I don’t know that I hated P.E., but I was never very good at it. I’m not sure if I even passed all of those Presidential Fitness tests! And I LOVE the video teaching us how to learn and succeed at pushups! I’m going to do that! Thank you. 🙏🏽
I hate the presidential fitness tests!! My high school used the scores for actual grades which went on my report card, bringing down my GPA. I’ve never done a pull up successfully in my life, and I used to get negative numbers on the sit and reach because of how my spine is curved. I am still so bitter!
I never understood why my kids who ran cross country/ winter track/ spring track and tennis also had to do PE, they took 7:10 gym just to fit in their extra science classes in high school. Literally their sports were everyone else’s “punishment” run! In my schooldays (back in the Middle Ages and the UK) I had to swim in a pool NOT HEATED, now I love to swim but at that time it was amazing how many female students had their “time of the month” several times a month! I did like gym, until I sprained my wrist on the vault horse, but I did gain my Girl Guide gymnastics badge, the first in my company!
When I taught high school, students who did a sport were exempt from PE, which only makes sense. And as for your swimming in the unheated pool, I’m wondering whether British people are just able to handle cold water better than the rest of us? In the mystery novels I like, people are always swimming in the icy ocean. Not for me!
I always loved PE, although I sucked at throwing, kicking, hitting, dodgeball, etc, but tried hard regardless. And I sweated! Back then in junior high and high school we were required to shower openly everyday, which didn’t bother me either, but I was probably in a minority, not to mention everyone’s privacy, which apparently didn’t exist back then.
One thing I will say for PE in Oregon: we danced! We danced every year from K-12; it was required by the state. And I loved every second of dancing. To this day, I still dance and love every second. Dancing my entire life has helped me learn to socialize (about which I was clueless), stay in shape, laugh, play, and have a heckuva lot of fun.
Like you, I am (was?) a bicyclist. In 1976, I rode from Missoula to the Oregon coast. I’m a hiker too and have put a lot of miles on a lot of boots. Twice I have summited the South Sister in Oregon. I am a walker … one marathon and a few halves, and some just across town. Downhill and cross country skiing (again—past tense)! Aside from dancing, I learned none of it in school, just took it up on my own.
I am in total agreement with every point you made about academic testing. In fact, I could go down an entire warren of rabbit holes about decisions that affect most of us being made by people (usually men) sitting in cushy offices, having absolutely no firsthand knowledge or experience about the subject at hand. Wasting millions, probably billions, on unverified, unresearched programs. Or definitively stating various “solutions” to problems as they enter pea brains. (Ted Cruz comes to mind.)
Ok, that’s my rant for today, and I think I did go subterranean for a minute! Thanks, Mari. I enjoy your essays.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful comment! I, too, could go down a warren of rabbit holes about those tests. I wish our leaders had the humility to say to themselves, "Huh. I don't actually know anything about this. Maybe I should defer to those who do."
I also loved the dance units in PE! I had to pretend I didn't, because all the other kids groaned any time we had square dancing, but I loved it. So fun!
I don’t know that I hated P.E., but I was never very good at it. I’m not sure if I even passed all of those Presidential Fitness tests! And I LOVE the video teaching us how to learn and succeed at pushups! I’m going to do that! Thank you. 🙏🏽
I am going to give push-ups another try too, thanks to that video! Who knows? It might even work this time!
I hate the presidential fitness tests!! My high school used the scores for actual grades which went on my report card, bringing down my GPA. I’ve never done a pull up successfully in my life, and I used to get negative numbers on the sit and reach because of how my spine is curved. I am still so bitter!
Me too! It’s so unfair! Why didn’t they test, say, the ability to do the splits? We girls would have beaten the boys!
I never understood why my kids who ran cross country/ winter track/ spring track and tennis also had to do PE, they took 7:10 gym just to fit in their extra science classes in high school. Literally their sports were everyone else’s “punishment” run! In my schooldays (back in the Middle Ages and the UK) I had to swim in a pool NOT HEATED, now I love to swim but at that time it was amazing how many female students had their “time of the month” several times a month! I did like gym, until I sprained my wrist on the vault horse, but I did gain my Girl Guide gymnastics badge, the first in my company!
When I taught high school, students who did a sport were exempt from PE, which only makes sense. And as for your swimming in the unheated pool, I’m wondering whether British people are just able to handle cold water better than the rest of us? In the mystery novels I like, people are always swimming in the icy ocean. Not for me!
I always loved PE, although I sucked at throwing, kicking, hitting, dodgeball, etc, but tried hard regardless. And I sweated! Back then in junior high and high school we were required to shower openly everyday, which didn’t bother me either, but I was probably in a minority, not to mention everyone’s privacy, which apparently didn’t exist back then.
One thing I will say for PE in Oregon: we danced! We danced every year from K-12; it was required by the state. And I loved every second of dancing. To this day, I still dance and love every second. Dancing my entire life has helped me learn to socialize (about which I was clueless), stay in shape, laugh, play, and have a heckuva lot of fun.
Like you, I am (was?) a bicyclist. In 1976, I rode from Missoula to the Oregon coast. I’m a hiker too and have put a lot of miles on a lot of boots. Twice I have summited the South Sister in Oregon. I am a walker … one marathon and a few halves, and some just across town. Downhill and cross country skiing (again—past tense)! Aside from dancing, I learned none of it in school, just took it up on my own.
I am in total agreement with every point you made about academic testing. In fact, I could go down an entire warren of rabbit holes about decisions that affect most of us being made by people (usually men) sitting in cushy offices, having absolutely no firsthand knowledge or experience about the subject at hand. Wasting millions, probably billions, on unverified, unresearched programs. Or definitively stating various “solutions” to problems as they enter pea brains. (Ted Cruz comes to mind.)
Ok, that’s my rant for today, and I think I did go subterranean for a minute! Thanks, Mari. I enjoy your essays.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful comment! I, too, could go down a warren of rabbit holes about those tests. I wish our leaders had the humility to say to themselves, "Huh. I don't actually know anything about this. Maybe I should defer to those who do."
I also loved the dance units in PE! I had to pretend I didn't, because all the other kids groaned any time we had square dancing, but I loved it. So fun!
What does one pirate boot call the other pirate boot in the pair? Sole matey!
OK, that is both very corny and very cute!
I hated PE for the same reasons you did. My kids had a better experience — more fun (for the most part).
Thankfully, I think PE is getting better these days. My kids had a better experience than I did too.