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.

I used to love PE in the last few years of school. By then the teachers had given up on us and me and my friend would take our 10 number 1 and put all the cones out, go and sit at the furthest one, smoke, chat, sunbathe, then collect all the cones up at the end, twas fab!

Up until then only really liked cross country. I couldnt run to save my life but used to have a slow amble with friends and chatting and smoking then cross the finish line with a limp

I loved school

Oddly, although i damn near refused to paticipate in PE, i was in the netball team the rounders team and the swim team after school, plus did fottie and karate and yet more swimming seperatly from school! weird was like a mental block with 'PE'???
[condfused]

I agree that PE should be compulsory, but I also agree that schools should be more creative about how it is taught. I went to one crap school, but one good thing they did manage to get right was their 'sport for life' programme whereby in year 11 all students could sign up for different PE activities that they could continue on into adult hood. Many chose to go to the local gym. I had ice skating lessons and also chose swimming as an option (was never offered it in secondary school). Some chose to stick with regular sports like tennis, badminton etc. Others did things like aerobic classes and the like.

I ended up keeping up the ice skating for many years afterwards, and now enjoying taking my DDs around the rink. I found that this programme allowed us non-sporty types to find a physical activity that we enjoyed and could continue into our adult lives. I think there should be more programmes like this.

YABU

I could say that about many school subjects. How many people think they're shit at maths? So should we not bother? Some people don't like reading. So should we scrap english lit?

I was crap at team sports but ok at trampoline, swimming and athletics. So PE was ok.

Maybe it's the manner of the lessons - changing in front of your peers, being made to pick teams and your ability being so obviously shown off in front of others - is the issue, particularly when it's a hard time being a hormonal teenager.

PE lessons are already being cut back as it is - look how we're turning into a nation of fatties. Great.

YABU
PE is important.

Some parents do not have the money to fund after school activities like sport or dance and PE is the only opportunity these kids get to try things.

It gives some who are not academic the chance to shine at something they are good at and builds confidence.

It allows kids to let off some steam after being cooped up in the classroom.

I get so annoyed that PE is always the lesson teachers are willing to skip in favour or some other school event. This might be the only excersise some kids get!!!!

YABU. Some children would never do sport if it weren't for PE at school, which is only a good thing with the increasing problem of obesity in children. It gives them a chance to try a number of sports, even if they don't like them all. Not everyone can stay slim without exercise (and not all slim looking people are necessarily healthy). Also if it were not for PE at school, I would be unable to swim, and many successful junior sportspeople start off in school, where they are advised to go onto a specialist club if they are talented.

YAB particulary U re your comments on walking, aerobics and dance. These are not sports. I spent a year in secondary school with a PE teacher who had a similar mindset to you and in the end refused to do any more aerobics because it wasn't active enough. I actually told them that. I was allowed to do cross country running with the boys instead. Ballroom dancing we did do leading up to Christmas and it was universally hated. The following year we started a PE programme of doing 6 weeks of a variety of different sports, and it was a wonderful experience to try things like fencing, squash, badminton, etc.

YANBU. Was saying exactly this to DH the other night as i revealed my intent to sign my dd off a lot of the pish - cross country running, and stuff that can be guaranteed to make you feel rubbish if you can't do it and put you off exercise for a long time/life. No fun. But do do lots of exercise as a family as I have grown up, escaped the clutches of the evil PE teachers and realised that some "sporty" things can actually be enjoyable

Well, DS who is massively into sport and massively competitive HATES PE at his primary school because it is not challenging enough. I am hoping that he will enjoy the specialist teaching and school teams when he goes to secondary.
FWIW, I was pretty crap at sports and pretty fat, but I generally enjoyed PE and couldn't understand why some girls pretended to have a period every week.

YANBU. I'm with you OP

PE is a waste of time. I have never been sporty but have always been very physically active and slim.

Compulsory PE has not prevented children from getting fat, there are other reasons for that (going everywhere by car, eating junk food, no fruit and veg etc)

The precious time wasted forcing and humiliating me into 'games' could have been better used studying a foreign language. My French is atrocious.

I am married to a PE teacher and he disagrees with me!

Yabu - more sports taught well IMO. Great way to take risks, work as a team, build confidence. Did you see Jamies Dream School? They were transformed after climbing that hill, and swimming too. Vital I would say.

YABU.

Given the number of obese children out there, I'd say there wasnt enough PE. Its the only time some of these poor kids get pushed physically during childhood.

I disagree OP.

At the school I work in, so many (especially girls), don't want to do the traditional sports, so the HT has introduced dance, skipping, curling, aerobics, hip-hop dancing etc as lunch-time clubs. This has backfired somewhat as it still tends to be the girls who are sporty who do these new types of sport as well as the existing traditional games.

Apart from doing 2 compulsory PE lessons a week, the students don't even have to go outside at break or lunch and a great number of them (both boys and girls) just sit around the Library or the IT suite, even in glorious weather like this, getting no exercise at all.

In contrast, my DS's school has compulsory PE every day, (traditional sports like hockey, rugby, tennis, cricket and football for boys; netball, tennis, hockey and rounders for the girls), along with after school sports clubs which are very well attended. Unless it is pouring with rain, all children must go outside at break and lunch-time.

The behaviour of a number of students at the school I work in is terrible.

There are very few behaviour problems at DS's school.

Maybe one has nothing to do with the other, but I believe PE is an important part of the curriculum.

YANBU. School PE is ghastly if you are not sporty. It's all about humiliation and not about getting fit.

I agree with Iggly and YABU - I too hate sport at school and was rubbish. I now run a local mums running group? Why? Because I married a very sport man who is a coach and I have seen what good sports teaching looks like. As many others have said - nothing to do with PE per se, it's all to do with teaching and creativity. I felt I really missed out because I wasn't sportier or fitter and have done a lot to try and make up for it later in life. But there's tons more on offer now that if it had been there then and PE teachers had been less focussed on trophies and more on getting children activity, it would have benefitted us all. Old style PE yes, get it out. But PE that is truly focussed on health, wellbeing and fun, yes!

The PE teacher is at fault - nothing to do with PE as a subject - and a lot of kids it's the only chance they have to exercise and try different sports. It is also often a well earned 'break' from academia (when not being taken as a separate subject) and has been proven to relieve stress
you should not pass your own negative thoughts on to others and let children have an open mind as to different forms of exercise