Your opinion on Gym Class

[Norman Bates]

The goals of gym, fostering social skills, encouraging teamwork,promoting physical fitness, are all well in good. My school was just pure shit at actually teaching any of it.

We ended up standing around for 15 minutes waiting for the teacher to fucking show up, then pretend to do some physical activity for 30 minutes before being told to go inside and change clothes.

However, I am currently finishing up my 3rd year on the school's cross-country team and about to begin my 4th on the distance track team, and it has actually accomplished all of the proposed goals of PE on account of being staffed by actually competent people.

 

[Joccaren]

Its pointless.

They only deal in "Real" sports, and leave out all the fun ones that I would actually play.

I can understand leaving out games like paintball, considering in my state its illegal for anyone under 18 to play, but swimming isn't included, laser skirmishes aren't included, fencing isn't included, martial arts isn't included, dodgeball isn't included - nothing I would actually do is included.

Sure, Martial Arts, Fencing and Swimming might require specialized instructors, but we have teachers that can swim, and living in Australia its really not hard to find a swimming teacher if you want one. Yeah, you might have to pay to use the pool, or pay to rent the Laser Skirmish equipment, but you have to buy equipment for other sports too, and pay for transportation of the students to opposing schools, and really any teacher can supervise it, so you don't need a sport teacher or umpire there either.
And that is why I never go to P.E class. I don't need to. I do sports outside of school, sports that I enjoy and have fun with. That is how you get people to go to sports classes: Make them enjoyable. As is, half the school ditches on Wednesday afternoons, like now, to skip sport because its we have no incentive to go.

 

[Rule Britannia]

It's important, it's when you do stupid crap in gym class like dancethat makes it a waste of time.

 

[Kargathia]

Also the Beep Test, who else didn't despise them with a passion?

That, dancing, or squash, and I would be suddenly afflicted with a mysterious one-day fever, and be forced to stay at home.

On the whole it was rather boring, and I never understood why the reason behind gym was to get some physical excercise, but we were never given the option to show proof of us practising a sufficiently demanding sport in our own time.

In the end I mostly skipped gym, and maintained an acceptable condition through judo - which takes a lot more physical effort than whatever retarded group sport my PE teacher would think of that week.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Everyone knows about gym, in one way or another, so, I want to hear your opinion about it. To me, it's a waste of time I could be using to learn about the nature of the universe, human mind, mathematics, or how to dance.

You nailed it.

The only thing I learned in gym was that I suck at sports. Since I already knew that, I feel justified in saying I learned nothing. Considering I had gym class for about 10 years in a row, which works out (pun intended) to a staggering 1500 hours of "instruction," teaching me nothing in all that time has got to be some kind of bizarro achievement all by itself.

Want to talk about a waste of taxpayer dollars and valuable learning time!

In the end I mostly skipped gym, and maintained an acceptable condition through judo - which takes a lot more physical effort than whatever retarded group sport my PE teacher would think of that week.

Gym teachers aren't allowed to make you really work. They merely choose and present an activity. Whatever activity is chosen, it has to be something the fatties can do, too.

I was studying Shotokan at the time, myself.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I found it necessary and particularly fun. But then gain the people in my school who complained about it were either stereotypically fat and needed the exercise or stereotypically nerdy and couldnt be bothered so I wasnt surprised to see them being picked on (as bad as that sounds).

... plus we had three weeks of swimming. AndI had some attractive female classmates I will say.

 

[TheTim]

Gym was always my favorite class in elementary and high school. Play sports was my life so doing at school was awesome.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Gym Class, probably the biggest waste of my time, especially in high school. Normally if you were an athlete and were in a sport you wouldn't have to take PE and instead would do said sport. I for one was a dancer (not a sport, which meant I had to take PE), went to classes for a max of 5-8 maybe even more hrs in one week. Learned about things like muscle memory, isolation, and gained more stamina than the average freshman, even took those skills learned and saw my progress through my winnings at competitions. PE, I learned NOTHING I gained NOTHING, so yah not a fan of gym class.

 

[trooper6]

I think gym class is incredibly important. Go back to the ancient Greeks and they felt it important to educate the mind and body both. Having people having physical fitness is important for students but also for society as a whole.

That said, some schools don't do gym well. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't have gym, that just means we should do gym better.

 

[Raggedstar]

I used to like gym. I was never an instigator, always a team player, never lazy, loved to play sports or other activities, but it turned into something you could fail despite putting all your physical effort into and still fail. Once the class stopped being about having fun and getting active, it became one of the worst experiences I've ever had in school.

For one thing, I got sick frequently, being someone prone to high stress and having a crappy respiratory system (asthmatic). Logic states "If you get sick, then stay home", but the schools make this soooooo impossible. It's a cold. You don't need to go to the doctor for a simple head cold, especially if you're like my family and you have nurses and vet techs everywhere. Also, it costs 20 bucks for them to write a note to confirm "Yes, this kid has a runny nose and is coughing up goo. Best to keep them away from others". Same goes for a stomach flu. So to avoid jumping through hoops for the damn school and to not fall behind, simple head colds I fight through (especially during tests, since even a note will give you a fail). But for me, physical exercise during colds is a no-no. I get dizzy, can't breathe or think, and I can't exert all my effort. Gym teachers, even towards people with good behaviour, have the logic of "If you're well enough to go to school, you're well enough to run 20 laps without stopping". Once I told her I had a test I couldn't miss and wouldn't be able to skip, still had to do the laps.

And then there is a mandatory fitness test all students had to do. It required and it is possible to fail it (and it goes on your grade. Ripped mine a new one). Even when in good health, I just can't do it. And I've done it several times with only minor improvements...and I've NEVER passed it. It requires running back and forth faster and faster. If you don't make it in time, you fail and are knocked out. Every time I've done it I would get so close to passing that I push the extra effort to get it. But then I hit a wall and my legs collapse, breathing becomes laboured, body tremors, and I start coughing blood. Pretty much all the teacher would do is tell me to get up and alert me that I failed the test (and if I don't get up, yell at me and/or drag my corpse out of the way). I get no clear to avoid the test as a potential physical/mental health hazard, and it happened for years after that with the same results. It depresses me.

EDIT:

Also the Beep Test, who else didn't despise them with a passion?

Ah yes, that's what the fucking thing was called. That's what caused me to cough blood repeatedly.

Keep in mind that I'm not fat. Never have been. I walk and bike to close places I need to be, including to and from school (which was about a 20 minute walk per trip, pending weather and energy). Even today I bike to work and back about 2 km on hilly roads (pending weather, then I take the bus or get a ride). And because of gym even so it robbed a lot of confidence in my physical abilities. I work 6 days a week, biking that distance most days, and I STILL don't think I can get a passing grade on it.

So ya, my gym class rant. I don't oppose gym class, but there are problems that should be addressed. Not everyone is at the same level (obviously, seeing as that's the point of gym class: to get people moving and enjoy physical activity)

 

[rayman56]

I'm an athletic kid, so PE class isn't all that bad. Sure the teachers are really dumb most of the time, and don't have a freakin clue what the fuck they're doing, but they grade fairly, and the only time I get a bad grade in that class would be because someone was being real physical and I got physical back, and they manage to only catch me playing when some kid punched me not even a minute before. Other than that, I'm quite fond of PE. Physical Fitness test aren't too bad, I'm good at all sports they make us play, and I get to look at girls who decided to wear a light shirt and then got really sweaty.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

I liked gym class, physical exertion is a great way to let off steam, and being active helps maintain a healthy cardiovascular system, and with poor bloodflow, or high blood pressure, your brain doesn't function as well, and you are more at risk of... y'know, dying.

 

[Risingblade]

I think it's a necessary, you already have kids siting down 7 hours a day in class which is not very healthy hence why they need gym.

 

[likalaruku]

Is it true that a lot of school have done away with gym to cut down on costs, & overprotective parents whining about injuries, & because everyone has to be a winner now?

 

[deathzero021]

i hated gym class and most of the "activities" were hardly athletic at all. their was actually a choice for "walking" or "yoga" and "biking" which i took. we spent 30 mins every day setting up the bikes and doing safety procedures and than 15 mins riding slowly in a single file line around the school and than another 15 mins putting the bikes back. Easy A. lame as hell.

my favorite gym class was "swimming" though it took forever to get into the pool in each class and had to stop early to change and what not but still it was fun.

i had to take a stupid "teamwork" gym class before, i stopped showing up after the 2nd class. i took the F like a pro. the class was totally pointless. it was basically stupid kindergarten-type activities.

 

[JaceArveduin]

My gym class was this: Every couple of weeks, we got to play a new sport. Repeat until the end of the year.

That's basically what my gym classes where.

You know, it's funny how fast the football player's start to like you when they realize you can pretty well punt a football exactly where you want it.

 

[this account is gay]

I have a defect in my ankles that makes any kind of running painful. The only sport/exercise that I could stand was swimming. None of the schools that I went to had a pool. So, I despised PE with a passion. Especially since all of the teachers for that were all for "SPORTSPORTSPORTSPORTSPORTS"

However, now that I'm in online school due to a completely different reason, I still have a PE class. I don't even understand how it works with an online school. Since I live in west Washington, the times I can actually go swimming are 3 months in the summer, which has no school. With that, I am mostly unable to exercise properly. (Not that I need it, I keep a healthy weight with no exercise on my part.)

 

[MetalMagpie]

It's generally called PE (Physical Education) in the UK. I personally hated it at school, because it felt like a weekly dose of ritual humiliation. But I recognise it was important because I wasn't really getting any other exercise (up to the age of about 16, anyway).

I just wish it hadn't been graded. Getting consistent D's and E's was fairly demoralising.