I took my kids to the Y last week. That counts as P.E., right? Like, for the whole year...?
Yes, part of me is being flippant because I kind of totally hate everything about P.E., but part of me is genuinely just unsure about the best ways to get physical education worked into a home school environment. (But, let's be honest, it's mostly the flippant part.)
I dreaded P.E. when I was a kid. Not just like, 'shucks, it's another P.E. day' kind of dread. I mean, sick-to-my-stomach, fingernail-biting, fake-my-own-alien-abduction-to-get-out-of-it kind of dread.
I'm not athletic. I'm not coordinated. I don't look cute in gym shorts. And (here's the important part) I don't care about sports. Never have. Probably never will.
For some reason, the latter is just not ok in schools. I don't understand that.
Kids are allowed to malign math, bad-mouth biology, and roll their eyes at reading. But, say you don't like P.E. and sports, and they're sending you to the counselor's office for evaluations. (Seriously. That happens.)
I vividly remember being yelled at for not being able to hit the ball during some endless, tedious game of something-or-other when I was in high school. The teacher stood idly by as my classmates screamed and hollered, "C'mon! You're killing us here! Hit the ball already! What's the matter with you!?"
Um... isn't P.E. supposed to be (at least in part) about teaching good sportsmanship? And how to have fun while being physically fit? And teamwork? And all that jazz?
I wasn't feeling all that jazz.
Eventually the P.E. teacher mustered up a teaspoon of compassion (I'm not sure if it was for me or the others on my team) and let me walk. It was a relief for everyone, and probably the highlight of the game for me. The sad part is, that's what it was like every time I stepped foot into the gym. For a brains-not-brawn kid in school, P.E. may be the ultimate source of insult, but it's far from the only one.
Think about it - even though the stated purpose of school is education (and, NOT primarily of the physical kind), there still exists an imbalanced emphasis on sports. I mean, plenty of my peers really stunk at giving speeches (something they dreaded as much I dreaded P.E.). Yet, it would have been totally and completely unacceptable for me to have hollered at them, "C'mon! You're killing us here! Spit it out, already! What's the matter with you!?" in 9th grade language arts.
(Trust me - I wanted too, though.)
Anyway, I'm ranting because:
1.) I still, clearly, have unresolved issues from when I was a teenager. (Then again, don't we all?)
2.) isn't that what blogs are for - a sort of poor man's therapy?
3.) I really do want my kids to not hate physical fitness and sports like I do, and I don't know how to make that happen.
So - this is where it's your turn to talk. (Unless you're going to yell at me for not loving sports.)
What is (or, should be) the actual purpose of P.E.?
What are the most important things that kids should learn from it?
How do you make that happen in a home school environment?
Is there any hope for me making a recovery from my P.E. P.T.S.D?
Hope you have some answers for me, 'cause you're up to bat, and I'm depending on you to hit this one out of the park!
