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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think frankly, PE is pointless and not as important as getting good grades in english/maths? And that avoiding it will not make you obese?!

96 replies

bananasinpjamas · 10/05/2011 15:10

I was a geek at school. I have only deliberately faked illness once and that was on sports day- it was humiliating and the team sports made no sense and were overwhelming for me- I was put with the 'YRs' in year 6 to 'Help' them as I couldn't do the activities properly (and was terrified of falling off the bloody balancing equipment, thanks shit depth perception).

I also avoided it when I went to Sixthform - said I was on a uni open day (Tutor found me out and found it hilarious as I frantically tried to blurt out a 'cover' story and told me she would keep it hush as she did exactly the same as a kid so wasn't one to talk!).

Avoiding PE does not equate to challenge avoidence or even avoidence of exercise. I bet there are people that have sneaked off something in life and still are very successful people.

For the record, I have severe dyspraxia, SPD and mild cp. I have done my DofE award, 200 hours volunteering award, will be doing race for life, raised over 1300 for charity and at the top uni for my subject. I am a very healthy weight for my height and hardly get ill.

PE really doesn't matter when you leave school. Its not essential like english and maths, and tbh a good parental influence on healthy eating/lifestyle choices is better than any PE lesson. No one, unless you are going to be an olympian, is going to use skipping PE against you as much as they might rely on your SATs results.

OP posts:

moominmad · 10/05/2011 16:58

I think its important for kids who are not encourage to excercise by their parents

5Foot5 · 10/05/2011 17:05

I disagree that it is "pointless" since obviously some people enjoy it and get a great deal out of it. However, I don't attach a great deal of importance to it and I agree that it is a long way down the list of priorities compared to the more academic subjects.

My DD appears to be pretty uninterested in PE at school and it doesn't worry me a jot and it certainly never occurs to me to go see her PE teacher on parents' evenings. The same is NOT true for her other subjects for which I am very keen for her to make progress. Despite her lack of enthusiasm for school sports she takes plenty of exercise in her own time and seems to be growing up fit and healthy (I am now the one left puffing along behind when we go hiking as she strides out in front with DH!)

lubberlich · 10/05/2011 17:18

It isn't PE that is the problem it is PE teachers.
I was a very active kid and loved sport of all kind - but the bitch PE teachers with their snide comments and bullying put me off it for life.
I had won a county medal but within months of starting secondary school I was off down the Wimpey during "orienteering" armed with a packet of ten Rothmans.

I envy the way blokes connect with team sports - and it all starts in school I think. I'd love to sod off on a Sunday and play footy with my mates.

Continuum · 10/05/2011 17:34

I think it's nice to have time to play stuff at school rather than just be sat at a desk!

AmazingBouncingFerret · 10/05/2011 17:45

I am the most unathletic person I know of. I'm not fat. I just dont get physical exercise unless i'm horizontal and it involves DH
However I loved PE at school. Badminton and Hockey were my favourites. The teachers werent overly cool they could be quite harsh at times but it was just something about the break from mental stimulation that was refreshing. The change of scenery, being able to joke about with your friends without fear of being given a detention.
It was even better when we started going to the local bowling alley for a double PE on Wednesday afternoons!

Petsville · 10/05/2011 18:34

YANBU. I'm a fit adult, but school PE was a total nightmare - all team games, no individual exercise at all, and I'm incredibly shortsighted and wasn't allowed to wear my glasses (I didn't get contact lenses till I went to university), so was spectacularly crap and no-one wanted me in their team. The scars are still on my psyche from my first year at secondary school. I did no PE every year after that: I just hid with a book.

SocialButterfly · 10/05/2011 18:46

I dont get it.... just beacuse you didnt like PE it is a waste of time? My DD is not academic at all but enjoys sports.

I hated maths at school and was useless at it, was in the bottom group and the teacher was always picking on me. However I wouldnt call for it to be banned.

MilaMae · 10/05/2011 18:58

Hmmm team games,I'd like to have seen a few more team games in some of the things I excelled at and a little less shouting when I didn't perform as well as the PE teacher wanted.

In no other subject do pupils have to put up with the abuse less than able PE pupils have to put up with.

OP yadnbu half of pe lessons don't even build up a sweat unlike the bike riding,hiking,swimming etc my dc do out of school.

No when my dd wants to bunk off PE lessons she'll get my top bunking tips(of which I have plenty) and my blessing.

skybluepearl · 10/05/2011 19:09

some parents don't expose thier kids to exercise though, they just stick them in front of the telly. for a healthy longer more mobile life excersice is essential. it's also great for stress relief and sleep problems. english and maths on the other hand won't help you live longer.

tallulah · 10/05/2011 19:20

I hated PE. I was another of those kids last picked for a team. To my eternal shame they always picked the fat smelly girl over me :(

I can't throw and I can't catch. I can't run particularly fast. But as a child I did ballet, tap, modern and National dancing, so I didn't need the ritual humiliation of team games on top.

maighdlin · 10/05/2011 19:23

for some people school PE really is a form of torture. I think I have some sort of exercise PTSD. I cannot bear it. Every time i try to exercise i get flashbacks of feeling completely humiliated in PE. It has not helped me in my life, PE probably made me more unhealthy, as i became so anti-exercise when i left school.

OTH my sister did this big PE survey and only 14 of the 180 or so respondents actually did the recommended amount of PE. It was noticed that schools in poorer areas did more than those in affluent areas. for some children it really is the only exercise they get.

lifeinthemidlands · 10/05/2011 19:27

Howevr uncompetitive it now is, sports day means you doing something you're no good at in public if you're not sporty. There would be an outcry if children had to do spelling or sums in front of an audience, or everyone had to sing on their own. Even if you're doing a team sport you're highly visible - it's probably the only thing I'll let my kids swing a sickie for if they want to.

Petsville · 10/05/2011 19:33

Exercise is great. School PE, on the other hand, is worse than useless (it took me years to get back into any form of exercise because after school PE lessons I was convinced it was all just a form of torture). And I agree that there's no other subject where you get ritual humiliation in quite the same way. Some people had bad maths or English teachers - absolutely everyone, on the other hand, knows what you mean when you say "PE teacher" and shudder.

nijinsky · 10/05/2011 19:47

PE also serves a useful function as good PE teachers will spot talent and point them in the right direction. Not every talented child has pushy parents to pave the way in sport for them. Mo Farah, Britain's European 5000m Champion and leading Olympic hope, has just said on Channel 4 News that he was spotted in PE at school and then givena advice to join a running club and to use his talent.

lljkk · 10/05/2011 19:57

IF you hate PE, it is pointless.

But how can you find if you hate if unless you try it, and PE can be done in so many ways, you have to try it quite a bit for quite a while to be sure you really hate it consistently. . Then there are different types of games you play in primary compared to secondary, so really it's not until you're 13/14 that you can confidently say that every type of PE is utterly pants. I was always lousy at PE, laughed at for poor ability (not dyspraxic, just slow, nervous (too nervous for team sports) and weak).... but having to do PE also made me stubborn to try to my best by the time I was a teen -- even if I was always last and weakest & least able to pass a ball, I learnt to test myself & be satisfied with my own improvement.

Where I went to school PE was optional from age 15 or 16, anyway, I didn't realise it was compulsory thru some 6th forms in England.

Also depends on the school & which sport it is... DS1 hates dance & at best only tolerates martial arts but loves X-country running. DD loves most sport except cricket which she loathes. I'm glad they get to experience so many different things at school, much easier than me taking them to lots of taster sessions.

CarolineGC · 10/05/2011 20:29

I hated PE and used to try my best to avoid it. I thought I HATED running and would NEVER take it up. Now I love it. But it literally took years of adult life to discover that I'm actually kind of athletic, at least enough to portage a canoe, hike up a big mountain, swim 3k, or find a love of running. PE totally ruined healthy living for me, for years. Kids shouldn't be forced into it and certainly shouldn't be made to play team sports that they (are widely thought to) totally suck at. It can do so much damage, not just to their physical health but to their social and emotional lives too.

toptramp · 10/05/2011 22:08

I HATED Pe at school BUT I am taking dd to gymnastics, swimming and anything else I can so she will excell at sport. One can be academic and good at sport too.

YABU.

toptramp · 10/05/2011 22:12

I don't think kids should be forced into it BUT they should be encouraged.

IMO the problem is competetive team games. We all remember the horror of team picking. Shudder. (I hope that this has now been outlawed.)

There should be an emphasis on competetion for those who excel but for everyone else, they should be encouraged just to shake their ass!

Francagoestohollywood · 10/05/2011 22:27

I have no idea what PE is like in the Uk, but I remember I used to like doing it, at least it was a break from having to sit down working hard for hrs on end. And I was a good student and not an incredibly agile child.
It was good to run around and practise different sports.

Also for many children it is the only access to sports they have, I suppose.

magicmelons · 10/05/2011 22:32

YABVU, i am married to a sportsman who was very dyslexic, he has excelled in his career because PE teachers in school pointed him in the right direction having spotted his talents. I'm sure he sat through many an English class that he hated.

The problem with sport in this country is that children aren't taught the basics from an early age.

JsOtherHalf · 10/05/2011 22:53

I loathed PE/Games at school. I was the last to be picked for any team,it turns out I have no depth perception and have double vision. The bullies had a field day. The very idea of competitive team sports reduces me to a tearful wreck.

However, I do take Ds to a couple of sports classes, as I want him to believe that exercise/sport is a normal way of life.

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