Gym Class Perspective

When you think back to your school days, was there any class that you disliked more than gym class? I know I sure can't think of one. Gym class for me, much like it was for most shy nerdy types (and I know I can't be the only one on this site), was a time of hell, of increased segregation and ridicule, the chance for other students to hassle me and be able to get away with it right in front of a teacher.

I have my beef against gym class. Can you tell?

Physical education was rarely stressed when I was growing up. It might have been the city I lived in, the schools I went to, the particular teachers I had, or a combination of all three, but my physical education was spotty at best, and a time to be dreaded rather than enjoyed. It wasn't that I disliked physical activity. It was that I disliked the setting, the treatment of the students during that class time, what we had to do and how we had to do it. Though as much as I may have resented it at the time, I now wish that a greater emphasis had been placed on physical education during my youth.

Now, to clarify, I don't mean that I wish schools paid more attention to sports. I'm of the opinion that most schools pay too much attention to sports, and don't put as much emphasis on academia. It's a stereotype, but it actually happens that some people get into university on sports scholarships alone, but barely have higher than an 8th grade language comprehension level. When you have kids getting higher education because they can throw a ball far but can't spell properly, it should be a clue that there's a problem.

But that's a rant for another day. Back to my original point.

I didn't start having a regular gym class until around the 5th grade. Before that, gym was a treat, a weekly half hour tentatively scheduled that was often snatched away from us if the class had been too noisy that day or if the teacher just didn't feel like doing it. Once I was in the 5th grade, it became something that wasn't taken away, part of my actual education. Games were taught, drills were given, and it continued like this for two years.

Sad to say, that was actually the most structured physical education I got. Half an hour in the gym per week, most often playing volleyball, or taking turns throwing basketballs into hoops.

Once I got into junior high, gym was a twice-a-week ordeal that I dreaded more than any other class. It was expected by the teacher that we should already know the rules to all the games he wanted to play, and so his classes consisted of, "We're playing soccer-baseball today," and then we'd split into teams based on gender. (I won't even go into the rampant sexism in that particular class. That too is a rant for another day.) We got no explanation of how to play. Ever. It was expected that we'd already know. Not once were we ever even asked if we all knew the rules. I learned half the rules to various sports by being yelled at by my classmates that I did the wrong thing. I was taught to associate physical activity with shame and humiliation rather than enjoyment.

In high school, physical education for me was split into two categories. The first was classroom time, learning about the body, how it works, the theory of exercise and keeping healthy, all that. The second, of course, was time in the gym itself. Most often we were given activities rather than sports, like learning the basics of badminton and practicing volleys, or running laps. Every once in a great while, my friend and I would get our hands on foam rubber-padded sticks and engage in mock sword fights. This was the sort of activity I enjoyed.

Unfortunately, those few enjoyable classes came less and less frequently, and I was glad when mandatory gym classes were at an end. Most people were, really. Those who enjoyed sports were already on a sports team, and those who didn't no longer had to suffer.

Gym class was nearly always sports, and not being a sports fan (or a fan of humiliating myself), I rarely enjoyed participating. To be perfectly blunt about it, I would have gotten more satisfaction out of running laps, doing jumping jacks for ten minutes, that sort of thing. I know a good number of people who would have also preferred that to being split up and forced to compete in sports activities they didn't know or like.

A friend of mine once came up with the idea of having students do 15 minutes of calisthenics each morning, instead of gym class a few times a week. I can see many advantages that this idea has over the current system. First of all, if this sort of behaviour is started early during a child's education and is done consistently, it gets the child into a habit that may follow them through the rest of their lives. 15 minutes of light exercise per day is actually more than most adults bother doing at the moment, partially because the habit we're in is to just not bother. Form a correct habit early in life, and there's a good chance it will stick.

The second advantage to this idea is doing light exercise before classes each morning will serve the purpose not only of energizing young bodies but also minds. The stimulation will also ensure that the child has awakened fully and is ready to begin the day of learning. Light activity such as this might actually boost your child's grades, or at least make the reception of their lessons a bit easier.

The third advantage lies in the social aspect of a child's development. Some competition is healthy, yes, and it can be used to help better ourselves and strive for further goals. But competition coupled with the fear of failure or the shame of defeat sometimes has the effect of destroying a child's self-worth. Children are already notorious for teasing each other over small foolish things. Is it really a good idea to keep reinforcing the belief that this is a good thing?

Some people may argue that the current system allows children to learn cooperation, since sports activities are most often done in teams and require children to work together to achieve a common goal. Yes, this is something to consider. However, it's been my personal experience that those who know how to participate in physical activities are often the ones who cannot or do not participate easily in academic groups when needed, either through their own choice or the fact that the only cooperative techniques they learned were ones in gym class. Cooperation can be taught in other ways, ones that are perhaps more beneficial to a child's academic education rather than their physical one.

Also, the fact that some children learn cooperation through sports does not change the fact that all some children learn through gym class is to feel ashamed of themselves, and to feel afraid of their fellow classmates. For some, the social experience is a negative one, and one that can follow them through the rest of their life. I have little doubt that if I had been exposed to alternate forms of physical activity when I was younger, given the chance to exercise in a non-competitive environment, I would have better health than I do now, and would not have had such a very low opinion of myself.

There's no denying that physical education is very important, especially for school-aged children. There is reasonable doubt that the current system of giving them that education is a truly effective one, however, and there are many things that could be done to make it better and more enjoyable for all children involved.

And at the very worst, even if such a switch wouldn't necessarily bring increased enjoyment to children, it would lower stress on some and not bother others. Even if a change to morning calisthenics wouldn't form a habit in children once it became no longer mandatory, it wouldn't hurt, and it might help some that want the activity but can't bear the negative social effects that often come with it.