Greetings, LarryBird.
LarryBird wrote:Ok, so if I choose to go to an NBA game and cheer on my favorite team, you think there is something mentally wrong with me?
Of course, not. Before she graduated from a certain university in the state where we reside, my older daughter (who, incidentally, had had no "school spirit" when she was in high school) attended just about all the university's football games. I had no problem with that. It was a social activity that she enjoyed.
LarryBird wrote:I'm just having a hard time comprehending all the hate on this forum, and it frankly just doesn't make sense to me. Not trying to bash, just understand.
I appreciate your civility. Thanks for not being abusive.
As you've probably noticed already, we're just a very small group; but we still are diverse. I've been said to be the most moderate member of this forum. Two of my close friends played football in high school, one of whom also played football at the university where he earned his degree in sociology.
Contradicting one of the statements on the home page, I don't favor removing team sports from schools; but I am opposed to mandatory sports-based P.E. because such classes do not encourage nonathletic students to become physically active. In fact, the worst place a nonathletic boy can be is in a sports-based P.E. class. Bullying is rife in such classes, as many of the members of this forum have personally experienced. I favor the retention of the old P.E. as an
elective for the athletes and other students who
want to participate in sports. Genuine fitness classes that provide a range of choices should be provided for nonathletic students. The innovative PE4Life program is excellent for this purpose.
I personally know of what I speak. The P.E. I had to endure from the time I was in the 4th grade through junior high was useless. (Thankfully, since I was a band student, I was exempted from having to take P.E. in high school. I heard that the P.E. classes at my high school were absolutely hellish for nonathletic boys. This is the way to promote physical fitness?) Fitness programs were never provided. In fact, I never even heard the words "exercise program." (In fact, this has been the experience of all the members of this forum.) The assumption seems to have been made that all boys were currrently playing sports. No teaching was done about the games themselves in my P.E. classes. I got very little exercise. All I learned was to fear coaches, none of whom had any interest in the nonathletes in their classes. Many of the P.E. teachers and coaches seemed to view nonathletic boys with contempt.
About two years ago I joined a health club and hired a personal trainer to start working with me on a bodybuilding program. The results have been quite surprising. I love working out. I get more exercise in a single workout than I ever did in an entire
year of mandatory sports-based P.E., and my physique has changed considerably. I haven't achieved my goal yet, but I'm convinced that I'll eventually succeed after several more years of self-discipline and hard work. I feel like I
belong at my health club, a feeling I never had in any of my P.E. classes (in which I had no choice at all). Even though I'm a nonathlete, all the personal trainers at my health club like me because they know I work hard.
Incidentally, I'm not looking back on the past. I just get angered when I think of the latest generation of nonathletic kids being subjected to the pointless misery that is mandatory sports-based P.E.
There is a sense in which I'm not a sports hater. I have no problem with the games themselves. What I have a problem with is the negative aspects of the culture that is associated with those school sports that are the most popular (for example, machismo).
I realize that I've only given just a thumbnail sketch of my own views. I hope what I've said makes sense. At least I hope you understand that I don't hate people. Granted, some of us may seem less reasonable than others. As is the case in Internet forums, at least two of us are prone to ranting; but that is something I won't do. If you have any more questions, I'd be glad to answer them.
