Writer's Block: Sweat it out

[jim_p]

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If it's going to be mandatory, then we're going to have to seriously rethink how it's taught. I see a lot of posts to this subject basically saying "Yes! Childhood Obseity! OMGWTFBBQ!". Well, I'm an overweight adult, and I got this way BECAUSE of mandatory gym class, not despite it. Whether it's the sadism of dodgeball, the humiliation of being picked last for the team, or the frustration of being too clumsy to enjoy myself, gym class has pretty much RUINED my experience of physical activity. To this day bicycling is the only exercise I enjoy and I'm pretty sure it's because it's one of the few that was NOT tainted by my gym class experience.

I have a friend who does a lot of work in educating gifted students, and he's constantly pointing out the difficulties getting schools to attend to the needs of the gifted. My experience of gym class has been that it's primarily geared FOR the physically gifted. In my regular classes things would be repeated slowly multiple times to make sure most students got it. In gym class there'd be a quick rundown of the rules of the sport, then an immediate launch right into play. Great fun for those who "got it" right away, sheer hell for folks like me who didn't...

Comments

[spinrabbit.livejournal.com]

I think that gym classes serve the goal of providing the school sports teams with recruits who know the basic skills and rules of those sports a lot better than they serve goals to do with the health and fitness of the population. And I wouldn't be surprised if the teacher/coaches are unaware that those are fundamentally different goals.