to think stripping naked to shower after PE at school was horrific? **title edited by MNHQ**

[Flowersinyourhair]

Recent conversations with my daughter about PE at school (she loves it, I hated it) have got me thinking about why I disliked it so much.

I was reminded of the hideous shower experience. After PE, the girls would be obliged to have a naked shower, all in together. We would then have to go to the teacher, totally starkers and dripping wet, and bit ticked off on a register to say we'd had a shower.

I can't to this day understand why it mattered so much. It's a safeguarding nightmare really and I'm so glad it doesn't work like that anymore.

AIBU to think it's no reason I hated PE and to ask whether my school was particularly weird??

Imagine all the chief constables complaining about the workload and lack staff if people reported this to the police now. The country would grind to a halt as the the schools were shut while it was investigated

I know a TAAT is not the done thing, but I honestly wonder, in the light of this thread, whether it would be worth asking current PE teachers to tell us about the current situation? and maybe that would bring some of the previous ones out of the woodwork too. There must be some 'older' PE teachers on mumsnet who could explain some of the thinking that went on - I would like to say back in the dark ages, but it's clear it wasnt all that long ago for many people.

We had this too, shocking really looking back. When my kids started at secondary school I was very relieved that this had stopped.

There's some truly horrifying tales on here - not least the period diary stuff, which as a bloke I had no idea even existed.

I went to a state comp from 1987-1992, and as an overweight, self-conscious and bullied kid, I absolutely hated both PE and the associated showering. Luckily I had quite an understanding PE teacher who knew my limitations and never sought to humiliate me. The showering situation seemed to vary over the years - sometimes we were virtually compelled to do it, whilst at others teachers never seemed overly bothered.

In addition to the body confidence thing, the other issues for boys back then (and perhaps even for girls sometimes, I guess) was the scorn and occasional threat of violence you got if you were deemed to have glanced the wrong way in the communal showers. Homophobia was rife in the 80s and 90s, and any suggestion of gayness, or even a perceived lack of masculinity was met with aggression.

My worst shower experience was non-PE related, though. When I was about 12, we went on a school trip to a YHA hostel in Derbyshire. One evening, I went for a shower downstairs wrapped in just a towel, On returning to the dorm, there was a large groups of both lads and girls outside it. As I tried to make my way past, one of the girls wrenched my towel away. I was left stark naked and faced with a barrage of catcalls and jeers about my fatness and the paltry size of my 'equipment'. I fled into the dorm, utterly shamed and humiliated.

Later on, I told a teacher what had happened. He was a great guy, and a big influence on me (I still admire him to this day) but he pretty much laughed it off and encouraged me to do the same. I tried to, but the memory still hurts nearly 30 years later, and I think it's one of the things that really kill my body confidence.

Revenge I just talked to DH about this thread. He went to an all boys school. He has no problem with communal showers. However he then remembered the lad in his year that got an erection in the shower. That resulted in a nickname that followed the boy through school and made the boy's life a misery.
I dread to think what that did to the poor lad. DH can only remember the nickname and not his real name :(

This has brought back horrible memories.
I was in secondary school from 80-85. We had communal showers in the changing rooms. We had three female PE teachers, two pretty much turned a blind eye and if we didn't want a shower then it was just a matter of running in with your towel around you, wet your feet and run back out but the third (I later found out from a male PE teacher, who I spoke to in a bar after leaving school, that she was a lesbian) would stand in the shower room, make us drop our towels and watch us shower. We just thought at the time, as naive teenagers, that she was more strict than the others but, with hindsight, it's quite unsettling to think of her watching so intently.

In my last year at school, aged 15/16, PE was timetabled for first thing on a Monday so every Sunday night I wrote a letter, forging my Mom's handwriting, to get me excused from the lesson. I hated it so much.

We also had to call out "period" when the register was called.

At my school they did swimming lessons in the nude. There was a picture in the school prospectus. Seriously.

I meant to say, they did swimming lessons in the nude until the year I joined the school. I was a bit nervous during that first week though!

We had showers at my school but other than for swimming we weren't supposed to use them.

I hated P.E. Communal showers could not have made me hate it any more than I did.

Sorry, I haven't read the entire fucking thread, but did anyone have to do gym in just their knickers at school? I must've been about 5, or thereabouts and because I'd forgotten my PE kit was forced to prance around the room in just my knickers. I was mortified and I was only about 5!

I'm sure it's scarred me for life as I'm now 40 odd and still remember the shame.

How very dare they?

It was huge blue gym knickers though, not delicate silky panties.

Shameful all round. I went to a secondary school for a year before changing to a very different school. The first one you had to shower and walk though the showers - then come out and get dressed. The PE teachers would then count to ten and we all had to be dressed by ten (I can't remember the consequence). As a tiny underdeveloped girl with no confidence and no sports aptitude I hated it, I looked about 7 when I started secondary.

We also had to do cross country running in gym pants and vest. I was so scrawny and small this chilled me to the bone. As I was the smallest person in the year (therefore whole school - how nice) I was always last at running etc anyway. Bloody awful.

We didn't have to shower in my second school, we had them but they weren't used.

I would I've to hear from PE teachers as to why they wanted to do this. Damaging in the extreme and has stopped generations from enjoying excercise or sport. We don't want smelly kids bu there has to be a better way.

To those who were fine and just got on with it - think about the kids at either end of the development spectrum - early and late developer abotb seem to have come out of this badly

I was at a girls secondary school from 1997-1997. PE kit was a pair of big blue knickers and polo shirt (netball skirt was allowed for netball). So sanitary pads were clearly visible, and if you forgot your kit you had to do it in your bra and knickers.

Showers were required, although some of the teachers would let you get away with splashing water on your shoulders. The showers were communal (no curtains). Other teachers insisted on watching you in the showers and kept track of periods, and would question you if you had a period two weeks in a row. God forbid you told the more masochistic teachers if you weren't feeling well - I remember one teacher chasing me round the field while I was struggling to breathe having an asthma attack (no inhalers allowed on the sports field).

Hardly necessary to add my voice to the many many above me but yes, early 80s onwards. I would have been 11+, long corridor of showers, leave towel at one end and pick it up after. Teacher stood at the end watching you come out and sent you back in if she felt you had run though too quickly. I bloody hated it. Horrid sadistic bastards those teachers were.

Long row of shower heads I mean, not shower blocks.

Pivoine yes lots of accounts on here of people doing PE in their knickers at primary. In my case it wasn't because I'd forgotten my kit, as there was no kit for girls. Boys were allowed to bring shorts. Top half was vests or bare, presumably depending on season.

However he then remembered the lad in his year that got an erection in the shower. That resulted in a nickname that followed the boy through school and made the boy's life a misery.

That's awful :(

I asked DP about this yesterday. He said he remembered the kids having showers, but doesn't remember any staff being around, or any hassle from them. Hes late thirties. And went to two secondary schools. So can only guess he didn't experience the same stuff we did.

I remember PE as an infant in vest and pants. I also remember the fire alarm going off and kids having to stand outside in their vest and pants and it was winter. :-(

We were talking about this last night. My mum (at grammar school in the 50s) remembers this and appeared quite scarred by it (has never ever mentioned it to me before-and we are very close-which says a lot). She was tiny and developed late-not much fun for everyone else to see.

DH (he's 40-went to a comp) and my dad (75-went to grammar in the 50s) couldn't remember if they'd had communal showers or not! They think they must have done but don't remember it being awful if so!

That's odd!

I've just asked DH about this, he was at a fairly posh all boys school in early 90s and they didn't have communal showers, nor were they forced to shower.

Yet my mixed, state school 8 miles down the road did do this.

Sorry, I haven't read the entire fucking thread, but did anyone have to do gym in just their knickers at school? I must've been about 5, or thereabouts and because I'd forgotten my PE kit was forced to prance around the room in just my knickers. I was mortified and I was only about 5!

At my primary school, this was what happened if you forgot your kit - ordinary knickers and vest, not special gym knickers. I'm sure that the teachers didn't think anything of it - we were tiny children! - but I remember very clearly perceiving it as a humiliating punishment for forgetting kit. I used to be very anxious about making sure I always had mine.

Funny that the same school also said that girls who wanted to do cartwheels in the playground had to wear shorts under their school skirts.

We had individual showers at my school, (88-93) and we were allowed to wear a towel to go in, but I remember we had one teacher who would run her hand down all the girls bodies (over the towel) to check if we were wearing underwear underneath still. I also remember being called over by her once as she had been watching me change and she hadn't seen me remove my underwear, and told I would have to change in her office as a result.
We also had gym knickers which we had to wear under our netball skirts, and I remember being lined up for gym knicker inspection, you had to raise your netball skirt to show the teacher that you were wearing them as per school uniform rules. I remember being stood next to a friend who confessed to the teacher when she got to her that she had forgotten them, teacher told her to show her anyway.
That teacher did leave the school after a year or two, there were lots of rumours of her being made to leave, and of girls parents having complained. I have no idea if that was actually the case though, and if she was made to leave I don't know if anything was done to prevent her from doing the same elsewhere.

Seems now that most all contributors on MN have been on this thread and most all of them have had bad experiences of this matter and thus far not one PE teacher has commented?

Seems also that most all professions have one or more MN'etters around so why no PE teachers?

Why?.

I left school in 81 and we didn't have showers at school thank goodness. However if we forgot our pe kit we had to do it in our knickers even as teenagers.