You knew I was going to show up, since this is an issue I've felt strongly about even before I discovered this website in late December 2008. Historically mandatory P.E. was sports-centered, which means that the nonathletic students were shortchanged in more ways than one. In fact, the traditional approach has been a disgrace. It has promoted more bullying than all the academic classes combined, including acts of violence. As I experienced for myself when I was a boy, nonathletic students hardly got any exercise.
When are people finally going to use their minds to be able to make the observation that a sport is a contest, not a physical fitness program? Say, math classes were taught the way P.E. has been "taught" the traditional "sports only" approach. Basic math students, algebra students, and geometry students would be placed in a pre-cal or calculus class and be expected to understand the class subject and pass the course along with the calculus students, which would be absurd. But this is the way that mandatory
sports-centered P.E. classes have historically been taught.
The best and most efficient way to get into shape is by starting an exercise program, not by playing ball games. Say, a student is overweight. Is the best way for that student to lose weight by standing in a field somewhere watching someone throw a ball? No, the sort of exercise that an overweight person needs to do (in addition to modifying his diet) is to engage in constant movement. What sport does that? Why is it that all those who insist upon sports-centered P.E. being mandatory on all students are seemingly incapable of realizing that individual students
have different physical fitness needs (in other words, they need to do different kinds of exercise)? Even a simple person can understand this. The answer is because all these people care about is promoting sports. They really don't care about providing a humane and efficient physical fitness program for nonathletic students.
P.E. is going through a period of reform in the United States. There are excellent innovative programs (the best of which is probably PE4Life) that actually promote physical fitness, instead of marginalizing nonathletic students and even frequently subjecting them to bullying. Donald is right: The most effective physical education class gives the students
a choice. Different school districts have different P.E. programs. Unfortunately, the old P.E. is still used in some districts (way too many, I'm sure). As a nonathlete who works out on a bodybuilding program at a health club, I'm far more generous to the
sports-minded people than they ever were towards nonathletic boys, who were regarded as not deserving of any concern or consideration. I favor the traditonal sports-centered P.E. for the school athletes and those students who simply want to participate in sports as an ELECTIVE,
not as a mandatory class. And just to be sure that neither critics of this website nor anyone else misunderstands me, I do
not denigrate anyone's love of participating in a sport. I respect any endeavor that requires self-discipline -- whether it's athletics, art, or architecture. Respect for others is one of the moral principles both my parents taught me by their very example.
There is absolutely no rationale for forcing nonathletic boys who have no interest in them to participate in competitive sports in mandatory P.E. classes. Absolutely no rationale at all. Anyone can get into shape WITHOUT PARTICIPATING IN SPORTS. That's what exercise programs are for. There is not a single sport that exercises all the muscles of the body. I once read a newspaper article about a professional football player who took ballet lessons. When he started, he ended up with sore muscles! Is there any profession or line of work (outside of coaching or professional sports) that being forced to play a sport would be a necessity? No, there is not. Trigonometry, for example, is quite useful. It's used in chemistry and physics, and surely has other applications of which I'm not even aware. And why should a teenage boy who excels academically have his GPA lowered by a sports-minded coach in a mandatory sports-centered boys' P.E. class who looks down on him merely for not being an athlete? A class, which I might add, is totally USELESS to him.
It's my personal belief that the initial push for mandatory P.E. was not motivated by a truly genuine and sincere concern for physical fitness, but was motivated by anti-intellectualism (which has always been a component of American culture going all the way back to colonial times). (Yeah, I can just see it now. The wonderful folks who gave us mandatory sports-centered P.E. were setting up their curriculum when one of them said, "Hey, do you see that four-eyed sissy sitting over there with his nose stuck in a book?
He's a feminized male. If we don't do something, he'll probably turn into a
homosexual.
I bet he thinks he's better than us since he's so smart.
So, let's cut him down to size.
Force him to play dodgeball with
him as the target.
Hit him harder! Knock his glasses off! Give him a bloody nose! That will make a man out of him!"
) Is it any great surprise that some of the most anti-intellectual places happen to be many of this nation's junior high and high schools?
I'm all for physical fitness. Again, I've been working on a bodybuilding program for over two years now. I enjoy my exhaustive workouts immensely. So, no one can say that the reason I'm critical of mandatory P.E. is because I'm sedentary. That bird won't fly. Lord willing, in a few more years of workouts, I will have a physique that will amaze former high-school classmates who haven't seen me in all these years. I will have (hopefully) achieved a dream NO THANKS TO THE SPORTS CULTURE.
