Your opinion on Gym Class

[RufusMcLaser]

From time to time gym classes were fun, most of the time they were boring, and at no point did they do one drop of good towards improving my fitness. The fit kids were already fit, the fatties stayed fat, and skinny kids tried to be unobtrusive during dodgeball.
Why?
My fitness never got better until I had specific goals tied to it and enforced/rewarded by someone else. If the payoff for (say) running a 30 minute 5k was no more gym class for the rest of the school year, I probably would have done it.

 

[Zombiefish]

In the uk gym classes are mandatory. I hated classes from the ages 11-15 as we were told ;go play this sport'. If i was bad at the sport my classmates would get frustrated at me and I would feel embarassed and useless.

A much better idea, which was trailed from 15-16 was to give limited options of different activities. students could choose whether they wanted to spend their time in the gym, on trampolines, playing football or tennis. I actually enjoyed this to some extent.

 

[Occams_Razor]

I didn't mind gym all that much, was nice to learn some new sports and get out and do something. Though being a nerd in a high school gym class can be a very unique brand of torture, but we live through it.

What I wasn't a fan of was the marking scheme, at least in my school. For all the claim that it was about "participation", and how ability didn't matter, it seemed a strange coincidence that all the varsity athletes came out with the higher marks than anyone.

 

[Xian_Frost]

The only thing I took away from that class was that my face is a magnet for flying objects, I was the only one not shy on changing in front of classmates and I was smart for hiding my locker combination in my socks when I forgot the code.

I hated dodge ball because I had to let my teacher take my glasses so they wouldn't get broken. Why would you aim at the face of the kid who can barely see? I almost broke my nose.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

It's a good principle but it's poorly implemented. Getting kids to excercise is one thing, but encouraging massive amounts of polarization and bullying toward the less physically able kids, as is what happens like 90% of the time, is where gym class falls flat. It needs to be totally reinvented or totally scrapped.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Everyone knows about gym, in one way or another, so, I want to hear your opinion about it. To me, it's a waste of time I could be using to learn about the nature of the universe, human mind, mathematics, or how to dance.

I think PE(Physical Education, what we in Britain refer to 'Gym class' as) should be mandatory 3 x 1 hour lessons a week, minimum.

And I wonder where you got that one from! I was thinking the same thing... mostly because, like you, I am also an adult who still does mandatory PT!

Also the sessions in school should be harder! I remember it was far to easy to avoid anything strenuous in lessons... it should be a lot more strict!

 

[Delicious Anathema]

Thought is was useless then, now that I'm well out of school and attending a gym I look back and...I still think it's useless.
Gym classes spawn locker room intimidation and uncomfortable exposition, kids and early teenagers can be really horrible at this kind of stuff because of their immaturity. It harvests problems with self-esteem that may or may not go away depending on the character.

Other than that, it's usually a fit teacher that thinks he's in an army or something to punish someone with push-ups. My math teacher never punished me with 20 equations, so what right does this person have to do it? Also, many of these fit teachers don't know what it's like to have extra weight and run for 10 minutes while your ribcage hurts from trying to gasp for as much air as possible.

Finally, sports. I hate sports with a passion. I don't mind physical exercise but I don't like the competitive aspect and the fact that too often students take the game to seriously. Also, being the last to be picked up for the team doesn't feel to good either.

Gym classes are pointless and only serve to bring down the average grade in otherwise excellent students, and raise it in some meatheads. Let people decide whether they want physical activity or not, I mean you don't put retarded children learning physics (it's a bad analogy but go with it). I am opposed to Gym being mandatory, and I would hate if sex education became too, it's stuff that should be a personal decision and self-maintained.

I lost more weight when I learned about food and changed my diet than I ever did in school. A nutrition class would be FAR more useful and less degrading than physical education.

Here's an idea to partially reinvent PE:
Have a personalized training for everybody, you are 20Kg overweight, if you lose 10kg you get an A or a B, if you don't you get a C (NEVER NEGATIVE SCORES), and you do the exercises you want and the teachers sees as fit for your condition. It wouldn't solve the locker room intimidation but it would help a lot with the rest.

 

[C F]

PhysEd? I remember it being pretty fun in middle school. Though to be fair, my school was awesome about it. Every quarter, a cut of the class would be pulled aside for a nutrition/biology lesson mixed with weight training. The rest of the year was spent on physical activities and sports like capture the flag, tennis, and fantasy football.
It didn't matter that I sucked at them, they were activities I was taught about and encouraged to engage in with a bunch of other kids at the school. I saw no reason not to like it. You showed up, dressed out, and put honest effort into it? The coach'll give you your A. It didn't matter if you were an inept scrawny wimp, my coaches could tell when you're putting your focus into it.

The class imparts some pretty fundamental stuff no kid should go without (i.e. actual exercise and appropriate knowledge thereof). If they're willing to educate you on the topic, I see no reason why it shouldn't be required.