AIBU to think that PE is a complete waste of time for non sporty children

[onceamai]

Why is there an obsession with PE/Sport in schools. Great if children are sporty but why does it have to be compulsory. There are so many other ways to get exercise and throwing/catching balls is not the be all and end all. I hated it and it (together with a vile PE teacher who told me I was uselesss) made my school days a complete misery. Why does exercise have to involve netball, hockey, gym, grubby showers, etc., when it can involve dance, aerobics, walking, fresh air, etc.. I detested the humiliation of it all and can see no reason why it should be compulsory. I was also slim and fit and at fifty remain so (ish) without ever having participated in sports. Some of the gung ho girls I went to school with are now the fattest and unfittest you can imagine. It also seems to be taught by the roughest, nastiest, most bullyish types one can come across and I can't see what the benefits are for girls who are non sporty, don't like being teased and bullied, are feminine and don't like getting dirty.

But surely PE these days does involve things like dance? Or are you talking about some particularly old-fashioned private school? What you describe may have been the norm 20 years ago, but it's certainly nothing like the experience my dcs have had.

when i rule the world i won't let parenting by proxy through schools be allowed. if your child needs excersize other than what they get in break times at school - then its bloody well your job as a parent to look into their diet and make sure they get it.

PE is a waste of bloody space and should be optional

Without P.E there would be no cross country running. No cross country running means no ability to leg it to local shops for a sneeky ciggie! On these grounds YABU!!

and are PE teachers a special breed? do they go to the same finishing school as doctors receptionists?

No Cory, I thought things had changed but have been sadly disappointed. Same old Netball, same old gym, same old bullying and and same old nasty gym teachers.

Not in our schools. Very little bullying, dance is on the curriculum as are various types of gymnastics and plenty of exercise equipment in the gym. And PE teacher seems very pleasant: even dd who has an invisible chronic condition is reassured that she will get the support to pass the compulsory element of her GCSE (mainly theory it seems).

Wish we could swap Cory. DD is going through what I went through in the 70's. I think it only takes one horror in the PE department to drag it back.

We did mountain biking and canoing at our school

Some years my PE classes were a misery, because I was one of the unsporty contingent. Nothing dainty about me, I looked like a sporty girl - but wasn't: tall and lean, but clumsy and unco-ordinated and useless with a ball. It never occurred to our gym teacher to actually teach the rules of netball, you just had to play it. One holiday my brother taught me to keep my eye on the ball when playing rounders, and within weeks of term starting again I went from always being one of the last picked to being one of the middle picked when divvying up for teams. Suddenly, I could catch a ball. A simple thing, but the teacher never taught it.

OTOH without PE lessons I would never have played hockey and badminton, both of which I enjoyed without being any good at them (probably because they were taught from scratch). I would never have tried squash, tennis, running, country dancing, gymnastics, and other activities. Some I hated, some I enjoyed.

So YABU. (And I am one who, on the whole, disliked PE!)

YABU because it is the only exercise that some people get. But it should be more inclusive and have wider choice. At our junior school, decades ago, country dancing was one of the PE activities, as were rounders, running, netball, football, throwing beanbags, swimming lessons, gymnastics (we did BAGA awards) and general PT - old-fashioned baby circuit training stuff, climbing the school bars, the ropes, doing forward rolls, running around the hall, stuff that pretty much any able-bodied person could do.
We were lucky that we didn't have any monster PE teachers perhaps.

But still YABU.

sport was the only thing i was good at so yabu

I'm glad you were good at something Ben 5 but why is it that English/Maths/French/Science teachers, etc., can't say children are useless but PE/Sports teachers are still allowed to. Doesn't seem fair to me. Also children would be told off for telling non academic children they are thick but the sporty lot telling the non sporty lot doesn't seem to be equally unacceptable.

One shit school does not a whole system make.

PE is vastly different in both my kid's schools than it was in mine and I speak as the Mum of a child who is not sporty at all.

They're put in groups of ability and really encouraged to give their all to each sport even if they don't particularly like a certain one...they always find one they do.

Yeah, PE teachers are the only ones that are allowed to openly write off 75% of the year group and then groom the other 25% for greatness.

I think PE should be mandatory to 16 but it's the attitude of the teachers that needs the adjustment.

No, it's just sad that dd's 30+ years on appears to be a carbon copy of mine which is a recipe for misery. The silver lining though is that I do at least have it in writing that the PE teacher's behaviour has been unacceptable and has been dealt with formally by her line manager. Doesn't make it right though.

you can't see the benefit of sport for feminine dainty girls who don't like to get dirty? I think its you stuck in the 70's.

OP- I see your point although am slightly at your implication that being feminine and sporty are mutually exclusive. Do you think you could be transferring this attitude to your daughter?

YANBU

School PE coloured my attitude to organised exercise for years. Just recently leapt a huge hurdle (metaphorically of course ) when I started going to an aquarobics class. Had thought for years that I "couldn't do" that kind of thing. Bonkers.

I think if alternatives are not offered, then they should be given credit for.

If, say, a child goes to dance, yoga, swimming, climbing, hiking, kayaking, etc. this should be accorded credit.

Or there should be free play, although I know this is not the case with lack of open places to play.

I have one child who loves nothing more than organised sport or running about play, and another who will sit to read a book through it, but is a budding ballerina.

I myself never went for organised sport, but I danced ballet from the age of 3, and, after an injury at 17, moved to become a runner and later, a relatively good rock climber, hiker, mountain climber and yoga practioner, far fitter than most.

There needs be more flexibility.

hmmmm - expat - which is you budding ballerina - DS2 loves his dance (not managed to find an affordable and accessible dance class for him yet though ) - but they do dance at school once a week and he loves it

DD2, age 5 :)

my brother used to bunk off school during cross country............though it didn't quite translate into adult hood - he does lots of running now

ahh - does she like the older man they could trip the light fantastic together