PE at school

About three weeks before Christmas, we had ballroom dancing lessons in our PE classes - co-ed school, but single sex PE. It was a complete farce, with taller or fatter girls having to be 'boys'. We allegedly learned quickstep, foxtrot and waltz but I don't remember seeing anyone putting these into practice at the end of term dances, especially as the boys hadn't done dancing in their PE classes. ?

Poor girl. Being a ballet teacher in a past life it makes me wonder if thats one of the reasons girls of that age used to drop out of classes. I always thought it was because they'd discovered boys were quite interesting after all

ExDancer, it’s apparently something soldiers get, or used used to get, presumably from the repeated stress of marching.

It was a hairline fracture dd had, which I suppose is why a standard NHS X ray didn’t find it.

Thats interesting Witzend, what exactly is a "March" fracture - it sound a bit like Army-speak?

Having expected things to have changed from my day, I was very annoyed when a PE teacher told a dd of maybe 12, that she was ‘too old’ to still be doing ballet, which she still enjoyed, - high time she gave it up. (Ballet clashed with netball practice - she was in the team.)
Dd gave in to the aggressive pressure. ?

Same teacher repeatedly told her to stop fussing and making excuses, when she complained of pain in her foot.

It took a visit to a sports physio to find that she had a march fracture. Even an NHS X ray hadn’t picked it up.

Beswitched

Yes I think dance classes, fairly simple yoga and pilates and other non competitive activities would suit a lot of teenagers better than hockey and netball.
I hope that awful practise of asking 2 pupils to pick their team one by one has been outlawed.

I never minded which team I was on for hockey, as long as they didn't place me behind Sharon as she batted(?). She thought nothing of whacking that stick up high, like a golfer, totally forgetting there was someone behind her! ??

I was slim, tall, loved cycling, swimming and horse riding when Icould afford it, none of these at school. This was in the early fifties. I hated school sports, especially wearing navy serge knickers ( no skirts even) .Anything competitive involving a ball put me off for good, including tennis. How many of us at my girls' school were often put off for life? Was this because girls' schools imitated boys' public schools as far as possible?

I would just do the detention.i probably ponged a bit, but I still feel the same now.
I choose who I want to get naked with; I'm consider it abusive to force me. (Not that anyone wants to see my now non skinny body!)

I used to flatly refuse

You wouldn't have dared at my school.
Even with verrucas you had to wear a rubber sock thing.

I used to flatly refuse.
I didn't even let my dad see me in my vest, so I wasn't letting anyone ogle my skinny body.

Beswitched

I am shocked to read of communal showers with teachers watching
That didn't happen at my school. Unbelievably insensitive and inappropriate.

They were cold showers without soap
40 girls running in and out at top speed, teacher watching to make sure we didn't skive, did no good whatsoever to clean sweaty bodies after games.
Disgusting.

It happened at my school, and one of the P.E. teachers did have a relationship with the girl next door to us..
They are still together as we speak.

I am shocked to read of communal showers with teachers watching
That didn't happen at my school. Unbelievably insensitive and inappropriate.

I was always very much against undressing in front of other people.
I still think it's a horrendous thing to make people do, if they're uncomfortable about it.

I was lucky in that I went to a school that didn't place a huge emphasis on sport. But the weekly PE lesson was still dreaded by many. There was always a group of us hiding in toilets or empty classrooms to avoid it. This didn't happen with any other subject.

It really did come down to the way it was taught and the having to change into skimpy outfits in communal changing rooms on freezingcold mornings. It did not develop an association between exercise and enjoyment in many people's minds.

I think a lot of the problem is that many schools, even today, have no place for physical activity that isn’t openly and crassly competitive. Monday morning assembly in a certain school not for from me starts with five minutes of bragging about sporting successes and underplaying losses: “the under fifteens played a brilliant game and were just a bit unlucky to lose 35-nil”. Kids are excused exam classes to play in county and national schools rugby and hockey tournaments, but can’t skip a sport lesson for a maths catch-up session.

Many kids would love to do non-competitive activities. I was really good at ballet, but hockey, lacrosse, tennis and netball were the sports at which the school could win cups and trophies - and made my secondary school life an utter misery.

Pleased to hear I’m not the only one who found country dancing hilarious, with unfortunate results. LadyGracie.

I agree that mental health is linked with exercise ! As is well being , diet, nutrition , the structure of the body, muscle power , anatomy and physiology , all included in my training plus taught in gcse PE!

pipdog

I hated all PE but swimming was impossible for me. Don't know why but I always swim at the same level so ok in the shallow end but swim into the deep end and I swim at the same level to the bottom so I then swim under water but I can't swim very well! My teacher made me swim from the shallow end into the deep end telling me she would have the long pole for me to grab if I needed it. I did my usual and I was actually starting to drown as the pole was nowhere near me. Luckily anothe pupil pulled me out in time. I walked up to the teacher and exploded, telling her what I thought of her and walked out to the applause of all the other pupils. I told my Mam when I got home and she said would wait and see what happened as she knew my temper and was waiting until the teacher reported me before she did anything. Nothing happened, not a thing, I never did swimming again and nothing was ever said but no-one was ever made to swim in the deep end again if they didn't want to.

Nowadays that idiot would be sacked and would be very lucky not to end up in court.

I was re reading some Malory Towers books recently and pushing girls who couldn't swim into the pool, or dragging them under the water seemed to be regarded as great sport.

Maybe a lot of those sadistic or insensitive PE teachers went to schools like that.

I hated PE I was only ever good at long jump.
We did Scottish Country dancing, my mum always asked if I had a clean pair of navy blue knickers with me, despite going to the loo before the lesson started I used to get the giggles and wet myself without fail every time. It still makes me smile. I really disliked secondary school.

Or climb the ropes - I never got more than a third of the way up!

Quote Callistemon21
I totally agree with you, I think learning to swim
is a more important than some of the sporty stuff
they have at school as it’s an important asset to have
in adult life better than being able to turn upside down
on the wall bars ??

Hated the showers, the teeny skirts and the big navy blue knickers. Enjoyed the hockey though, that was about it. Cross country running was hateful, pouring rain and muddy fields was he'll.

We could pick our own activities after the first year at secondary school. Hockey, tennis etc were on offer but also ice skating, swimming etc. I loved doing ‘keep fit’ even though we each had to contribute a small amount towards the cost of an external teacher. Loved it so much we took part in displays at evenings and weekends - synchronised skipping, dance etc - to our favourite pop music of the time. Very forward-thinking, I think, as some of our group, me included, were not particularly sporty.