DS Last one picked in PE

[GoldenLightNights]

AIBU to contact the teacher with regards to this:

DS is 9, he’s a wonderful child, great at all things science and maths related but not so much at sports. He plays football outside of school for one of the lower ability teams and sort of enjoys it, he isn’t forced to play or anything like that.

Anyway today at school he had PE, we’ve never had any issues before but today for some reason the teacher let two boys pick teams and my son was the last to be picked. He is quite upset especially as one of the boys doing the picking is a close friend.
Anyway I find the idea of letting other children pick teams horrendous and if not my son some child will be picked last. I actually thought this method of choosing teams was done away with years ago!
I want to contact the teacher to ask if he would consider adopting a new approach to team selection. My husband says I’m jumping the gun and to wait to see if it happens again…… so what do you think?
He was properly upset this evening 😢

Awh it’s not nice when this happens

But think if your son who is good at maths etc and had to pick people to be in his team , he would pick the people who are good at maths wouldn’t he

Such a big deal is made about this when it comes to PE but not other subjects

YANBU ridiculous that this is going on. It's the same for maths or PE. Mention it if it happens again

Honestly if this is a one off, I'd let it go. Obviously if it continues id raise it then but I wouldn't be racing in for one incident.

I see both sides here having two first pick sons and one last pick. I find that they all know where they are in the pecking order without being told. My youngest knows he's no good at sport and we laugh about it with him while at the same time praise him for stuff he is good at.
It's important a) to raise resilient kids and b) for kids to be aware of their weaknesses as well as their strengths. I find it takes all the powers away from bullies when the 'victim' is able to laugh at themselves.

That's great that you had that part of school that you excelled at, many don't have anything that they excel at during school. At primary school level it tends to be that the children who are good at sports and other things involving gross motor skills also tend to excel academically. So often it's the same kids being top of everything because many just aren't developmentally ready. Just a bad way to put kids off sport throughout the rest of their education

OP started this thread a year ago so I'm sure it's sorted now.

You can't excel at every activity and your DS seems to have the gift of being academic.
Someone has to be picked last which ever way the teams are decided.
He might not like it but learning to deal with these emotions will help him in later life when similar situations occur.
If he improves his game, and becomes better skilled at football he will be picked sooner.
Every dog has it's day, at the moment his is not in football.
I'd be hesitatant to go in and complain.
I was usually picked last in football but I excelled in other areas of sport and other subjects.

Someone has to be picked last which ever way the teams are decided.

But this isn't true at all, there are lots of ways to sort out teams that don't involve children being picked in an obvious way, one-by-one. The trick is to make it less of an individual thing. So for example, the PE teacher could plan ahead and then at the start of the lesson simply announce who is on which team.