FANS:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MEMORIES:
PHOTOS:
Chilling after a grueling PE lesson in my uncomfortable PE ...
Posted by PsycadelicShack on 04/17/07
Physical Education, Phys Ed, PE… Oh, what a joy! (The sincere or sarcastic implication is up to you.)
Whether you liked it or not, Physical Education was a cornerstone in many a nutritious educational program. Mandatory for most students in elementary, middle and high schools, the idea behind P.E. was to teach students the skills and knowledge to exercise properly and to give them an excitement to keep a healthy and active life for the rest of their lives; that is, if you could get over the trauma of the locker room.
In elementary school, Phys Ed often included playing simple games, like tag and dodge ball, and using basic equipment like jump ropes and large bouncing balls. If there was a nearby track, kids could run a lap or two, or perhaps run around in the gymnasium. Jumping jacks, “arm circles,” and rope climbs abounded during the structured play time. If the outdoors were available, whiffle ball might have been played, or even Frisbee games. And if we were lucky, we got to play with the elementary Holy Grail of Phys Ed, the parachute. (Remember raising it high up in the air and making a temporary floating tent?) Perhaps most importantly at this time, we began to learn teamwork.
Once in middle school, P.E. class began to focus on specific sports skills. Pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, curl-ups, running and sprinting were a part of the preparations for the President’s Challenge a program that started in 1965, to survey the fitness of 10- to 17-year-olds around the nation. The program includes a series of five events to test a student’s level of physical fitness. As if posters of muscle-bound Arnold Schwarzenegger weren’t enough, practicing for the President’s Challenge often took up to a month or more. It continues to a big part of the phys ed curriculum. When Phys Ed students weren’t preparing for the challenge, they were learning the rules of games like basketball, soccer, volleyball, field hockey and other sport-based challenges of skill, endurance and brute strength.
Unless a student was lucky enough to get P.E. at the end of the school day, they were forced through one of the greatest traumas in the educational system: the locker room. Granted, it wasn’t always bad, especially once we got used to it, but who can forget the first time they realized they had to shower with everyone else? As a girl, it was a place to finally be without the intrusion of boys. As a boy, well, you could talk about all the girls you wanted, whether truthfully or... not so much with the truth. Much gossip was borne in the locker room, but at least we usually left clean. Maybe a little tired--and healthier, too.
