i_like_1981's introduction

[i_like_1981]

It's a shame that no other members have posted on this forum apart from its creator. I won't be able to post much now but I shall tell you a few things. I do not believe that people who have no interest in playing competitive sports should have to participate mandatorily in these sorts of PE sessions. If PE was tailored in a way to suit individual students' physical needs instead of just lumping everyone together in one big group with the teachers in charge believing that everybody shares the same interest (which is quite frankly untrue) in competing physically, there would be a lot less resentment between athletes and victims of PE-related bullying which I have seen a lot of on the web in recent months. I do not call for a ban on PE and sports. That is impossible. But it would have helped my physical status a lot if I was allowed to build myself up in an environment that I considered to be safe and which would benefit me; my sufferings in PE did not bring me any physical gains but actually deterred me from participating in any physical activity. I gained nothing. I believe PE should be reformed as although a lot of young males are athletic and a lot of the others don't really mind what they do for sports in school, there will be some who have to endure humiliation and resentment due to their outward disdain for the sports they have to do and their welfare is worth as much notice as that of the rest. It is important PE teachers and administors take more notice of their groups as individual people so that bitterness over sports will be less likely to occur in the future. Because there are always going to be some who won't fit in quite so well and if they are not thought of and cast aside, there will always be a problem in the world of physical education.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[Ashlen]

First, welcome to the forum.  Thanks for posting, hopefully some interaction here will lead to more people posting their thoughts.

I find it very interesting that your observations and experiences about PE in England (assuming you went to school in England) are so similar to that of the PE experience in the United States.  It seems that the schools are more interested in teaching sports than teaching exercise.  In the case of my school (granted, this was a number of years ago), they did not even teach sports in most cases.  The teachers would just roll some balls out.  If you wanted to play, fine, you're on your own.  If you did not want to play, you would just sit on the bench and socialize.  No problem.  Sports are one way to exercise, but there are many other ways to exercise.  It would be nice if the gym teachers could find a way to teach everyone a few exercise activities based on their preferences and needs, but there does not appear to be any interest in doing that. 

Actually, I've heard that PE is becoming an endangered species here in the US.  Accountability mandates, like the No Child Left Behind law, is leading to a situation where schools are looking to maximize the time spent studying for standardized tests that the schools are held responsible for in areas like math and reading.  This means less time is spent on PE, art classes, and non-tested academic courses. 

One possible advantage that England has over the US is that schools in England aren't responsible for organizing youth sports.  In England, as far as I know, a star football (soccer) talent will go to a sports academy for schooling and football training.  Here, a star gridiron American football player is trained athletically right at the public schools.  This means that a lot of public education money is spent on developing star athletes.  Schools may have exercise equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, but regular students may only get to use it for a couple of weeks if they get to use it at all.  Instead, the interscholastic sports teams get to use the equipment. 

The school district I live in recently opened an $80 million (US Dollars) gridiron football field and basketball arena complex.  I can almost guarantee that no public school in England has a basketball court like this (additional views here,     here, and here).  Maybe I'm wrong and they do, but I hope the education system there isn't so stupid.  Here in Texas, school districts have refused to build new high schools in crowed areas for the fear that a new school would split up the talent on the football team leading to a lowered chance of winning the state football championship.  Hopefully England isn't that stupid!  Does England have public health clubs for the general public like continental European countries? 

Anyway, thanks for posting.  Hopefully you won't be a stranger because I think it is important to see the advantages and disadvantages of other sports/education systems when formulating reform designs.