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AIBU to believe this method of choosing teams is outdated and harmful to many of our DC?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

1. It’s a PE lesson: it doesn’t actually matter wihich team wins, it’s supposed to be about exercise or working in a team or something
2. This would involve a tiny bit more effort from the PE teacher, but they could split the groups taking into account the ability of the pupils so they end up roughly equal but no-one feels like they haven’t been picked

I actually agree with you op in a toned down way - it’s not nice being the last picked.

but I think you need to calm down a bit.

This is actually a fascinating thread. I was almost always picked last, I didn't think it actually affected me. But reading this, I do remember dreading it and basically feeling a bit shit. It also does make me think I never was interested in sports later probably because I thought I wouldn't be good at it anyway. Overall just interesting to think about and wonder if it really is necessary and is it really the best way to do it. Does it teach anything positive? It definitely does teach something negative to those who are picked last

Good point, probably the reason many of the 'last picked' don't remember or feel traumatised by the team picking process was because they were much more daunted by the sport/game itself and embarrassing themselves doing that/not being passed the ball etc.

I was often picked last at PE, not because I’m rubbish but because I wasn’t popular and whoever picked teams picked their mates.

Just made me all the more smug when I’d score against them/block their shots/beat them ect.

Did your teachers in the more academic subjects ever get the two cleverest kids in the class to stand at the front and rank the rest of the class from best to worst though?

I’m a sports coach for junior athletes. I always pick the teams. I let captains make tactical decisions, such as relay order, but they don’t get to pick the teams. This is absolutely standard practice in all junior sports coaching, and also in adult elite sport. I’m not surprised though that school PE teachers are massively out of date.

PE teacher here. I don't know any school that gets kids to do the 70s style picking teams until there's only one left. Totally counter productive.

My preferred method is 'sit with 1 or 2 people you want to be on a team with' then join those little groups together to make the desired team sizes. Also gives you as a teacher ways of differentiating groups to meet your lesson objectives.

Thinking back to school sports, I hated all the outdoor stuff. It was always bloody cold, and I was hopeless at all of it. The team-picking (where I was always last) was really only a very small insignificant part of the whole unpleasant experience, and until this thread I literally hadn’t thought about it for 40 years. Whereas I can still remember the horrors of seeing a hockey ball flying towards me across the frozen mud, and hating every second of it! Genuinely not fussed about being picked last.

Exactly this. Lots of things that happen in school are problematic, but either we don’t have a better alternative (eg exams) or they’re controversial because they also have advantages (eg setting).

Some people are unaffected by picking teams. Some people are put off exercise for life. For some it makes their time at school just that little bit more miserable.

Does it actually benefit anyone?

Ha ha I remember those days of being the dud with the ball who no one wanted!I take it you’re being sarcastic when you say kids are scarred for life-if that’s the worst thing that will happen to them, they’ll lead a pretty charmed life!

I was picked last as a teenagr in the 1980's......now 55 and no mental health side effects. I think there are more important things to worry about. Go to bed and try and sleep love

Yes. Happened twice at school here and I went in both times.

First time it was "pick your best friend" (so not even pick someone who is genuinely good at sport) so the last child picked has been marked as the child with no friends.

And second time, it was "pick someone who is sporty"

This isn't inclusive, kind of any of the drivel they spout as being important at primary school. Given how there is such a lack of focus at that age on academic success.

And as for learning resilience, given that we don't use the "Dunces Hat" or make kids do lines for being idiots / "working towards" why the hell should we penalise kids who struggle in other areas.

School were so apologetic when they realised what was going on (it was an external coach hired to run sports lessons).

I have one child who is always picked first, always team captain, always wins sports day / shields bla bla bla. And one who doesn't. I felt like I could therefore call it as bullshit.

I agree with you OP . It’s cruel and soul destroying for children. Asking people to get into pairs can also be difficult.
Horrible to be the child standing looking around at happy giggling pairs when no one wants you.
I wish teachers would just say - get into pairs with the person next to you starting here.

it wasn't being picked last that made me unenthusiastic about sports. It was disliking sports. And being crap at it. In fact, being picked last took the pressure off, because it meant the team captains didn’t expect anything of me!

I was picked last because I wasn't good at team sports.

I was on the track team and a dancer and gymnast. Athletic but no clue how to hit a ball.

I dreaded gym but not moreso than math class.

No adverse effects. I was a theater kid. I knew what I was good at and what I wasn't.

Are you serious you literally can’t think of another way?!

Actually I agree with the above. It was a relief in ways because there were no expectations of me.

When I was sent way out in the field for whatever sport I was much happier. Lol

‘Soul destroying’? Being orphaned is soul destroying, living with painful chronic illness is soul destroying, being a child in Gaza/Ukraine/famine hit parts of Africa is soul destroying.

Should ‘not being picked first for a sports team in PE’ be added to that list, or should we all stop with the constant melodrama?

Me! I was shit at team sports but started running as an adult. I've done 6 marathons so far and I'm quite good at it

God I still have awful memories of being the last one picked (I was terrible at sport to be fair) and at the time k always thought it was because people didn't like me. It was always a horrible crushing feeling when the PE teacher said right "popular girls pick your teams!"

@Bythefireside i can think of lots of other ways, all which come with their own problems.

I had no idea schools still do this. Even more surprised people here support it.

Its crap. I was always third last. You can’t really enjoy being in a team knowing no one wants you there. It doesn’t inspire you to try harder. It makes you live down to their low expectations.

School sports just taught me I was crap at being active. If it weren’t for a friend when we left school asking me to accompany her to her keep Fit class, which, to my great surprise I enjoyed, I may have rolled through life with the internalized belief that being active was not for me, that I was bad at it and it made me feel bad. I still avoid team sports like the plague as I still have that firm belief that I am shit at them and no one will want me on their team. I only do solo activities.

In an age of obesity and the ensuing burden on the NHS and cost to public finances, not to mention all the misery that the infirmity obesity leads to as one ages, it is really, really, really stupid for school to be linking activity in kids brains, with them feeling crap about themselves in this way.

We should do physical activity in a way that encourages kids to enjoy it and see it as life affirming. School sports should not be a test as to whether you have the resilience to cope with being publicly marked out as unpopular and shit at sport, with no one wanting you on their side.

See, thanks to being picked last, you’ve internalized the belief that you are shit at team sports and no one would want you. Same here. I only do solo sports for that reason too.

it’s not a good message to teach kids though. Is it?

I was always picked last too. Unpopular in general and hopeless at sport. It was years after I left school that I actually realised that there were some sports that I could do and get some enjoyment of it. It was the ds's judo teacher who made me realise that actually what sports teachers should be doing is encouraging the hopeless ones not discouraging them further.