Things that have bothered you for a long time.

[Sterlo]

Totally agree with all of the above "sports at school" comments. I hated all sports at school, probably because firstly I was no good at anything (except maybe cricket if I could be bothered) and secondly because it was forced on you. Coming from a rugby mad school, that was always first option, followed by football, cross country running, etc. In summer we were allowed to play cricket if we were really lucky but generally it was athletics. I could run for ages, but they always preferred sprints and field events.
I much prefer things after I left school as I could do what I wanted when I wanted to. Always been a bit of a loner so I liked my running then got into cycling when my knees gave up the ghost. It's so much easier, as others have said above, when you don't have a sarcastic sadistic bully shouting at you constantly telling you how worthless you are.

 

[matticus]

Totally agree with all of the above "sports at school" comments. I hated all sports at school, probably because firstly I was no good at anything (except maybe cricket if I could be bothered) and secondly because it was forced on you. Coming from a rugby mad school, that was always first option, followed by football, cross country running, etc. In summer we were allowed to play cricket if we were really lucky but generally it was athletics. I could run for ages, but they always preferred sprints and field events.
I much prefer things after I left school as I could do what I wanted when I wanted to. Always been a bit of a loner so I liked my running then got into cycling when my knees gave up the ghost. It's so much easier, as others have said above, when you don't have a sarcastic sadistic bully shouting at you constantly telling you how worthless you are.

OK, so 3 points in bold there:
- someone has to be worst at Maths, or Needlework too. That's not a reason for kids to sit those lessons out. If teachers don't manage the range of abilties, that's bad teaching - sport should be no different to algebra in this respect.
- see also: maths, french, english literature ... :P
- completely agree about the bullying. I don't remember this sort of PE teacher, which is bloody good as I am crap at all sports! But that approach would be rubbish in maths or needlework too.

When I did (some) teacher training (a decade ago, give-or-take), I didn't see how the PE department did things: but the training university was so good [especially compared to some horror stories people tell about their school experiences!], I'd be surprised if they aren't trained to avoid the stuff mentioned above. The paperwork for PE courses seemed to be pretty similar to science, and the kids can take GCSEs, so there has to be some monitoring, assessment, lesson plans etc etc ...

 

[oldwheels]

I never had a problem with school sports and was a good runner and reasonable gymnast but not good at field sports like football, cricket etc.
We had indoor basketball and I was usually picked as a team leader and got to pick my own team. I realised that most of the total duffers had at least one skill and picked a team consisting of most of them. They got instructions to do exactly as I told them and we wiped the floor with all the other teams. For example I noticed that one was good at shooting into the net and so he was told to just lurk around near the net until the ball came to him. Others had different skills but did as they were told and it worked.
At that age I have no idea if it did their self esteem any good but in retrospect I think it probably did.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I never had a problem with school sports and was a good runner and reasonable gymnast but not good at field sports like football, cricket etc.
We had indoor basketball and I was usually picked as a team leader and got to pick my own team. I realised that most of the total duffers had at least one skill and picked a team consisting of most of them. They got instructions to do exactly as I told them and we wiped the floor with all the other teams. For example I noticed that one was good at shooting into the net and so he was told to just lurk around near the net until the ball came to him. Others had different skills but did as they were told and it worked.
At that age I have no idea if it did their self esteem any good but in retrospect I think it probably did.

Nice one!!

 

[Andy in Germany]

I never had a problem with school sports and was a good runner and reasonable gymnast but not good at field sports like football, cricket etc.
We had indoor basketball and I was usually picked as a team leader and got to pick my own team. I realised that most of the total duffers had at least one skill and picked a team consisting of most of them. They got instructions to do exactly as I told them and we wiped the floor with all the other teams. For example I noticed that one was good at shooting into the net and so he was told to just lurk around near the net until the ball came to him. Others had different skills but did as they were told and it worked.
At that age I have no idea if it did their self esteem any good but in retrospect I think it probably did.

Your method relies on the person who was good at sports being able to stop and think a bit, which alas seemed a bit beyond the sporty types in my school.

As a result "team" sports in my school weren't, if you see what I mean: the biggest and fastest had fun and the rest of us tried to keep out of the way.

I heard the theory that it was supposed to build up team spirit and help us work together or build up an esprit du corps. This was such a blatant nonsense when compared with reality it was quite amusing.

 

[Alex321]

OK, so 3 points in bold there:
- someone has to be worst at Maths, or Needlework too. That's not a reason for kids to sit those lessons out. If teachers don't manage the range of abilties, that's bad teaching - sport should be no different to algebra in this respect.

Of course it is different. Sport is inherently competitive, the other subjects aren't. Being worst at maths isn't so obvious as being worst at running.

- see also: maths, french, english literature ... :P
- completely agree about the bullying. I don't remember this sort of PE teacher, which is bloody good as I am crap at all sports! But that approach would be rubbish in maths or needlework too.

This, I completely agree with. There is no place for it, in any subject.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Of course it is different. Sport is inherently competitive, the other subjects aren't. Being worst at maths isn't so obvious as being worst at running.




This, I completely agree with. There is no place for it, in any subject.

Leading on from the point about sports being inherently competitive, it means that whereas in other subjects you have to be aware of the danger of bullying, in sports the danger is built into the subject, even encouraged by the competitive nature. I think this is particularly the case in team sports, especially in children who are still developing empathy for others.

 

[KnittyNorah]

This is all true, however I think changing sports every term, as my school did, is about all they can do. To not offer or force PE on children is sort of like saying "you can be inactive if you want", which doesn't fit in with a healthy lifestyle. You may have been active in other ways but there are plenty of kids whose only physical exertion comes from PE lessons. And even if you sent in a letter from your parents to say "(s)he doesn't want to do PE becasue (s)he does other sports", you can bet there would be parents who would lie, because they don't want an unhappy child.

Maybe there should be PT classes every day, and optional sports for those who want it, but I expect the level of staffing and timetable chnages would be an issue.

I now recall one female teacher who was quite a beast but had a soft heart. If some of the girls didn't want to do the sport in PE, they had the option to do laps of the sports field!

Well that's why I'm suggesting something set up by, or accessed through, an 'organisation' or an actual qualified coach/teacher could surely be acceptable. As I mentioned above, that was done for boys PE, which is why it particularly rankled with us.

Nowhere am I suggesting a parents note saying 'little Johnny goes on a long walk every weekend and so he shouldn't have to play rugby on Tuesday afternoons' would be acceptable. But why SHOULD he have to play rugby on Tuesday afternoons if he hates, loathes, despises and fears it - especially if he is - for example - a member of a competitive swimming club with compulsory attendance at coaching sessions, which he could access instead of the loathed rugby (and maybe have Tuesday afternoons to do his homework in the library instead of rushing to get both it and the swim team coaching session fitted into one evening in the week.)

 

[KnittyNorah]

Leading on from the point about sports being inherently competitive, it means that whereas in other subjects you have to be aware of the danger of bullying, in sports the danger is built into the subject, even encouraged by the competitive nature. I think this is particularly the case in team sports, especially in children who are still developing empathy for others.

It's also the the case in PE - especially in team sports - that physical bullying, abuse and damaging 'accidents' are all much easier to carry out/more likely to occur than in, for example, algebra.
I was never afraid of having my specs knocked off my face in algebra or French - but I most certainly was in netball or hockey ... being into the double figures of minus dioptres by the time I was fourteen made me truly afraid, even when I was in the hopeless team with my pals and there was no bullying.

 

[oldwheels]

This talk of PE eachers reminds me of a somwhat irrelevant incident. My best pal at school went to train as a PE teacher and my girlfriend [later my wife] was also a trainee teacher. She was with a group of pals and he approached and put his arms around her and whispered in her ear. Her pals were very impressed but she never told them what he whispered. "I have no fags left can you let me have a couple till I get to a shop"

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

WHen I was at school we had 'games' on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons (yes Saturday - it was one of 'those' schools)
However, we had a choice of what games we did - you couldn't chop and change but you could choose one of 3 or more sports to take part in

Of course, some where rubbish at them all - but they were encouraged to at least 'have a go' and the teachers in charge were, mostly, encouraging.

 

[KnittyNorah]

WHen I was at school we had 'games' on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons (yes Saturday - it was one of 'those' schools)
However, we had a choice of what games we did - you couldn't chop and change but you could choose one of 3 or more sports to take part in

Of course, some where rubbish at them all - but they were encouraged to at least 'have a go' and the teachers in charge were, mostly, encouraging.

How did you know which one of them you'd be not afraid of/least bad at/have a chance of enjoying, if you weren't allowed to chop and change?
Did they offer any non-ball sports?
We had to do the sports decided on. No choice offered at all. And all but one involved balls and mainly involved implements for whacking said balls, too. Which could be used for whacking people.
Compulsory swimming lessons were our sole non-ball sport - but they were even worse than ball sports for me and Janice, as we were made to take our specs off and leave them in the changing rooms so we could hardly find our way out to the pool, and there was always the possibility that our specs would be moved while we were away and then we wouldn't be able to find them without putting our specs on ...

 

[Andy in Germany]

WHen I was at school we had 'games' on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons (yes Saturday - it was one of 'those' schools)
However, we had a choice of what games we did - you couldn't chop and change but you could choose one of 3 or more sports to take part in

Of course, some where rubbish at them all - but they were encouraged to at least 'have a go' and the teachers in charge were, mostly, encouraging.

That last bit is the vital element; the rest can be organised well or badly, but if the teachers are genuinely encouraging, everything changes. Sadly, the generation of games teachers I had didn't know the difference between "encourage" and "bully".

That said, I was pretty good at hockey, of all things; it was a brave opponent who got between me and a net, and hockey lessons were the only times I wasn't picked last.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I might have said this before, but "Dear John", why did the BBC cancel that sitcom after two series? I wanted to know if Kirk St Morritz would get off with Tiger. Even more annoying, as the Americans did a re-make, which the BBC did televise, although I only watched one episode many decades later.

 

[Threevok]

I might have said this before, but "Dear John", why did the BBC cancel that sitcom after two series? I wanted to know if Kirk St Morritz would get off with Tiger. Even more annoying, as the Americans did a re-make, which the BBC did televise, although I only watched one episode many decades later.

Didn't the main character die/snuff it/cease to be/popped his clogs/croak (delete as appropriate) ?