6 ms·

I firmly believe that PE in high school is the most important class you'll ever take. Getting to know the limits of your body and learning to push and exhaust y

by jcfrei 9y ago

I firmly believe that PE in high school is the most important class you'll ever take. Getting to know the limits of your body and learning to push and exhaust yourself is probably one of the most important lessons in life. PE teachers face a big challenge in making this as fun and rewarding as possible. But if they succeed their students will be rewarded with lower mortality, higher mental fitness and lower chances of serious injuries for the rest of their lives.

omegaworks 9y ago
Please also firmly believe in funding these endeavors. It's becoming increasingly intractable to argue for equitable resources outside of activities not directly related to STEM. We're struggling to reach parity even with focus solely on STEM fields. Public schools around the country are always teetering on the edge of losing their PE, art, music, history and civics classes. We keep electing people that don't care. People that want to redirect funding to private institutions that limit access. The latest tax bill turned 509 education savings plans into a tax-evasion vehicle for parents sending their kids to private schools. It also penalizes states that use state income tax to more equitably fund schools.
pjc50 9y ago
I blame school PE for giving me a distaste for exercise that took years to get past as an adult. (edit: if you find yourself in this situation, possible solutions include unusual sports, or in my case getting a heart rate monitor and going for a run without putting yourself too close to your max heart rate. The bad things about school sports are the competitiveness, the uniforms, the lack of choice, the weather, and the lack of adaptation to your own ability)
- yodsanklai 9y ago
  Totally agree. I hated school PE. As a smaller and rather introverted kid, I didn't fit in the team sports that were imposed to us most of the time. But I loved sports outside school (started Judo when I was seven).
  - mgkimsal 9y ago
    Culturally, "sport" is almost synonymous with "team sport". Anything solo is viewed by most as a hobby. Not saying it's right/correct, but especially for kids, karate would be a "hobby" and baseball a "sport". At least, that's the world I grew up in.
    - always_good 9y ago
      And, in my part of Texas, we call the lil roads next to highways as "feeders" where I've never met someone else that uses that word. And I suspect that nobody cares.
- ergothus 9y ago
  This. I'm fully aware that I should improve my health for many reasons. But my every experience with physical activity tells me I will feel pain, discomfort, and personal embarrassment in large degrees. (Every experience I can actually recall. I know as a child I was perfectly happy running around - but that is not what it feels like now and I can't recall the feeling then. I know PE classes created negative associations, and those I CAN recall. In horrifying detail. Everyone that talks about the good feeling you get afterwards either has different physiology, feels pain to a lower degree, or just has a better willpower + long term view. Regardless, such advice just feels like a dodge or an attack. Meanwhile, while my brain KNOWS healthy is better, the consequences just don't FEEL real, so it is far easier to procrastinate. All of which makes activity MORE painful, MORE uncomfortable, and MORE embarrassing (because I'm more out of shape), so it's the opposite of a virtuous cycle. My issues today are a combination of time (in addition to disliking the activity, I'm disliking the opportunity cost), discomfort, fear, and boredom (if I have nothing to focus on all I end up focusing on is my discomfort. If I have something to focus on, I'll instinctively stop doing things that make it harder to focus, such as movement, which means I have to start focusing on the bad parts again). I know (again, from experience) that I can feel better with more exercise eventually - but it takes weeks at a minimum, involves a lot of discomfort, is easily lost, and has not yet been a strong feeling (though I've never had any activity I maintained for more than 3 months, and that rarely). All of which sounds like excuses...and are. But they are also real obstacles I need to find a work around for, because willpower and logic alone have clearly not sufficed.
  - btkramer9 9y ago
    Walking + audiobooks have done wonders for me. I find myself taking hour long walks all the time just to read the next few chapters.
  - bpizzi 9y ago
    Maybe I can offer personal insight here: finding comfort in discomfort, pleasure in pain and motivation in embarrassment really is the key, at least to me.
  - pjc50 9y ago
    Just to weigh against the sibling comment, if you're struggling to get into it then avoid pain at all costs and go for things that don't feel like work. Getting the benefits of moderate exercise absolutely does not require pain.
- ACow_Adonis 9y ago
  Another testimony. I already play/played several sports. Unfortunately, school PE focused on team and socially popular sports. Here that meant things like rugby, afl, soccer, basketball, etc. Sports I had and continue to have no interest in and due to not really getting a growth spurt until about 15-16, really wasn't built for. And even when we did then do a fortnight of say "racquet sports", what was the point when you could beat the teacher and everyone else. PS: I still remember I got a B for that. Luckily I was already active, so I had the benefit of NOT being turned off physical activity by school PE, but god damn did I despise that class, and so did almost everyone else I know that didn't already play the anointed games. Never heard a good review of school PE until earlier post...
aje403 9y ago
PE class taught you the limits of your body? I really miss that hockey game with the giant whiffleball and the tree gym thing in middle school but my main life takeaway from PE class was to wear deodorant when surrounded by a large group of women
- ergothus 9y ago
  > my main life takeaway from PE class was to wear deodorant You speak truth for many of us.
joncrane 9y ago
>Getting to know the limits of your body and learning to push and exhaust yourself Well said. Knowing your limits (and regularly checking in with them) is important. Not sure if PE is the most important class, though. I'll have to think about that.
irrational 9y ago
Your high school PE class helped you get to know the limits of your body?! What did you do in PE class? We did things like roller skating, go bowling, etc. It was all about having fun.
- jcfrei 9y ago
  We mostly played soccer. But there were running days and the occasional 12 minute run (which was really exhausting). There were also one or two compulsory lessons where we had to work on the parallel bars and the same also for gymnastics on the horizontal bar. And lastly there was a school wide track and field day, which we had to practice for. We had 4 hours of PE each week.
- shaftoe 9y ago
  Run laps with someone with a stopwatch timing you. The "Pacer" test. Either play basketball, just slowly walk circles around the gym while chatting with your friends, or secretly hide under the bleachers and hang out. We were either doing things like running a couple miles when we'd never done that before so it felt horrible or we were screwing off and passing the time.
vkou 9y ago
The only thing that high school PE taught me is that I hated running, and ~80% of sports.
ronald_raygun 9y ago
I never thought about that. I realized math class kills lots of people learning about math, art class makes a lot of people dislike art. I guess its only natural PE makes people hate exercise.
chillwaves 9y ago
If only PE taught that. And yoga makes a lot of sense as a way for children to learn their bodies.
scarmig 9y ago
My PE experiences ruined me for years. I came away from them thinking that exercise and sports were pretty much evil and for bad people. This was through multiple classes, years, and "coaches." I think the core thing is that PE should require more individualized attention than most classes. Different people's bodies are made for different things. Forcing kids into team sports that they're not built for just to make them suffer and "build character" just teaches them to hate physical activity.
tajen 9y ago
PE gave me shame of who I was, for making me notice that I was the worst of the worst in class.

by jcfrei 9y ago

omegaworks 9y ago

Please also firmly believe in funding these endeavors. It's becoming increasingly intractable to argue for equitable resources outside of activities not directly related to STEM. We're struggling to reach parity even with focus solely on STEM fields. Public schools around the country are always teetering on the edge of losing their PE, art, music, history and civics classes. We keep electing people that don't care. People that want to redirect funding to private institutions that limit access. The latest tax bill turned 509 education savings plans into a tax-evasion vehicle for parents sending their kids to private schools. It also penalizes states that use state income tax to more equitably fund schools.

pjc50 9y ago

I blame school PE for giving me a distaste for exercise that took years to get past as an adult. (edit: if you find yourself in this situation, possible solutions include unusual sports, or in my case getting a heart rate monitor and going for a run without putting yourself too close to your max heart rate. The bad things about school sports are the competitiveness, the uniforms, the lack of choice, the weather, and the lack of adaptation to your own ability)

yodsanklai 9y ago
Totally agree. I hated school PE. As a smaller and rather introverted kid, I didn't fit in the team sports that were imposed to us most of the time. But I loved sports outside school (started Judo when I was seven).
- mgkimsal 9y ago
  Culturally, "sport" is almost synonymous with "team sport". Anything solo is viewed by most as a hobby. Not saying it's right/correct, but especially for kids, karate would be a "hobby" and baseball a "sport". At least, that's the world I grew up in.
  - always_good 9y ago
    And, in my part of Texas, we call the lil roads next to highways as "feeders" where I've never met someone else that uses that word. And I suspect that nobody cares.
ergothus 9y ago
This. I'm fully aware that I should improve my health for many reasons. But my every experience with physical activity tells me I will feel pain, discomfort, and personal embarrassment in large degrees. (Every experience I can actually recall. I know as a child I was perfectly happy running around - but that is not what it feels like now and I can't recall the feeling then. I know PE classes created negative associations, and those I CAN recall. In horrifying detail. Everyone that talks about the good feeling you get afterwards either has different physiology, feels pain to a lower degree, or just has a better willpower + long term view. Regardless, such advice just feels like a dodge or an attack. Meanwhile, while my brain KNOWS healthy is better, the consequences just don't FEEL real, so it is far easier to procrastinate. All of which makes activity MORE painful, MORE uncomfortable, and MORE embarrassing (because I'm more out of shape), so it's the opposite of a virtuous cycle. My issues today are a combination of time (in addition to disliking the activity, I'm disliking the opportunity cost), discomfort, fear, and boredom (if I have nothing to focus on all I end up focusing on is my discomfort. If I have something to focus on, I'll instinctively stop doing things that make it harder to focus, such as movement, which means I have to start focusing on the bad parts again). I know (again, from experience) that I can feel better with more exercise eventually - but it takes weeks at a minimum, involves a lot of discomfort, is easily lost, and has not yet been a strong feeling (though I've never had any activity I maintained for more than 3 months, and that rarely). All of which sounds like excuses...and are. But they are also real obstacles I need to find a work around for, because willpower and logic alone have clearly not sufficed.
- btkramer9 9y ago
  Walking + audiobooks have done wonders for me. I find myself taking hour long walks all the time just to read the next few chapters.
- bpizzi 9y ago
  Maybe I can offer personal insight here: finding comfort in discomfort, pleasure in pain and motivation in embarrassment really is the key, at least to me.
- pjc50 9y ago
  Just to weigh against the sibling comment, if you're struggling to get into it then avoid pain at all costs and go for things that don't feel like work. Getting the benefits of moderate exercise absolutely does not require pain.
ACow_Adonis 9y ago
Another testimony. I already play/played several sports. Unfortunately, school PE focused on team and socially popular sports. Here that meant things like rugby, afl, soccer, basketball, etc. Sports I had and continue to have no interest in and due to not really getting a growth spurt until about 15-16, really wasn't built for. And even when we did then do a fortnight of say "racquet sports", what was the point when you could beat the teacher and everyone else. PS: I still remember I got a B for that. Luckily I was already active, so I had the benefit of NOT being turned off physical activity by school PE, but god damn did I despise that class, and so did almost everyone else I know that didn't already play the anointed games. Never heard a good review of school PE until earlier post...

aje403 9y ago

PE class taught you the limits of your body? I really miss that hockey game with the giant whiffleball and the tree gym thing in middle school but my main life takeaway from PE class was to wear deodorant when surrounded by a large group of women

ergothus 9y ago
> my main life takeaway from PE class was to wear deodorant You speak truth for many of us.

joncrane 9y ago

>Getting to know the limits of your body and learning to push and exhaust yourself Well said. Knowing your limits (and regularly checking in with them) is important. Not sure if PE is the most important class, though. I'll have to think about that.

irrational 9y ago

Your high school PE class helped you get to know the limits of your body?! What did you do in PE class? We did things like roller skating, go bowling, etc. It was all about having fun.

jcfrei 9y ago
We mostly played soccer. But there were running days and the occasional 12 minute run (which was really exhausting). There were also one or two compulsory lessons where we had to work on the parallel bars and the same also for gymnastics on the horizontal bar. And lastly there was a school wide track and field day, which we had to practice for. We had 4 hours of PE each week.
shaftoe 9y ago
Run laps with someone with a stopwatch timing you. The "Pacer" test. Either play basketball, just slowly walk circles around the gym while chatting with your friends, or secretly hide under the bleachers and hang out. We were either doing things like running a couple miles when we'd never done that before so it felt horrible or we were screwing off and passing the time.

vkou 9y ago

The only thing that high school PE taught me is that I hated running, and ~80% of sports.

ronald_raygun 9y ago

I never thought about that. I realized math class kills lots of people learning about math, art class makes a lot of people dislike art. I guess its only natural PE makes people hate exercise.

chillwaves 9y ago

If only PE taught that. And yoga makes a lot of sense as a way for children to learn their bodies.

scarmig 9y ago

My PE experiences ruined me for years. I came away from them thinking that exercise and sports were pretty much evil and for bad people. This was through multiple classes, years, and "coaches." I think the core thing is that PE should require more individualized attention than most classes. Different people's bodies are made for different things. Forcing kids into team sports that they're not built for just to make them suffer and "build character" just teaches them to hate physical activity.

tajen 9y ago

PE gave me shame of who I was, for making me notice that I was the worst of the worst in class.