This is the first weekend this year when I have no essays to hand in next week, no books to read for a lecture next week, no exams next week. Actually, due to Easter, for the next three weeks I only have six lectures. Quite boring, to tell you the truth. I can write an essay if I like. If I don't, I don't have to. Really boring, actually. I guess I'll be going to the gym much more often. Maybe I'll try that jukataido next Wednesday.
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What kind of memories do you have of the obligatory PE (physical education, i.e. gymnastics) in school? The mere thought of my experience makes me shiver. I never really got along with my junior high PE teacher. Since seventh grade I was dreaming of the very last class with her, of the joy I would feel then. Unfortunately, she was sick that day so we ended up being supervised by her husband; much funnier than the wife, I have to admit. Well, I suppose there wouldn't have been much joy anyway; she let me skip the three weeks of ice-skating in ninth class, quite possibly out of pity or mercy or just to make the ringette-what-its-name-is thingy easier for the rest of the class, when no one was forced to have me in their team. Trust me, it's not exactly hilarious to stand in a row and, after watching all others in that row to be called before me to join someone's team, see the utmost disappointment and disgust on the face of the captain of the team that have to take me in their team. If you’ve seen Carrie… the scene before the showers is straight from my life.
I guess I'm traumatised by the obligatory gym classes for life. Now that I'm a member of a local sports club (I believe The Wife might have a heart attack if she heard; although my membership is most definitely NOT thanks to her) I still avoid the classes I know require pair or team work. I know I would be left out again, or taken very reluctantly in a team at most. I still hate -and I can assure you, I do not use this word lightly- swimming because of those gym classes where I had to go swimming at the swim hall with all the others. I didn't have my periods then yet but I used them as an excuse anyway to skip at least one swim class every year, two if I was lucky. I mean, can you possibly think of a worse way to decrease the already minimalistic self esteem of an insecure teenage girl than force her to undress in front of all others and *then* continue the torture by forcing them to stay in plain view wearing a bloody swim suit? And I'm not exaggerating when I compare obligatory swimming with torture. There have been listed several common methods of torture and those swimming classes definitely fall under that heading; humiliation (yes), isolation (it's psychological, without a doubt), witnessing the torture of others (possibly), undressing (YES!) and sexual humiliation (everything's sexual to teenagers, especially undressing in front of others), to name a few. These are all subjective things but to me they classify as mild, legal torture.
Now don't get me wrong. I don't think obligatory PE classes in junior high and high school are a bad thing. They are not to be erased from the curriculum entirely, nor should they be elective. After all, if they were elective only the athletes would select them; the non-athletes such as myself, even if we wanted to take them, we wouldn’t because of the condescending attitude the athletes would show. I mean, the peer pressure is bad enough in school without being the only non-athlete among a punch of athletes who have won their first gymnastics competition at the age of six. Everyone needs exercising but not all have the possibility of being transported to hobbies by their parents. I didn’t; I couldn’t have any hobbies because I lived 25 kilometres away from the nearest place where I could have had a (sports) hobby, and my parents had other interests than transporting three children to their hobbies.
I do believe that my PE memories would be less negative if the class division had been thoroughly thought. The teachers should realise that not all have been pre-teen athletes, that some might not even have had a possibility to have a sports hobby. Therefore the class division should keep this in mind; since there already are many different groups, why not group the pupils based on the evaluation of their sixth grade PE teachers. The pre-teen athletes could have their own, advanced group, and people like me could have their own group where they wouldn’t constantly have to be treated as a failure of a human being due to the lack of experience in sports. Hell, I even might have had the possibility to learn to ice-skate properly if there had been such a non-athlete group where the teacher could have had time to teach us the art of staying up with those things tied to your feet. The social pressure would probably also go down; I do doubt whether gymnastics in the end have enough prestige to cause someone being bullied for being in the non-athlete group. And besides, in junior high *anything* is a good enough reason to bully someone. I should know.
Despite the noble intentions of this idea of mine, it may not be practical. If the usual class division remains the same, it might be difficult to carry out the two different gym groups when there are both athletes and non-athletes in a same class, and as in my junior high school one PE teacher had two classes half-merged together; for instance the girls from A were together with the first half of the girls from B, and the other half of B were together with C girls, et cetera. Putting the non-athletes and athletes in separate classes instead of mixing might cause classes that are considered inferior in the school. For example, there was this very clear mentality in my high school that those in advanced mathematics were the elite of the school, and the rest were looked down on by them with that condescending glance saying “get out of the way, you worthless creature, the elite of the school has decided to enlighten you mortal little people with their superior presence".
Well, if there are any PE teachers to give me another point of view on this matter, feel free to do so in Finnish or in English, in Swedish if you really have to. I would be grateful.
