Physical Education at U.S.A. high school

PE is more than playing sports and being athletic. It is about finding something, even a leisure activity that you can learn and enjoy even once you are past high school. It teaches the importance of living a active and healthy lifestyle. When taught right, it should be right up there with the rest of the core curriculum, however many people look down upon it as a class that uses dodgeball as organized bullying.

I am not sure if that answers your question or not??

 

^Yep. It's not about performance; it's about effort. Get out there every day and do your best and you will probably get a 100% grade. If you really are doing that, you will find that your athletic ability will steadily improve.

About dodgeball: I was never worried about it. We played it a few times, but the teams were semi-randomly split up by the teachers, and the balls were a soft foam that didn't hurt. It was just fun-- no stress.

 

When I took PE in 9th grade, all you had to do was change clothes. That was it. There were guys that played basketball, and since I didn't want to sit down for a full 90 minutes, I just joined in.
We did have like, some form of standard physical aptitude test, like having to do the sit and reach and max your pushups and run the mile. We did that at the beginning of the class and at the end to mark the difference in performance, but weren't evaluated on it at all.
Sseriously, our grade was solely determined by dressing out, and honestly, there were still a bunch of people in my class that failed.

 

LOL how is that a class? Did the teacher do anything at all?

 

This is probably one of those things that will vary from school to school, and even decade to decade.

I last took PE in junior high (early 80s), and participation was half the grade. Basically, if you changed clothes, did what the class was doing (or tried to), and took a shower after, you got 100% on the participation. But there was also a performance part of the grade.

Things varied even teacher to teacher. The grading policy was fixed on the department level. But I think I hit the giddy heights of a "B" with my 8th grade teacher. I think I got maybe a "C+" from my 7th grade teacher. I doubt my ability improved much from 7th to 8th grade. Strangely, I got along much better with my 7th grade teacher as a person than my 8th grade teacher.

Dodgeball was a lot more dangerous than it was for Argentwing. We used rubber balls, and some boys would throw really hard. Maybe it was only when aiming at me; I was not Mr. Popular. I quickly learned that it was best to get knocked out early on. If the ball came close, but still didn't touch, I'd claim it had touched me just to get out.

Also back then classes were single sex. Boys one on side of the gym, girls on the other, a curtain dividing the two sides. Many boys spent a great deal of time finding ways of peaking around the curtain. For some reason I can't quite figure out, I never had any interest in seeing what the girls were doing, or why the other boys were interested. :lol:

Activities back then were heavily "boy sports." Football/basketball/wrestling/baseball. Very little lifetime fitness. I'll see PE classes now just taking a long walk, which is something you can still do when you are an old fart like me. I think the nearest high school also has swimming as part of the general PE classes, again something you can do all your life. (To be fair, swimming would have been pretty hard when I was in school. We didn't have a pool. And poor BMC77 would have sunk without a trace had his class gone swimming.)

I don't know what happens now. But I think schools now have co-ed classes. (The locker rooms would still be single sex for changing, and showering, if the school is one of the ones left that requires showers.) I gather this more interest in lifetime fitness than was the case when I went through.

 

Think it depends. Had to be my worst subject, lol. Dr Winchester was a chubby, clumsy, and slow kid. Basically exactly the wrong kid to be out in the open should a rapid tiger attack the school.

For me, we were tested often on our aptitude and athletic ability. Lot of structured activity, but a lot of it was like games (fucking hated them), races. Least in 8th grade, there was more of a shift towards individual work-outs, which I was loads better at (and actually looked forward to the Monday/Wednesday weights sessions).

Classes were co-ed. Only divisions happened in locker rooms and you can imagine, though I got to live out every straight guy's fantasy and stick around with half dressed, freshmen girls, that that wasn't particularly fun for me.

Let me tell you, didn't exactly impart me with a life-long love of sports.

 

Some of you may have heard this story... But when I was in 7th grade, there was actually one kid in my PE class who talked one day about starting a petition for co-ed showers. Somehow...I have a feeling he wasn't interested in cost savings by consolidating the two locker rooms. :lol:

 

Haha, yeah, I loved dodgeball. If I could, I would have played every day for PE. Was even part of the dodgeball intramural league that had teams from different high schools. However, I have also seen the not so nice parts of dodgeball so I can see where people may not like it so much.

 

The sad thing is that I have a vague memory of liking dodge ball when I was in elementary school. And it certainly has a lot going for it as a sport/activity. It's actually something that will work across a range of abilities. Admittedly, someone like me was likely to get knocked out earlier than some boys, and I was highly unlikely to ever hit another kid. But lack of ability doesn't drag the whole activity down like it would in a regular team sport.

The part I hated was how much those damn balls could hurt when they hit in junior high. If it hadn't been for that, I'd have been more enthusiastic, and I might have been willing to stay in the game as long as possible.

 

who wouldn't want to shower afterwards? that would be really gross unless you go directly home afterwards.

 

This is based on a mix of sources--both news stories (including IIRC The New York Times), commentary on websites like this, and what I've heard from others my age who have kids. But it appears that when showers are made optional in school, very few teens in America will shower. They just change clothes, slap on lots of deodorant, and hope for the best. Gross? Can be. But a lot of people are really uncomfortable with showering with others.

When I was a teenager, I might have died before showering in public. I had a prudish streak in my family. And going into junior high (nearly 13), I was deathly scared of the thought of showering and having an unwanted erection.

Of course, showers still do exist for some activities, like swimming. But one can shower with a swim suit on.

 

Well, she stopped the two basketball rivals from arguing every day XD

 

Depends on which High school, really.

The HS I went to had a grading system of a score from 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. The idea was so that the teacher could grade you based on how much effort you were putting in. However, a major complaint among the students through the years is how some of the teachers are playing politics and favorites, and some of the students they don't like will get a 3 at best, even if they overexert themselves.

 

*slow clap*

---------- Post added 25th Apr 2014 at 07:12 PM ----------

lol that's still really gross. can't they just install privacy walls if its that big of an issue?

at my pool we are required to shower before we swim. but then i have never seen anyone from my team not shower afterwards and you basically have to be naked to spin your jammer in the dryer.

i mean to each their own but i can't imagine being dirty all day. like what if the pitch is muddy and you get dirty? no shower? or is everything inside?

 

Hmm I know this thread is USA, but well in the Dutch system at my HS were quite strict at P.E. I was not that good at it in my early teens but improved a lot by 16 anyway there was a fixed curriculum of athletics *, outdoor sports, indoor sports, written exam* and gymnastics*, those with a * were weighed double! and they gave out failing grades which did matter in determining your 'GPA' and if u passed/failed the year, nobody failed solely on P.E. but let's say you had a failing grade (well like a 5 out of 10) for physics, english and spanish you'd fail. You'd also fail if u had a failing grade for physics, english and P.E. and passed spanish ! Oh those gymnastics were quite tough..... I got a failing grade once in the 8th grade and literally had my parents intervene for letting me through to the next year, I mean I had 3 failed subjects and that was that you are staying back! Parents had to threaten litigation and went right up to the education board which ruled in my favor. You lucky guys

 

They probably could do something like privacy walls, or private stalls of some sort. But...that costs money, and usually when doing school building projects pinching pennies is a huge priority.

Of course, they could skip privacy stalls, and let people shower wearing a swim suit

Wow. You have one of those spin dryers? I think I've seen one pool that has one here.

What is this jammer talk? Real swimming men wear a Speedo. :lol:

Shower before swimming is required, although it's generally done suit on. It's said that it helps keep the pool cleaner, and reduce the amount of work the chemicals/filters have to do. Shower after is generally done by all but the most casual swimmers just to get the chlorine off. (I don't know about the UK, but most pools still use chlorine here.)

PE classes will go outside, but I suspect there would be some sort of indoor option for everyone at most schools for when outside conditions are bad. My junior high certainly had enough space to have everyone inside on really wet, muddy days. Some of the space was pretty limited...but could be used for something. And if all else failed, they could just have us run a mile using the covered walkways that connected the school buildings.

Here's a link from 1996 talking about the decline of showers in America:
Schools Throw in the Towel on Getting Kids to Shower - Los Angeles Times

 

As someone who attends a really questionable school, I said no to showers before letting one of them snap a picture. That shit happens. I'd just change clothes.

Also, so many self abuse scars i definitely didn't want any teacher pet ratting me out about. :/

 

replies in red.

 

Yes. It does happen. There are regularly news stories about the discovery of a hidden video camera.

---------- Post added 25th Apr 2014 at 04:28 PM ----------

I guess that makes sense. The pool I saw the dryer at was a YMCA. At the prices of YMCA membership, they can probably afford to put in a spin dryer. Heck, they can probably afford a gold plated pool. :lol: