Did you have to shower after PE?

[Quanon]

Question due to a conversation about when this became unacceptable. Was it ever OK? Really? I didn’t ever experience it but DH did, with a teacher enforcing that everyone showered properly. It’s surely not expected now in secondary schools for safeguarding reasons? Our kids certainly don’t.

Were you required to shower after PE at school?

If you could give me an idea of when (decade) and yes or no, it will help our discussion. I wonder if it was more boys than girl?

For us
90s, female, no
90s, male, yes after rugby (teacher watching)

1990’s we were made to shower by the PE teacher, she was in the changing rooms checking. I never got the reason why no one would want one after cross country in the mud but there was a lot of avoidance. Didn’t massively bother me to be honest.

I remember an obsession with foot washing back in the 70s. At my infants school we had a special foot bath room for after PE (which just seemed to involve running circles around the school hall in bare feet). I can remember the teacher helping us because nobody could manage to put socks on damp feet.

And the local municipal swimming baths had a long foot dip you had to walk through between the changing rooms and the pool. It was always a bit revolting. Like a sheep dip.

Oh man, I remember the foot pool at the swimming pool as a kid. I hated it, it was always dirty.

The swimming pool foot dip! I'd forgotten about those. I wonder if it contained anything special.

Early 90s female, no showers for us. There was a rumour you'd be made to shower after the cross country module but it never happened.

The infant school foot washing memory has in turn sparked another - we used to sing Jesus Hands are Kind Hands all the time in those days. The line ‘Washing tired feet’ gave confused 5 year old me mental images of Jesus washing his feet in the foot bath after running around the hall and freezing to make a shape when the music stopped.

00s, no. The (big, open) showers were used as overspill for the changing rooms as there was never enough space. One boy in my class had a shower once and it became part of school legend.

Late 90s comprehensive. We had to queue for the showers fully starkers. We weren't allowed to cover ourselves with a towel at all. We had two pe teachers, who were both open lesbians. One would stand at the entrance to the showers to ensure we weren't trying to cover ourselves up with our hands. The other would stand at the exit to inspect that we were fully showered before she'd let us have our towel. We all found it very traumatic, and we went through this twice a week for 5 years.

It stopped at some point between the late 70s and early 90s at my school.

The communal showers were still in existance but not used in my time there. My mother describes having to line up naked and parade through the shower heads a couple of times while supervised by the teachers and the recording of periods.

As an exercise in removing mud, it was more than useless. The showers were aimed at roughly shoulder length down, and the legs only got dribbles down- no stopping to actively wash. Then a hoard of soggy teenagers dripping through to the pegs/ changing zone made all the mud on the floor from the hockey boots worse than if they hadn't bothered at all.

The showers did still work in my time because at about y9, a group of girls asked and brought cossies in and the showers were activated for them. There's a world of difference in it being an active choice and having discretion in how much body you're showing.

In my later years, the block was demolished and replaced with modern facilities and individual shower cubicles as it also became a community leisure centre.

We did still have to wear the hideous gym knickers though.

It’s beyond cruel and I don’t know how it was allowed to continue.

Could you imagine your teenage child coming home and telling you that they had been made to do that? I’d hit the fucking roof.

Told my dad similar and it was just shrugged off.

Female 80s and yes. In fact female teacher made us leave our towels on our pegs and walk to communal shower. We weren't allowed to take our towel in with us. Also kept a log of everyone's periods so we couldn't use it as an excuse not to shower!

90s F - we were meant to but there were no curtains in the showers or privacy which meant we were very reluctant to do so. I never remember having a proper shower. Would stand there wrapped in a towel and dunk head under for a few secs. They would moan that people's hair wasn't wet enough! PE teachers were generally evil and sadistic (IMO) and this kind of thing was a nightmare for a shy child like me going through puberty (exacerbated by changing body and embarrassment etc)

Out of interest, what is the situation for kids at secondary now, male and female? I have a child going in soon and as this was a point of anxiety for me am keen they don't have to experience the trauma of it? Do most secondaries provide private showering facilities with proper curtains and privacy? I do hope so!

I went to a girls school in the early 80’s and yes we were made to shower, a big open area all in together. The first year I was 12 and it was hell. After that I was boarding and it was better, the borders ( there were only 6 of us in my year, very small school) we got sent to our room showers which were shared between 4 girls so private after Pe as the other girls I shared with were in class the downside was by the time we had walked not run to our rooms and showered and walked back downstairs to the main school we were always late for the next class so would get into trouble. I just use to “freshen up” and then shower after school finished.

That was my school too I forgot that bit, some girls didn’t care but I did, so glad to become a boarder

Female late 90s/early 00s, absolutely were expected to shower after all PE/games. It wasn't overseen by teachers, but there was very strong social pressure - the older girls would tell you you were disgusting if you didn't shower. So very different to the norm, I think!

However, this was a very sporty boarding school, so many students would have daily showers there as normal, therefore doing it after games wasn't much different. And it was all individual cubicles with curtains, no communal shower grimness.

Late 80s/early 90s, secondary school, private. Female. Yes we did. No watching though.

Yes to showers after pe. Late 1980s.

it seems like some people on this thread don’t understand how awful it was because their experiences were positive.

im glad that not all experiences were terrible but so so many were.

the word humiliation seems to come up a lot. And that’s what it felt like. An exercise in humiliation and demonstration of the teachers power.

pre teen and teen girls are so body conscious and all different stages of puberty.

it’s like we were in the army or something being stripped of all our autonomy.

it wasn’t just having a shower after exercise.

I can see how an ok experience of this would not seem like a big deal. But at a rough comprehensive in the late 1980s it was awful.

Me 90-2000s female, no, our school didn't have enough showers. We also had to go to the next lesson in smelly kit and we weren't allowed to change until break time! So gross

Looking back on it now, the idea of having to undress completely at school, in front of other girls and teachers, would have been utterly horrific and unthinkable. As I've said, I've bathed or showered in private since I was about nine. I honestly think I would have flat out refused if my school had tried to force me to strip, I would have lashed out, I really would, I think.

Also, my mum was the type to come storming up to the school in my defence; she had previous for it in primary school. Having never been forced to shower at school herself, and having always been given privacy herself when growing up, I'm pretty sure she would have been appalled at the notion. Admittedly , this is all hypothetical, as the issue never arose, as like I said, we didn't take showers at my school when I was there.

"it seems like some people on this thread don’t understand how awful it was because their experiences were positive"

Do you mean positive because, like myself, they didn't have to take showers, or that they did, but weren't bothered because"it's just a body, we're all the same blah blah" crap? I agree, it's appalling. I think some people have real difficulty in comprehending that different people feel, um, differently about things. 🤷‍♀️

Early 90s, female. Row of about ten showers, teacher stood at either end to make sure you all showered properly. Couldn't leave until you had.

My experience was positive in that it was no different to showering at the gym now. It wasn't enforced but most did have a shower. No public stripping or being watched by teachers. It was just having a shower.

So many posts whether male or female,a lot of us suspected a sexual element going on regarding the pe teachers.we can't all have been wrong.

1981-1986
High School in West Midlands
Female
Forced to shower naked, all of us together, in one large communal shower, with teachers watching.
I was a late developer - hardly any boobs compared to everyone else, and it was utterly mortifying.

I actually can't believe it was allowed!

Well, either really!

yeah, either that they didnt have to shower or that they had a private shower with a curtain or door.