Mandatory Physical Education

[Spade Lead]

I hated PE, but I knew it was good for me. It was the only thing keeping me from going from overweight to obese and I know that 'cause when I didn't have to take it anymore I gained a ton of weight and also ended up with high blood pressure. It has taken me over three years to get myself close to being at a healthy weight.

Looking back I wish I tried harder and maybe even joined a sport(freshmen year my PE coach wanted me to try out for Football and I said no). In my district it was mandatory for 2 years in High School and nowadays I wish it had been mandatory for all 4 years as it would have made my life much easier than the last few years have been.

In my school ROTC was considered a PE class, so I ended up taking a PE class every semester of all four years of High School. I could have taken the extra class period off, but I stayed in and was healthier for it. I also find myself wishing I had played football or something while I was in high school. Only 8 years too late...

 

[SadakoMoose]

Eh, I think that school level PE should focus on developing just basic physical skills, like balance and a good degree of active flexibility. It just makes everyone a little bit safer and increases your chance of avoiding injuries.
Really just body weight exercises, light plyometrics, joint strengthening, and coordination practice like standing on Bozu Balls or walking Balance Beams.
Beyond that, we should also put an emphasis on gymnastic inspired training. You'd be surprised what you can do with rings and uneven bars, without doing any flips.

 

[Doc Theta Sigma]

Well for the first two years of high school I had a legitimate medical issue which prevented me from doing any PE. It was nothing physical, it was internal medicine related. Anyway. It was resolved after those two years and I was kind of a heavy kid... But I neglected to tell the Head of PE that it had been resolved. So for five years my PE lessons were spent chilling out. The reason being I had a bit of a problem with authority. The authority being a sadistic bastard that thought he could tell me when and where to exercise and how worthless overweight people were. I exercised in my own time at my convenience.

You see the thing I hated the most about PE is the fucking sense of superiority it gave everyone who was athletic and the hyper-macho attitude that accompanied the borderline psychotic PE staff. And when every other kid there looked down their nose at me for not kicking a ball into a net, the staff did nothing and further enforced the view everyone there had that overweight people were somehow sub-human.

Fuck PE.

 

[Cheesus333]

Mandatory PE I don't mind. Hell, weight-training and cardio are pretty fun, if not quite obviously exhaustive and demanding. In Britain - or, at any rate, in British public schools - we have mandatory sports.

So, if by age 11, you don't have a comprehensive knowledge of and adequate skill in Rugby and/or Football, say goodbye to any lingering sense of dignity or pride you might have for four hours a week. Cause they will eat you alive.

I should know. I just crawled out the other end.

 

[uzo]

Hmm ... When I lived in London (roughly GCSE age or so), PE rotated sports - we did baseball, cricket, football, rugby, badminton, track & field, swimming, netball, volleyball, basketball, and hockey. When I lived near Sydney (the rest of my educational years), we did basketball. Nothing but goddamn basketball.

I HATE basketball with a passion now. I hate the feel of the ball, I hate the obnoxious noise of bouncing and sneakers squeaking, I hate dickheads trying to slam dunk, I hate the morons who acted like tough-as-nails gangstas - when they were playing a fucking NON-CONTACT sport. It was just a lot of upper-middle class white Australians posing. Shiiiit.

But srsly, give the kids a wide variety of sports to try. Students will, like me, get the shits if you just play the same damned sports all the damned time. PE is important; teenagers need to practice with their bodies. One of the reasons adults can't run and jump and be as nimble as when they were kids is because their brain hasn't done it *since* they were kids - your body has changed size and shape, and your brain, put simply, doesn't know how to control it anymore.

 

[Dags90]

I honestly don't see the problem with mandatory PE. I think it's good to break up hours of sitting with some forced "get up and move around", especially for younger children. It dovetails nicely with Sex Ed. and other "Health" classes.

I'm about as skinny as they come, even now. I was an awkward mess in highschool, but I didn't have any problems in PE except tardiness.

And pneumonia apparently.

 

[Shadowfaze]

I managed to skip pretty much all school PE on a long-running health problem, but prior to that, i hated it, my teacher was an evil, sadistic monster, and im glad i got so many health problems just in time.

 

[meepop]

I understand. Fuck, next year I have to take PE as well. Last year I had to take Health, which is basically "No drugs, no alcohol, keep your body in check, etc.". I never minded PE in Elementary/Middle School. And I'm (And was) like twenty pounds overweight. PE did nothing for me. I tried my damned hardest and that's all that counted. Just try to keep up.

 

[SirDoom]

I wouldn't mind PE if it didn't suck. In my highschool, our PE class could be summed up as... well, let me just describe it.

A few push ups and sit ups a day, then going outside and running 3 laps of the track (running around inside at winter). All this took maybe 10-15 minutes. That was followed by 40+ minutes of playing basketball. Don't like basketball? Sucks. Aren't very good at basketball? The guys playing don't let you play with them. I hope you like sitting on the sideline or bouncing a ball against a wall for the better part of an hour. That is, if you can find a wall to use where you won't be in the way of all the jocks playing basketball.

When I played with them, I was very annoyed by their attitudes, but I was treated with respect because I was playing. When I had enough of them and decided to spend the time playing poker with those who didn't want to play over to the side, I got hit with the occasional "accidental basketball thrown directly at the people in that area". Only rarely though. The guys who never played... not so lucky. I honestly think the few times I got hit were times where they accidentally missed the guy sitting next to me. =(

 

[GodofCider]

what is this the 90's? i thought kids were done complaining about that. just man up, although i do agree with candid117 both about making a poor choice and about your poor attitude. i was (and still am) a nerdy skrawny kid in highschool, look at it as a chance to build some muscle and not be a little guy anymore. having a poor attitude about it will only make it worse.

Physical exercise?! What madness is this!

I simply can not understand why people are griping about this. When has this not been a standard anyways?

That aside, PE is fun. I hope you enjoy yourself. ^_^

 

[mrdude2010]

it's because 2/3 of americans are overweight perhaps?

seriously people complaining about PE pisses me off just play the damm game/lift the damm weights and get it over with it's good for you

unless you have some injury or disability that inhibits your ability to participate

 

[General Ken8]

If you are in America, The theory is that the majority of our youths are idiots and will be morbidly obese without forced exercise.

Pretty much, and even then half the kids won't listen to the teacher and won't do anything

 

[Duck Sandwich]

Physical Education was by far, the best class I ever took in school. It introduced me to cardio kickboxing, which led to me taking cardio kickboxing classes at a Karate school, which led to me training in mixed martial arts. As someone's said in this thread, a strong body leads to a strong mind. I saw an interesting YouTube video about a professional Starcraft player. He made it a point to keep in shape, as the sheer speed of pressing hotkeys/clicking in professional Starcraft is beyond what your stereotypical Cheeto-stained tub of lard basement dweller could handle.

 

[Doclector]

PE is in place to maintain the status quo of society: physical attributes valued over mental ones. Why? Because it's another wonderful element of the government's curriculum in how to be a good little citizen and simply obey. A revolutionary army of meatheads is no good without a smart leader. PE encourages the separation of academia and sport, making the physically fit people shy away from academic pursuits and vice versa, and making sure the sports fans never respect academics enough to take orders from them. There can be exceptions but not enough to make a decent fighting force. Thus, the government can continue on their merry little way riding the gravy train with tickets bought by the people without threat of violent uprising and equally violent punishment.

Think about it enough, everything in school is designed to make you shut up and do and unquestionably believe as your authorities tell you. That's right: they were lying to you to get their own way even before you could vote.

 

[NightHawk21]

PE is mandatory, because that's the way the school and the government want it. Don't like it, well honestly tough shit your pretty much screwed than, because you need a PE credit to get a high school diploma in just about every school. That being said you could learn to enjoy it and not ***** about it for the half/ full year you have to take it, who knows might be fun (was for me and I don't typically play sports). Besides what the worst that could happen? You spend an hour playing dodgeball instead of sitting on your ass at a computer desk on msn or facebook.

PE is so that you're getting some semblance of exercise, otherwise you're just sitting all day, which isn't enjoyable.

I took weight training all throughout high school, although it wasn't required. I really like lifting weights, and having that hour everyday, did wonders for my lift maxes. I really like to lift until I can't use the muscle group that I was working (obviously you don't want to totally burn out your legs), losing the abilty to write due to exasution is a really weird but cool feeling.

Lol, ya definitely not a good idea to work your legs to exhausting. I'm a big guy so I can push a bit of weight, so when we went to the weight room for PE one class and a couple of guys decided to have a leg press weight contest I threw my hat in. Beat every one out going to quite high (well in excess of 800 lb) and decided to keep doing that for bout another 10-20 min. Lets just say that after that walking to the change room and getting to my next class was interesting.

You in university friend ? an adolescent pushing over 800lbs runs the risk of destroying his / her growth plates and doing serious harm to the hips, knees, ankles and lower back. Especially for the length of time you claimed to be doing it.

Grade 10, so 15-16 years old. That being said I haven't grown an inch since grade 9, capping in at 6'4" - 6'5".

 

[sam42ification]

So in my starting year of Highschool in about a month, every student needs to have one credit of physical education in order to pass to the new grade. There are only two classes to choose from, endurance building (Muscle building I guess) and Sports practice. I obviously picked the endurance training because I do not want to be with all the neanderthals and I have a very slender figure. (Does not help that i'm a nerd too.)

So I question the Escapist members about mandatory Physical Ed.: What's the point?

There is no point in having physical education. It's our life. Our build. I think we have enough power to decide what we want to do with our bodies, correct?

Can you help me understand this "Theory" of P.E.? I'm some what ignorant of these thing called rules in school.

Edit: I work out at my local gym. A lot.

PE isn't that bad or atleast in Australia it isn't that bad. The theory of PE is called PDH in Australia and it is taught as a seperate subject to PE. You learn about healthy diets and drugs and sex and all that stuff your parents don't want to tell you about. In PE we play sports and do all that physical stuff. I don't really know your feelins towards PE it's hard to tell but PE isn't that bad and it doesn't take up much time on the timetable. you do need PE. America is the fatest country in the world and PE will teach you how not to end up as a figure. Don't know what this credit thing is but in Australia you need PE to pass the year 10 certificate and then you can drop it and focus on what you want to study. Next year i will drop PE and it will just be a boring memory and i suspect you will do the same when the time comes.

If i haven't made it clear enough i agree with mandatory PE even though i didn't really like it.

i remember hearing that australia has the highest percentage of overweight people actually (coming from an australian).

I always thought we were 2 fatest country right after america but we could over taken them. Which makes me feel bad.

 

[theevilgenius60]

I wish i could have taken PE in high school. It looked so fun. I mean it was basically a whole period of just shooting hoops or playing touch football. Sadly I couldn't because I was always in the middle of a sports season and the coaches didn't allow us "extra" workouts like PE. Instead we had the last period of the day as weight training/conditioning in every sport I played.