School PE lessons, children made to pick teams, disgusting or what

[DistingusedSocialCommentator]

I've just read a thread by an FM here asking if "schools were getting children to choose teams" and FM felt it was "old-fashioned"

Schools bang on about inclusion/fairness/caring/MH well-being, etc etc

FFS (sorry about my language) how the F does a child feel when they are the group of children who are almost the last ones to be picked???

What ruddy clowns at schools still allow this disgusting and ignorant method of choosing teams?? Are you not ruddy aware that this method of choosing teams can and does affect children's MH and can scar them for like

Any teachers here care to comment, or justify this ludicrously pathetic and ancient method of hosing teams??

does it go in your child's school or one you work in? If so, have you pulled up the culprits?

AIBU to believe this method of choosing teams is outdated and harmful to many of our DC?

Tomorrow, I will get on to the papers/radio and tv stations to outlaw this crass method of choosing teams in PE and other settings in schools.

Ime, including teaching, there things outweigh being good at something in picking order. It is all about relationships really. .

I apologise and have have noted someone else, another FM answered it
My fault as I should have explained what I meant as it is used on some forums.

Sorry about that. as I was seriously wound up by a couple of FM's here.

I think children should sometimes get to choose who they work with (in all areas of learning). It's the same as being given the freedom to choose who you sit next to at lunch time, who to partner up with on the coach journey on a school trip, who you play with at break time, etc.
1,2,1,2 isn't real life, but I can see how it reduces anxiety for some.
Working with someone you get on with definitely increases productivity and it can also improve group behaviour.
So, I think both methods have their place.
However, I don't agree with the old fashioned lining up and captains picking their teams until no one is left. Just like children who forget their PE kits aren't paraded around in their vests and knickers like we used to be! 🤦‍♀️

Hurrah for common sense 👏👏👏

OP no teacher of any calibre considers this acceptable practice. It is lazy, slovenly, indefensible behaviour and there isn't a teacher trained in the last couple of decades at least who doesn't know that (of course there are a few who do it anyway, but you get arseholes in every profession). YANBU. Ignore the weird MN contrarians who insist it strengthened their characters...it clearly didn't.

I was a very quiet child, low self esteem and bullied, I was never picked. It reinforced my worthlessness. It didn't build resilience or help in any way.

I left Primary school in 1984 and can remember being picked for teams. It's was pretty grim really. I was average at sports and very active out of school , dancing etc but i was slightly chubby between the ages of 7 and 10 (puppy fat) so probably not seen as sporty. The teacher would pick the team leaders who would choose. If my bf was a leader i would get picked first but often I would be second to last to be picked. It's unpleasant at the time but I've only thought about it now due to this this so it hasn't exactly scarred me. Having said that, its far kinder to use a numbering system and I think that's mostly done today.

Agreed. I was always one of the last, but as I was top in several academic subjects I could cope with it fairly well. However, I am extremely mentally tough- and I saw what it did to others.

It is a bloody awful method of sorting kids into teams. Teachers should do it randomly and quickly. No kids should be able to humiliate others in that way.

This is how it was done when I was in school 20+ years ago.

I agree with you OP. Found it cringey and scarring as a child, induced loads of anxiety and I’m shocked it’s still in play. I thought having different coloured houses was an easy solution. The teacher just divving them up also is better

Yes, I agree this is a better kinder way to do it.

Teachers take note, for some kids, this can make a big difference to someone's day.

Really, really.

I hate it, but probably because I was always picked last. I didn't focus on what I was good at because I was last at everything. Grades were always read out and mine were lowest. Always picked to be an understudy in plays. Last to get my pen license (on the last day of the final year you could get it, so just a token gesture). It wasn't that I didn't try, I just scraped in to a selective school being very average ability full of very gifted students, but I didn't really grasp that. I probably would have been fine in a non selective school but the constant being bottom for everything made me give up thinking I could succeed at anything. I think this style of competing can certainly be damaging, and is just lazy.

The issue I had with this method of picking teams was that the same kids were always picked to be team captains, so the same kids were always left until last.
If the teachers had changed the captains every lesson I think it would have mixed that up a bit.

I was always picked last, as I was unpopular. I was actually pretty average at most sports.

I'm sure it's affected my self-esteem, but I really don't think the media would give a flying fuck about this topic.

I definitely agree with the poster saying it's a drop in the ocean though, as there are so many equally unfair and damaging things in school, newspapers won't be interested.

🤷🏻‍♀️ we had a mixture of a leader picking own teams and the 123123 method.

Sometimes it was just a divine yourself into 2 teams, with some shuffling for the less sporty kids.
I think each method has it's flaws. It's just one of the many things that some kids hate about PE.

I think I might be the sad little Irish one 😂

Always last to be picked! Admittedly grew up and educated in Eire so I can’t plead or blame racism. I did get bronze the egg and spoon race one year but that’s because I had a very large serving spoon and a rather small potato on it.

The good news is that I survived all… thrived in music and academics, and am now a tutor for Oxford Uni post graduates.

I’m one of 5 children raised in a single income house.

Don’t overthink OP. Teach your children. They are good at some things, not the best at others. My kids are 8 & 12. Best thing they ever did was get into competitive sport. It teaches them they aren’t the best at everything, working to improve, it’s not an equal playing field where everyone gets a medal and you need to figure out their strengths and play to them.

We used to do that all the time in the 90's. I was always picked last or second last because I was hopeless at sport. One time the teacher let me be one of the children who picked the rounders team. I picked all the people who were always last to be picked. Our team lost really badly, I think the score was about 20-0. Everyone else in the class told me I'd been really silly doing it like that. I think the teacher must have done too because I was never asked to pick teams again!

What a complete overreaction!

In PE we always had two leaders in that sport alternate at choosing the next team member - it was the best way to ensure two teams of pretty equal players (good and bad) to have a game. Maybe we were very sports-minded but it definitely wasn't a popularity contest - all based on ability.

We also had someone at school who couldn't be on a team because of his amazing physical provess - he alone was a guaranteed win. So he had to sit it out. Until NBA picked him 😁🏀

My own son is not very sporty (though popular) and can cost a team it's win. So in sports clubs he doesn't even get play time on the team - only training time. Fair enough I say, and he hasn't been upset about it yet 🤷

I’m surprised so many people still remember how teams were picked at school. I literally have no recollection of that; we probably had kids choosing teams and I imagine I was last to be chosen as I am very shit at all sports.

I’m also surprised people are saying teams at work events etc are chosen randomly. IME they’re very carefully selected, although it may seem random to someone not involved with organising it.

Really not worth going to the papers about in any case.

Do you remember the special needs kid in school. The one that just about scraped into mainstream school. Academics were hard, sport was hard, making friends was hard?

What if you're that kid?

It's so easy to do this a better way. Why not do so?

My son's school is doing this method and I hate it. He isnt good at sports and always last - it certainly isn't doing his confidence much good. He has been brought up resilient and we joke about it but it really does piss me off inside. We all have to do things we hate in life but I don't understand how this encourages enjoyment of sport when you are basically shown you aren't wanted.

You don't see teachers in other subjects board casting how rubbish you are.

"Tomorrow, I will get on to the papers/radio and tv stations to outlaw this crass method of choosing teams in PE and other settings in schools."

Ahhh, you took it too far OP. Next time, dial back a little.

I was always one of the last to be picked but since I hated PE at school I couldn't have cared less.

Ah, resilience.

There was a thread a while back about why we forced all kids to join in with Sports Day when mandatory participation in public competitions didn’t exist in any other area of life. Lots of people said “but how will they ever learn resilience without everyone they know and all their parents watching them finish a race five minutes after everyone else?”. And then one poster pointed out that actually educational psychologists pretty much agreed that resilience doesn’t come from making kids endure unpleasant experiences, it comes from the security of their relationships, but we persist with the idea that it comes from making them endure unpleasant things because then we feel better about making them endure unpleasant things.

Just saying.

I agree with you; I was the same - and I’m not scarred for life. Children need to learn resilience, and understand that everyone has different strengths and limitations.