school system are the social ones yet they are constantly the one skill they go out of their way to diminish I for one have had "no talking lunches" in a full cafeteria