Making the unfit kid who comes last run round the field again?

[Veuvelily]

Can anyone tell me the logic here.
What is the games teacher trying to achieve?

The child has tried his best and feels like he’s being punished unfairly
Plus he’s then used up all his energy, so is tired for the actual games lesson

Your description of your DS is exactly like my DS he's tall and broad going through a growth spurt and has a bottomless pit for a stomach this is normal for boys at their age. My DS also hates running but is into other sports.
Definitely have a stern word with the school and teacher in question. I would knock the teacher off that power trip straight away.

I wish I could give you a big hug @Veuvelily and your DS too! I wish that, as a society, we’d accept that we’re not all the same. Most rugby players fail the BMI parameters & as a growing lad at 5’9” your DS should not have any reason to restrict healthy food intake. When you have time, and are open to exploring what might be going on at a physiological level with DS, do research away from the standard western ‘healthy’ diet. The standard diet advice does not suit all and, it might be that his food is adversely affecting his behaviour. For example, wheat & derivatives, seed oil, sugar in all forms & even some fruit, cause some people to just not work effectively. When these are eliminated, not only does physical health improve, but crucially for your DS, brain function improves massively. He might not be on the spectrum, he might simply be eating the wrong foods for him. People who do this switch become leaner and brighter, it’s worth a try.
On another note, my DS has suffered several close bereavements and has been remarkably resilient, I recommend a couple of sessions of counselling to help understand the process. Best wishes.

MercyBooth good for you for sticking up for yourself I had a horrible time at school, in PE and many other subjects, so you have my sympathy.

That response from the school doesn't make any sense (at least to me).
They make them do another lap if they think they haven’t put enough effort in. Or if they’ve walked. The lap is 1km.
So if the school doesn't think that one student over another who has already completed 1Km, they make that student do a second kilometer, to put the effort in??
Surely by walking or jogging or running the 1KM slowly, it is down to the school to understand that the student is saying "This is what I can do. Like it or lump it but I'm not doing a second kilometer just to please you". Not every student is the next Mo Farrah.
The policy that the school has adopted is very very unfair. I was not a sporty student. I preferred drama. I would only do the 1KM and if your son said no to doing the second KM what would the teacher do? What could they do to him??

I'm so sorry to hear your other news.

Surely by walking or jogging or running the 1KM slowly, it is down to the school to understand that the student is saying "This is what I can do. Like it or lump it but I'm not doing a second kilometer just to please you". it could also be the child's way of saying "fuck you Mr teacher I could do better but I'm not going to cos I'm too lazy or too cool" its up to the teachers to decide if it is all the child can manage or if they are taking the piss (I'm not saying this is what OPs child is doing) if a child only wrote 2 sentences in an English lesson is that the child saying to the teacher this is all I can do or is that the child being lazy? Depends on the child obviously same as in PE.

it could also be the child's way of saying "fuck you Mr teacher I could do better but I'm not going to cos I'm too lazy or too cool" its up to the teachers to decide if it is all the child can manage or if they are taking the piss (I'm not saying this is what OPs child is doing) if a child only wrote 2 sentences in an English lesson is that the child saying to the teacher this is all I can do or is that the child being lazy? Depends on the child obviously same as in PE.

I strongly disagree. Nobody would be harmed from writing a longer English essay but the same is not true of forcing people to exercise. PE teachers are not medically qualified and do not necessarily even know the child very well so they are in no position to decide whether or not the child can manage more.

Haven't rtft but this is disgustingly cruel and nothing I would expect to see in modern schools.

@Belladonna12 you disagree that some children will perform less well than they are able to in PE just because they cant be bothered or think its cool to not be seen to be trying?

What is the point of school PE anyway?

It's not sufficient time for children to actually get fit if they're not doing exercise anyway nor do PE teachers usually have time to work with individual children to improve their skills and fitness.

The only purpose I can see for PE lessons is to teach children that exercise is important for a healthy lifestyle and to inspire an enthusiasm for different sports and other forms of exercise which a child can explore outside of PE class. Coercion and humiliation are therefore entirely counter-productive.

[quote Hellocatshome]@Belladonna12 you disagree that some children will perform less well than they are able to in PE just because they cant be bothered or think its cool to not be seen to be trying?[/quote]
Of course I don't disagree that some children will perform less well than they are able to. I just disagree that the PE teacher will always know which children they are. For example, some children won't be able to perform as well as the PE teacher thinks they should for medical reasons. The PE teacher will not always know, and forcing someone to exercise can risk injury. Not only is it bullying but it is also unsafe.

@Jellybabiesforbreakfast

What is the point of school PE anyway?

It's not sufficient time for children to actually get fit if they're not doing exercise anyway nor do PE teachers usually have time to work with individual children to improve their skills and fitness.

The only purpose I can see for PE lessons is to teach children that exercise is important for a healthy lifestyle and to inspire an enthusiasm for different sports and other forms of exercise which a child can explore outside of PE class. Coercion and humiliation are therefore entirely counter-productive.

Well, from my experience as a child, were it not for school PE lessons, I would never have;

Run for anything but a bus in the pissing rain. Turns out I was pretty good at 200m, too.
Learned to bounce a ball
Played Tennis with a modern racket and another human being on a concrete court, instead of a kitchen wall with a operating space of six foot by 4 foot (my volleying is particularly accurate)
Hit a shuttlecock over a net and had it returned to me, rather than bounced it on a 1940s solid wood tennis racket
Had a skipping rope (they gave them out free)
Had a skipping race
Missed every single rounders ball hurled in my general direction
Played Football
Played Netball
Played Korfball
Played Field Hockey, Indoor Hockey or Shinty
Learned to do a handstand/headstand/forward roll/backward roll/bridge/handspring/front splits/box splits/got my BAGA 4
Danced
Been on a boat
Walked a beam
Learned to swim
Used a gym
Come first in Discus and 3rd in Javelin
Known how to warm up and warm down to prevent injuries
Taken part in a three legged race, sack race and 4 x 200m relay
Tried aerobics
Learned how to hula hoop
Thrown anything without a limpwristed splat about 3 foot in front of me
Been to professional sports events
Travelled in a vehicle other than a bus outside 3 school trips, one in Year 2, one in Year 4 and one in Year 9.
Played basketball
Trampolining
Horse Riding, abseiling/rappelling/rock climbing (the PE teachers were the ones who agreed to go on the Outward Bound Trips and had access to the funding which paid for me personally)

and probably thousands other skills or experiences that they had to teach me, as my mother had absolutely zero interest in my doing anything that might cost money, needed her effort to get me somewhere or might end up with my being injured - partly because it turns out I have EDS, but mostly because I had enough non accidental injuries already, she didn't want me to pop up on Social Service's radar when she'd managed to drop off it when my brother reached 10 years old by not mentioning to anybody beyond the registrar and benefits people that I'd been born until I absolutely had to go to school. Oh, and it was during PE that my bruising was noticed.

Other than that, I can't really think of anything PE teachers have ever done for me or why PE still needs to be compulsory whether you enjoy it or not.

Other than that, I can't really think of anything PE teachers have ever done for me or why PE still needs to be compulsory whether you enjoy it or not.

The skills themselves aren't useful though. It is the fact that you enjoyed them and it encouraged you to be fit that was useful. If you hadn't enjoyed them and it didn't encourage you to keep fit and healthy what would be the point?

@Belladonna12

Other than that, I can't really think of anything PE teachers have ever done for me or why PE still needs to be compulsory whether you enjoy it or not.

The skills themselves aren't useful though. It is the fact that you enjoyed them and it encouraged you to be fit that was useful. If you hadn't enjoyed them and it didn't encourage you to keep fit and healthy what would be the point?

I didn't enjoy all of them, though. Some, because they were hard. Some because it involved exposing the bruises on my legs, ribs, arms or back. Some because I just don't fucking like them.

They still improved my balance, fitness, hand-eye coordination, proprioception, strength, aerobic capacity, observational skills, grip strength, shoulder strength and stabilisation of joints, gave me confidence that I could do things, despite being told at home 'you're useless, you're so clumsy you can't even duck out of the way of my fists', made it possible to walk to secondary school without getting exhausted, meant I could run away from anyone creepy hanging around for schoolgirls on their way home after dark in winter, not drowned on a day trip to the seaside, climbed a ladder, etc, etc.

I didn't have to like a second of it. It all still helped me.

They may have helped you @neverdropyourmooncup but school PE makes half of children unutterably miserable, damages their confidence and in two cases I know of, has lead directly to serious self harm.

I do wish they would offer non-competitive, non-team forms of exercise. It would make school more bearable for a lot of children. But more difficult to organise I suppose.

Someone has to come last. So someone will be humiliated every time. Chances are that it will be the same kids every time.

When I was at school, it would have been me. I had a lot of illness as a kid but I wasn't "unfit" in the sense of overweight or not getting any exercise. (The very long walk to and from school made sure of that!) I was just crap at PE. I was horribly aware that I was rubbish and so were other kids, who ridiculed me. I was crap at maths too but that wasn't a public activity, and children don't seem to regard uselessness at maths to be evidence that you are pathetic. They might even sympathise.

It feels bad enough to come last. To be further humiliated is downright cruel.

People used to be humiliated by being bad at maths I’m school. Attitudes change and there really isn’t the same vibe around struggling academically. Children go to or receive learning support and know if they are set 1,2 or 3. They have scribes and readers and TA support plus many have tech or other specialist equipment. It’s all about if the environment is supporting or shaming. Intrinsically a more rigorous run and extra exercise for the struggling child should help them, if people are shouting “run fat boy run” not so much. OPs ideas about the activities they would like to do don’t address her child difficulties at all.

OPs ideas about the activities they would like to do don’t address her child difficulties at all

What ideas?

Theatre/escape room..

Sorry it wouldn’t highlight your posts earlier, so you said
Activities we would normally do have all been closed. Cinema, theatre etc. I book actives with him, like axe throwing! Escape rooms

Making him walk round again would be fairer than running. That's cruel.

That’s the type of activities we’d normally do. I was just saying they’d been closed in lockdown, not suggesting that they would make him fitter!

@Fatredwitch

Someone has to come last. So someone will be humiliated every time. Chances are that it will be the same kids every time.

When I was at school, it would have been me. I had a lot of illness as a kid but I wasn't "unfit" in the sense of overweight or not getting any exercise. (The very long walk to and from school made sure of that!) I was just crap at PE. I was horribly aware that I was rubbish and so were other kids, who ridiculed me. I was crap at maths too but that wasn't a public activity, and children don't seem to regard uselessness at maths to be evidence that you are pathetic. They might even sympathise.

It feels bad enough to come last. To be further humiliated is downright cruel.

Last isn't necessarily humilating in itself.

Being last at parkrun having a chat with the tail waller, and getting praised for the effort. Not humiliating. There's an organisation that recognised the wider benefits of sporting particiation and celebrates the average finishing time getting slower as proof that a broader range of people are participating and benefiting and sees that as success.

Being the last one left on a school field while the PE teacher or classmates belittle you (teacher ignoring the wheezing and pained expression from shin splints and stitches "come on, you're not even trying" , classmates "lapped you! Lapped you twice! Lapped you three times!" Is humiliating.

Likewise being shit at team games is one thing, but never getting a properly inflated ball to practice with was never going to help (shocker, I can actually bounce a ball a bit if it's inflated!) And the routine of letting the school team players be captain and pick teams and every time seeing the look of horror as the numbers dwindled and the captain realising that she's going to get lumped with Bogroll by force of numbers. Then always getting the crappiest position, preferably substitute, or something inglorious like Wing Defence.

Being shit, I can handle, but the routine humiliation was down to the PE teachers to handle and in that kind of culture, there was no opportinity to make any progress.

My experience of PE on supply was that the general experience has improved, but clearly that's not universal.

@Veuvelily Yes I understood that but none of them help him get fitter. If you want to help him not be the least able runner in his class you need to do activities that require him to run, or at least raise his heart rate. Swimming will help if he does lengths rather than bobs about.

You mean like the exercise bike and the punching bag?