A Touchy Subject...

[Millhouse]

I've been in one school district my whole life and I was just speaking from that experience.

That at least explains why you are so obtuse. That and your age. And your arrogance in assuming that the rest of the world thinks the way you do.

[Earl]

What the hell? Do they enjoy humiliating kids?

Yes, at least the non athletic type

It was practically an epidemic in Texas schools when I was growing up. Skins and shirts. As if losing a play in gym class wasn't humiliating enough for the non jock. Yes, let's take our shirts off and get skin cancer. Aside from the obvious humiliation.

I was a pretty big kid, so as far back as middle school, i really dreaded those shirts vs skins games. It was pretty demeaning to the fat kids like myself. I know if i had mentioned it, the coach would have said something to the effect of , if you don't want to be made fun of, then loose some weight. What a way to help young minds with their fragile self images.

Does this tired, discredited approach to P.E. encourage nonathletic boys who are forced to take these useless classes to become physically fit? The answer is painfully obvious. But don't tell that to those who are either intellectually dishonest or actually enjoy having a pretext to make the lives of nonathletic students miserable.

Just to correct a misconception that some of you might have about me, I have not been obsessing about my P.E. experience ever since I was a kid. To tell you the honest truth, I hardly ever thought about it until about a year and a half ago.

Now there is another drive to make P.E. mandatory at all schools. But how many of these people also favor the reform of P.E. so that the nonathletic kids will actually be encouraged in a positive way to become physically fit? (Humiliating and bullying nonathletic kids doesn't accomplish anything.) I would say that many of them do not favor the reform of P.E. because all that they really care about is the mindless promotion of sports. In my humble opinion, these people really are not concerned about the health problems that obese kids face. What they object to is the kids' physical appearance, which shows just how shallow they really are.

For about a year and a half, I've worked with a personal trainer at a health club on a bodybuilding program. The experience has been very beneficial. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get on an exercise program. But when I was forced to take P.E. when I was a kid, neither weightlifting nor any kind of exercising program were even mentioned. I've gotten more exercise in a single workout session than I did in an entire year of junior-high P.E.

As I've probably said before in another post, I favor traditional sports-centered P.E. for athletic kids and those who want to participate in sports as an elective. I wouldn't even dream of taking it away from them. (There need to be separate classes for physical fitness.) But those of you who insist upon forcing competitive team sports upon nonathletic kids seem determined to produce another generation of "sports haters." I disagree with hateful comments on either side; but one of the reasons I strongly support this website is because it favors the reform of P.E., which is the only approach that will ever encourage nonathletic kids to become physically fit. Would my views be favorably received at a sports website or in a sports publication? I doubt it.