Get Rid of PE and Bullying In Schools

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Roybertito,

I absolutely hated gym when I was in school (in NYC), so much, that it was the first class that I cut regularly. I was picked on by both the students and teachers, despite coming prepared to class (proper attire) and putting forth a geniune effort.

I still resent my parents and school for not removing me from gym class, despite my constant complaints. In fact, when I was in graduate school, I co-authored a term paper arguing why New York State should eliminate gym classes or at least re-design them substanstially. Here are a couple of verbatim quotes from that paper (from the year 2000), with citations included:

DaPurd,

I am surprised you got away with cutting class. NYS requires that all high schoolers complete 4 years of physical education. If you miss too much, they can keep you from getting your diploma. In fact, I knew a few students who were required to take extra gym classes in order to graduate.

Please note that I do not agree with this, I am just stating the facts.

Gym was my favorite class.

Read robyerito's posts.

I think that the reason PE is a bully-magnet isn't because of the students so much as the gym teachers. Like many of you have noted, bullying is sometimes not a problem in PE classes at all because the gym coaches don't tolerate it in the slightest, and they tend to be the kind of authority figure that bullies can't ignore.

(The only place I ever got badly bullied was in, of all things, a chorus class, and that was because the teacher had no control over the kids... but that's neither here nor there.)

The reason bullying becomes a problem is because some gym teachers actually identify with the bullies and despise the fat or unathletic kids for being fat and unathletic. Some gym teachers take the approach to discipline that the kid needs to learn to stand up for himself, and that intervention would only make the problem go away for a short time, then come back worse than before. I've had that happen with a teacher.

The other impulse that some gym coaches have is to get the unathletic kids "fighting mad". They incorrectly view a dispropensity for athletics and physical exertion as a flaw to be corrected, and perhaps they think that if the other kids bully them enough, they'll get tired of it and work to make themselves less targets. And honestly, this does work with many NT kids. It doesn't work with Aspies very often though.

And of course, some coaches are still caught in the jock mentality, and can be bullies themselves. When I played little league soccer, there was a coach for one of the opposing teams that pushed his own players around.

As for Phys-Ed itself...

My high school had a system set up somewhat like college, in that kids could select which class they took to cover their PE credits. One was a technical know-how of sports class, for those who were physically handicapped or otherwise unable to play. Then they had physical fitness class, and sports-class. In the fitness class, you were graded based partly on participation in the class, and partly on what kind of improvements you made. I saw one kid in my high school lose 75 lbs in that class.

Why is it, that kids get more Rude, in PE than they do in any of their other classes. That used to annoy me, when I was in High School. One day, my Grade 9 Girls PE Class had a Substitute Teacher and we were playing Basketball. Everybody was tackling one another. I didn't get into it. I've just stood at the line and waited for my Team Mates to throw me the Ball, and than I've shot for the Basket.

Please delete all my posts.

I have to say that throughout this thread I am very much on 'Iammeandnooneelse's side of the fence here. However, to best articulate my thoughts, I want to itemize each subject at a time and give my thoughts on it.

Physical Education

I have never been, am not, and never will be, an athlete. I have never had any inclination to or interest in being so. When I was growing up, I was interested in science fiction and art and..well..girls I am not an athlete and if kids are not interested nor inclined towards athletics, they should not be made to participate. I am going to be blunt here. I hate athletics. Seriously! I hate sports! With a bitter passion! I hate it to death! I never did well in athletics. When I took P.E. we'd begin by having exercises and then it was some kind of sport. While I liked exercise, I hated sports bitterly. I don't recall being bullied in P.E. class that much (perhaps I was but have since blocked the memory out) but the fact is that I am not an athlete.

The problem is that in our society, we have it in our minds that to be a productive member of society, we need to learn to be competitive. And we are told in society that the best way to be competitive is to be involved in sports. Not me! I have never been competitive and have never had any desire to be involved in sports. I am grateful that I was never looked down on in my family for disliking sports. My father was a sports fan but was very graceful about it- no pressure, no "Well Matt, you're just a little girly-boy" or any crap like that. He understood from day one that not all kids are athletically-inclined and he deserves nothing but praise for that!

In society, we are looked down on if we are not athletically-inclined. There is this stereotype that if you are not into sports or athletic, then you are a "girly-boy" or a "sissy". I have been called worse with profanities that needn't be listed here. I have a proposal for the P.E. problem. I think we need to realize a distinction between the athletically-inclined and the not-so-athletically-inclined. I believe that P.E. should not be a compulsory class. I think it should be one of multiple options. For kids who are not into sports or athletically-inclined, schools should offer something I call "Basic Health" which is a course on nutrition and exercise. I would have excelled in this class! I hate to think that if I did better in school and was studying my rear off to get into an Ivy League school, I wouldn't have been accepted because I couldn't throw a baseball as good as the jocks.

Kids who are natural athletes and athletically-inclined can then take a P.E. course and excel in what is their natural habitat. But, for the love of all that is sacred, kids that age like I was, don't need to be in a class where the kids are playing baseball or what-have-you. It doesn't help when kids my age have A.S. What many more teachers need to realize is that each kid is different and this isn't some kind of hive where we are all bees. We also have to have more educators (and parents, for Pete's sake!) realize that not all kids are competitive. I wasn't and no one had any real business putting me into an environment that is naturally competitive. I believe that P.E. should be an elective for the athletically-inclined and we should have "Basic Health" classes or something like this for the nonathletes.

Bullies

I have to be careful here. I have a difficult time talking about this without having deeply angry feelings or even feelings of rage and hate. I was bullied. Although I think that schools might do best with the solution I have above in terms of P.E. reform, bullying is a more severe problem. I have nothing but loathe and contempt for bullies. I have a hard time seeing bullies in any different light than law enforcement sees sexual predators who are online trying to seduce teenagers or adolescents. One problem is that bullies cannot be reasoned with. I have learned this the hard way. Often I tend to think that the only way to solve the problem with bullies is to take bullies and inflict brutally violent pain on them to the point where they're screaming at the top of their lungs in the most bitter, ear-shattering pitch you have ever heard. Yet this won't work. This is not just sinking to their level- this is going much lower and you wind up becoming a bigger monster than many of these bullies have made themselves out to be.

I question whether we need kids who are bullies in the schools. Sometimes I get the impression that they're just a drain on resources and wasting the teachers' time when they pick on someone in a class and they cause needless misery to students who don't deserve and should've have to be picked on in the first place! But I cannot think of where else to put them except in military school. I chuckle at the thought of a platoon seargant yelling at the top of his lungs in some bully's face like the seargant on the movie Full Metal Jacket. In fact, I am quite infatuated with this solution although I don't know if this would work in real life. But I tend to think that if bullies were sent off to military school, they'd change their tune, learn to be responsible and respectful, and perhaps even learn to be patriotic!

But if we have to have these slimeballs with us, we need to get drastically strict with anti-bullying rules. I hate the thought of resorting to Draconian measures but I'm willing to if that's the only way to nip the problem in the bud. We need strong measures and swift punishments for bullying. And for crying out loud- some people need to stop attacking the victims of bullying (i.e. "Well, you wouldn't get bullied if you weren't such a sissy!" ). Each person is a unique individual and should've have to learn to fight back or be a conformist just to escape being bullied or teased. Bullies, if they can be reformed, need to be taught to respect people and need to be made aware that there are stiff and harsh consequences for bullying or teasing people.

Matthew

Right. At the end of the day, though some of the **** just needs to be used in a different way to become half-useful.
Poster at school "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude"
I will proceed to explain why this seems to be absolute rubbish. I don't like being bullied. According to that poster, I should change it. So I try to change it, it backfires and makes it worse. According to that poster, I should now learn to like it.
WTF? That ignorance probably doesn't help.

However, bullying may be due to irrespionble adults, maybe they don't understand how serious it is. Following that line of thought:
So let's change it.
Let's print out research.
Let's get some documents and stories out there.
Let's show that is a problem.
Let's work as a team - our skills will HELP.
We have the advantage of globlaixing yet localizing.
We can spread out and do this at our various schools yet set up HQ here at wrongplanet.
Let's do what we can - NOW, before we have any more dead children.
Who's with me?

Anyone else?
Anyone care to set up HQ?

I think it should be Robeyito by rights.

Any thoguhts?

Just re-watching the topic.