Your opinion on Gym Class

[PhunkyPhazon]

A necessary evil. I can't say I have fond memories. Throughout Elementary school, it was the bane of my existence. I was constantly humiliated, picked on, and forced to do things outside of my ability. I hated hated hated it.

But I can't deny its importance. America in particular needs all the physical education it can get, so although it's pure torture for some kids, it's something they just need to go through.

 

[Dawns Gate]

I always found gym was the worst part of my day. I was never good at many sports (other than hockey, but that was because my skating was tight) and the other boys were assholes. If schools just had the students maybe do a couple laps around the schoolyard and some push ups - get them in the habit of exercising on their own - and if everyone improves each month they can have a fun class where they play capture the flag or something instead of math that day or something.

 

[lacktheknack]

It's a very damn good thing. The whole point is to keep fit, and Lord knows that kids aren't doing that nowadays. I had a gym teacher who didn't suck, in a gym that didn't suck,so I mildly enjoyed myself (I prefer weightlifting, really), and shrank a frankly embarrassing amount over the six years I was made to attend.

And be honest, OP. When you said "learn to w, x, y or z", you actually meant "have a nice spare", didn't you?

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

I say we need it. In fact I say we have schools that only do half years of gym make it full years. Kids need there half hour of activity a day, and I would say maybe half our getting it.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

I hate it with every fiber of my being. But that is just because of incompetent teaching staff. I had two years where I almost failed because I "never participated". Which is bullcrap. I was either put on a team of all girls (which in my schools meant a team that does nothing but stand around looking annoyed) or they only ever looked after a lull in whatever game we were playing. I could be sweating buckets and red as a tomato and sucking hurricanes but they'll still yet at me for being lazy or not participating, which would lead to a good shouting match with me. I only passed one year because I went to the principal and complained.

Personal hatred aside I think it is definitely a good thing. Coming from a person that prefers quiet study to a game of volleyball or push ups it is a good break from all the "learning" that is supposed to take place at all the other times. But I do think too much importance is placed on it and it should not be equal to the academic classes in terms of grades. It is unfair to the unfit kids and the ones with physical or mental problems that aren't "bad" enough to get an excused absence from the course. Because in my high school at least kids were graded on not how hard they performed relative to their abilities but how successful their performance was relative to some arbitrary standard that only the teacher knew and only the fittest and most try hard of the kids could achieve. I've seen many an overweight kid fail because they apparently weren't trying hard enough when they in fact were coming close to heart attacks trying and working as hard as they were able to.

tl:dr
It is good but too much importance is placed on it and it is in need of some serious reforms (ay least where I was from).

 

[Skizle]

Loved it. I got to work out school frustrations on the track, or the baseball field. It was definitely my happy place in school whenever things became difficult. I would just keep running...

this was pretty much the same thing i experienced. Also i was the best goalie in floor hockey, handball, speedball, and soccer, and i wasnt an athlete by any means. and when your class is filled with nothing but jocks and you can show them up, well it feels pretty good.

 

[Riptide1]

It depends on the activities. Most often gym class has a place, physical activity is important, plus its a great escape form the usual frustrations of other classes for most. But when the activities go form dodge ball, stick hockey, and soccer to, and we actually did this when i was in high school, musical chairs and taking a written midterm and final, it looses any reason it has for existence.

 

[Dags90]

I've seen many an overweight kid fail because they apparently weren't trying hard enough when they in fact were coming close to heart attacks trying and working as hard as they were able to.

Heart attacks are caused by the slow clogging (atherosclerosis)of the arteries to the heart muscle itself from years of bad diet and exercise, not exercise itself (though the temporary high blood pressure may immediately provoke a heart attack in someone who's a walking time bomb). Regardless, it won't cause a heart attack, a fatal arrhythmia would be more likely, but still incredibly rare.

The only people who ever failed PE in my school were people like myself who didn't show up. I didn't actually fail though, I scraped by with a C or a D for two years.

 

[NightHawk21]

Gym shouldn't be about fun and sports anymore.

Kids are getting fatter, younger these days.
It's alarming.


Kids should be required to do aerobic exercises the entire time. Everyone knows they don't get any exercise at home with their Flaming Hot Cheetohs and XBox 360s.

For kids that already are active, then a couple laps around the school wouldn't be a big deal.

For everyone else, the focus should be on improving their time every day.

Hopefully do a little damage control on their fat little bodies.


Anyone who decides to take their kids out of gym class: expel the kids. Let them die of a heart attack at middle age, living out of a trailer. Good riddance, imo.

Ya see except then you get a bunch of people like in this thread that just end up loathing what should be a fun and enjoyable activity. As an overweight guy (not too overweight but I am there's no denying that), I still enjoyed gym cause it was just time to run around play sports with other guys. Nothing stressful. The only thing I didn't like was the stupid athletics testing like the beep test and all that nonsense.

Off-topic: Captcha is getting overly attached. It just made me write "I love you" to it.

 

[INF1NIT3 D00M]

Middle school through high school, I actually enjoyed Gym class. The instructors doubled as the school's coaches for the various teams, and the exercise kept everyone in shape. In middle school, everyone played sports, so this was akin to recess in elementary school. In high school, everyone walked or played whatever sport we were working on that month. It was the perfect time to chat with friends, get some exercise, and gawk at teenage girls.
When I attended a middle college, we didn't have the same facilities, but there was a weight room and we walked/ran at least a mile every day. At that school, there were no sports teams to speak of, so our physical fitness instructor also taught health class. He was an interesting instructor, because in his down time he was an outdoorsman, so he had a lot of practical knowledge to give out on the subject of survival, and tons of neat outdoor gear that I'd never heard of before. Again, he didn't care if people talked, as long as everyone was exercising, so his class was a great time to socialize and relax between academics.

 

[chadachada123]

The fact that I was FORCED to have gym despite being fit myself was a bit annoying.

On top of this, most gy- I'm sorry, "physical education"/"PE" teachers were complete assholes at best, and just plain stupid at worst.

That said, I think it's pretty important to have, I just wish that it was structured a bit differently based on need/skill rather than just lumping 40 kids into one group just because they're in the same grade. It doesn't work like that if you're looking towards maximizing fitness.

 

[lord.jeff]

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 agree with that actually. I liked it enough as a kid in elementary school but when I found out I needed to have a credit or two of it throughout middle and high school that really annoyed the Hell out of me. It's like requiring a years credit in console gaming: some people would love it and lap it up but it's not going to get you a job unless you're a very specific type of person.

That could be said of history, higher math, and about half the classes in High School. Learning to work out and stay healthy even if it doesn't benefit your chosen profession directly it will still improve the quality of your life.

 

[Haukur Isleifsson]

I think that introducing children to a variety of physical activities early on is important if we want that to be a part of their lifestyle later on. And there is considerable research that indicates that participation in such activities is significantly correlated with health. And I think that the education system is in the best position to do this. However I think that very often this is done wrong. For many people the only lesson that PE taught them was that sports suck and that those that are not very good at them should not even try. And when that happens the affects are the polar opposite of what this kind of education should be striving for. But I am in no position to evaluate how exactly this should be handled.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I really, truly enjoyed PE in highschool... for the most part. The BS-free advice on how to get in shape ("eat balanced meals, exercise regularly, and don't eat like a pig" pretty much covers it) was great, and the exercise was... needed. I was in the best shape of my life after finishing with PE. The only thing I didn't like about it was the way you could literally lose a letter grade for forgetting to bring your gym shorts or shirt. I made a C in the team sports portion (it was two nine week courses, instead of one 18 week or full year course) because I missed a few days of dressing out and was not interested in running three miles after school (one for each letter grade) or writing three papers on team sports (something that really doesn't interest me, and interested me even less at the time. I'll /play/ a pickup game, but don't expect me to watch someone else play.)

The fact that about half of both classes was just goofing off and playing stuff like volleyball and basketball didn't hurt. It was basically half an hour of play time.

 

[McMullen]

The idea is great:

Promote exercise and fitness, while educating kids on how to take care of themselves.

In practice, the results are mixed.

The problem with PE is that the culture of it is often about as wrong as it could be. Those who aren't already fit are ridiculed in front of the whole class by the teacher and the other students join in. If you're one of those kids you begin to hate everything about it and just wait it out instead of treating it as the opportunity it is. Now, I really like the idea of having a free hour in the weight room twice a week. In high school and junior high though, it was the worst part of a bad day.

Bonus points if the asshole teacher looks like he hasn't had a sub-1000 calorie meal or run a mile in decades. Bringing this up as a response to his excessive criticism, however, is not a good idea.

 

[SamtheDeathclaw]

I enjoyed gym quite a bit when I was required to take it. Granted, I run about a mile and a half almost every day, so I wasn't concerned with a few laps around the gym.
Fucking awful at sports though. I hated being forced to play them. Like, can't I just go run laps instead? :<
But as for p.e. as a whole? Yeah, we kind of need it. And not just play around a bit, like actually do things.

Gym shouldn't be about fun and sports anymore.

But not like this guy/gal is saying. Not everyone likes to run. Not everyone likes sports. Everyone should be required to do something active, but forcing every single person to run laps? Nah. You can be active without having to run. If every kid equates being active with just running, those that don't like just running are not going to make an attempt. They get discouraged before they ever start. It ought to be about showing kids that exercise is fun and not just painful drudgery. If it's fun, they'll do it. Painful and inflicted? They won't. Plain and simple.
[sub]And since when has playing sports not been active? That's ridiculous. Have you ever actually watched sports? There's a hell of a lot of activity, no matter what sport. [sub]Barring things that aren't really sports. Like golf or whatever.[/sub][/sub]
But everyone has their own opinion on it. Mine's not authoritative or anything.

 

[RedDeadFred]

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.

Gym class is essential for daily physical activity. This is something that a lot of students sorely lack. Not only is it important for healthy living, you also burn of some energy and come out reinvigorated.

If you already do physical activity every day outside of gym then yes it's not as necessary. However, most people don't.

 

[Queen Michael]

Gym class? hate it. Needing to shower. Hate it. Having to move around. Hate it. Being graded on something that's not relevant to learning in itself. Hate it.

All in all, not a fan.

 

[Jux]

Keep gym, but make it more comprehensive than just running around and playing team sports. Sure, keep that too, but there needs to be an academic component as well, something I saw lacking when I was in high school. They pushed fitness[footnote]Which was good, because I was horribly out of shape[/footnote], but they never explained the benefits of staying in shape or how certain physiological processes work, which could have made things alot more interesting.

Kids are pretty unmotivated for PE, or at least they were, when I was still in high school. But part of that was because I wasn't learning anything. They just had me doing stuff.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

It's good. It's important.

It just needs to be taught by people with actual degrees in biology or preferably, kinesiology. People with sports training, etcetera. Right now the physical education field is strapped for trainers. Needs more qualified trainers who know how to motivate and teach students right, less about running instructors who are teaching a physical training philosophy decades old.