PE - did it promote a life long love of sport or was it ritual torture?

[LuckyMum96]

Just that really, for me it was mixed - too much PE was focussed on the school teams though and not enough on general exercise and activity

My PE Teacher made me do long distance running and cross country whilst waiting for Dr's appointment/diagnosis for a cough I had that started everytime I ran. I told her when I was diagnosed with Asthma but she said that wasn't good enough and to keep running...

Hated it. Was always last to be picked for any team. Didn't enjoy competitive sports.
We had to go out to do cross country running in winter, wearing little skirts and thin blouses. Girls were only allowed to play certain sports.
Was bullied in hockey. Was rubbish at netball.
Tripped getting off the coach to go to sports ground and was made to run around the racetrack with grit in my knees and blood running down my legs.
I haven't really grown to enjoy sports since.

Still a deafening silence from PE teachers. Strange that people can be their most eloquent by their silence and lack of action.

PE being voluntary s an excellent idea. As it is currently constituted it serves little or no purpose for a large number of pupils.

It should be compulsory but as actual physical education - cross-disciplinary with biology and even aspects such as food tech and engineering.
There should be a focus on basic movement and fitness and mind-body connection. Competitive games could be optional but all must be able to participate in movement with suitable options for disabilities and those with medical conditions or injuries.

Yoga, callisthenics and some aspects of martial arts training and dance. Also running in terms of how to run and pacing.

And swimming being compulsory providing the child is medically fit - no religious exceptions. There was ZERO swimming at secondary school despite being in close proximity to two swimming pools that did school swimming.

@JohnMcCainsDeathStare

Still a deafening silence from PE teachers. Strange that people can be their most eloquent by their silence and lack of action.

Why on earth should they come on here and get ripped apart for things that happened years ago?

Most if not all modern PE teachers are trained well and sympathetically. Let's not pretend all secondary students are pleasant to teach.

They streamed PE at both schools my dd attended during secondary (1 comp 1 private). This worked well in the absence of making it voluntary.

It should be compulsory but as actual physical education - cross-disciplinary with biology and even aspects such as food tech and engineering.
There should be a focus on basic movement and fitness and mind-body connection

This happens in Gcse PE and even more so at A level (very interesting subject surprisingly). For normal lessons too much of this would be time consuming and unnecessary. Sometimes kids just need to move around and play.

Torture and humiliation resulting in being socially rejected.

They streamed PE at both schools my dd attended during secondary (1 comp 1 private). This worked well in the absence of making it voluntary.

My DDs school do this. She dislikes pe and would avoid at all costs but I think being with others who arent super sporty probably makes it a bit more bearable! although I slightly feel sorry for the pe teacher if they are all as hard to motivate as her

In my DC infant school they started with an old school "pick the same kids for every team" pe teacher, and I was pretty at some of her comments. But the current one is great, seems much fairer and encouraging of all abilities.

Hated it. Torture. Put me off sport as recreation for life

PE at school was 'okay', it was the weekends I enjoyed where I played mini rugby for the local side. Very sporty now as an adult and probably have my dad to thank for getting be involved and being enthusiastic.

Still a deafening silence from PE teachers. Strange that people can be their most eloquent by their silence and lack of action.

What a stupid thing to say.

@DillonPanthersTexas

Still a deafening silence from PE teachers. Strange that people can be their most eloquent by their silence and lack of action.

What a stupid thing to say.

Of course it isn't a stupid thing to say. Many of us would like to hear from PE teachers about why their lessons are taught in such a shit way. Why it has remained so poor.

It is a bit stupid, unless Miss Morgan, who terrorised her PE class in 1978, happens to be here and feels happy to identify herself.

Yes I’d like to know what PE teachers have to say seeing as it’s out a lot of us off sport completely & made our school lives miserable.

I absolutely hated it. I dreaded it. It’s given me a loathing of all team events and competition generally.
I took up guitar lessons because they gave me an excuse not to go . I also think a lot of female PE teachers had a streak of Nazi in them, at my school anyway. When my daughter went to school I noticed the same thing. Fortunately she was good at sports, unlike me.

Like many of the rest of you I hated most PE at school. One bully of a teacher and many nasty kids enforcing popularity selection for teams etc. I have been astounded and delighted at completely different setup at my children’s school. Was already good but they did a survey of parents and kids and really listened. Key message from parents was importance of getting kids fit - out of breath every lesson. Kids wanted choice. So less sports minded kids either got non judgemental help they craved to improve or got to select things like rounders or dodge the ball or fun jog etc for fun and fitness. The department also made huge fuss about out of school physical activity achievements too - so kids getting awards for dancing, water sports ,climbing etc all commended.

@Janevaljane

Interesting that although PE has left most posters with awful memories, noone has agreed with me so far that making it voluntary at secondary is a good idea.

I think there should be Physical Education based on developing personal fitness not team sports. Yoga, Pilates, Aerobics etc. There could be an option for team sports although all pupils would have to give it a go, without pressure, shouting, bullying, to find out whether they like it or not.

Ritual torture for me i'm afraid.

It's "remained so poor" (in your experience) because it's compulsory. This means all the pupils who dislike PE have to do it. Obviously the dream is to motivate kids to exercise and be healthy. Unfortunately there are many ways of doing this, and it is a very personal thing. 45 minutes 2 x a week with a mixed class of 30 makes personalisation impossible. There are some who will see PE as a chance to piss about, whatever is on offer. Also, lack of funding. Some schools manage to offer a variety of sports - certainly dds old comp offered dance etc as well as team sports.

Couch to 5k would be good but often teens don't want to get that sweaty with no shower facilities.

I think there should be Physical Education based on developing personal fitness not team sports. Yoga, Pilates, Aerobics etc

Certainly at dds private school there is a difference between PE (Hitt, gymnastics etc) and Games (hockey football etc).

Yoga and pilates can be quite damaging if not done correctly- I'd imagine a few boys and girls would push themselves beyond what they are capable of.

Janevaljane

It is a bit stupid, unless Miss Morgan, who terrorised her PE class in 1978, happens to be here and feels happy to identify herself.

I think you're taking the comment a bit literally.
It's true that when there's a thread that's critical of certain jobs - eg teaching (PE or otherwise - there's often people on MN that do that job and, hence, are in a position to put their point of view.
I doubt any of them are the actual people mentioned in the anecdotes on the thread.

It would be interesting to hear from modern day PE teachers and I too think it's odd that none have posted.

Unless you're a PE teacher, Janevaljane?

@ZombieFan

Why is it that PE teachers second subject is always Geography? Why cant they teach Maths, English, Music, Science or Arts?

Is it just that PE teachers only like grass and the great outdoors?

One of ours also taught history, although he was not good at it. His lessons consisted of handouts that he'd cribbed from the textbooks which we also had access to.

I don't think PE should be made voluntary. I just think there should be less emphasis on competition and more on fitness and enjoyment. I don't see why it should be logistically more difficult to set up circuits, just to give an example, and let everyone do it at their own pace, than it is to get everyone into a hockey game. It seems like a lack of imagination rather than a problem of resources to me.

I am most definitely not a PE teacher

But as they are one of the most hated people on mumsnet I'm not surprised they don't rear their head.

Torture. I think it was the picking of teams and realising I was bottom of the teenage hierarchy by being neither popular, fanciable or good at sports. Why did we have to pick teams anyway?! Why couldn’t we have just been given numbers, much less humiliating!

I think as others have said that if PE focussed more on how to incorporate exercise into an adult life, particularly in the latter years of school it would have been more helpful. I have no love for sports but enjoy a HIIT or dance class and would have happily participated in that at school.