Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How do we change this? We don't. I'm around my kids' schools all the time, and I am not the least bit concerned about the level of participation required and challege provided for both genders by their physical education classes. If you are convinced that your school district is letting the girls down, then by all means get involved. Leave the rest of us out of it.
I get the feeling you are all fibbing. If you shared gym with boys, I cannot see how any girl could get in on the action if you were playing some kind of ball sport. And I dont remember doing anything girly like gymnastics, or figure skating or baton throwing in class.
When I was in school in the 90s, a hand full of the guys just tried as hard to hog the ball. The teacher never said anything. And I am glad they did not because it would have dumbed down the competition.
Did the education dept only integrate boys and girls some time in the 90's or something?
Oh my goodness... This is a crack up. This post has "troll" written all over it. I was a female athlete and played sports with boys all the time when I was in elementary school. Fast forward to today, my first grade daughter beat all the girls AND boys in her PE class when they ran a race recently. On an older level, I recently was having a conversation with a soccer coach, who leads an all boys fifth grade team. He said that his boys were beat by an all girls team in a tournament about a week ago. He said those girls were awesome!
I'd bet the OP hasn't set foot in gym class since he left high school, so he has absolutely no clue what's going on in physical education today, much less organized sports. Title IX is now forty years old. We girls have come a long way, baby.
Baby boomers went to school. They weren't born in 1802!
If you were cruel to the opposite sex then you were unbalanced. Normal boys are not cruel to other people whether the other people are male or female.
Elementary gym class was run by teachers when I went to elementary school in the stone age of the 1970s (in NY which has good schools). The kids did not run the show the teachers did. Plus-in elementary school the boys and girls were pretty equal physically.
I'm a guy.
I remember competing mostly with boys in my younger years, except in kickball, volleyball, and other 'non contact sports'.
In high school, I think it was mostly guys vs guys in PE. Basketball, soccer, softball I think, I know for certain even swimming was not co-ed. (All my school years were in co-ed environments). Sounds like the OP had an extremely different PE experience than I did. I think even gymnastics was not co-ed. Maybe the student body size at my school enabled us to do this. I certainly don't recall playing basketball with girls, or soccer even. Especially hockey, as most the guys in my HS were competitive.
Well, I'm no troll, and I'm surely old enough (born 1949) to attest that the world of both high school sports and Phys Ed has been turned upside down --- mostly for the better, but some of the feminization and sensitivty may have gone too far.
I strarted Junior High in the fall of 1961, less than two years after major spinal surgery that left a noticeable deformity. The militarized/institutional method was likely at its height, or close to it. We mostly did calisthetics, wore full uniform, including supporters ("jock straps") and were expected to shower afterward in an open room. Our school had no provisions for swimming, but a few classmates who had transferred had stories of swimming totally nude, in all-male groups, as was also the custom at the local 'Y'.
It was, in short, a perfect environment for the Predatory Ape, and the most-alpha within that category usually has a small following. Their target was anyone reasonably intelligent and different, --- the racial mnority, the sexual "late bloomer", the one or two boys who weren't circumcised -- anything physcial and unconventional.
But that was Junior High; six years later, everything turned aound.
I had never learned to swim, and that's something expected in just about every undergraduate cirriculum. So I was mandatorially enrolled in swimming, and found the environment there fully-supportive, since the dumb-bullying element had been sent off to the University of Viet Nam. Instead of being the last picked for team games, I was able to master a physical challenge for the first time. (We wore swimsuits, BTW, but they covered a lot less than the "tents" of the present day.)
So the satisfaction of conquering a physical issue turned into a life sport of lap swimming. I also lost my fear of a locker room environment -- the cameraderie among mature, accepted men in a clothes-optional environment is real -- as someone I met there once told me: "I'm not a fan of ether boxing or opera, but I've learned enough of both, and many other things, in locker rooms, to get the other guy, whatever he knows, started."
That's how it went for men of my generation, and likely for most of us born before, roughly, 1975. But the "New Sensitivity/Puritanism" has set a different code of conduct for younger men, especially those raised in single-parent, female-headed households. They sometimes do a "towel dance" when donning or removing swimsuits, and seem to regard their physical selves as "wasting assets" -- Heaven help us all if they begin to think of them as bargaining chips!
Just a couple of war stories and observations from one who's been on the front lines for a long time.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 11-19-2012 at 04:08 PM..
I did not start this thread with bad intentions. But having given the topic some more thought, I realize my memory is a little hazy. Perhaps I have jumped the gun a bit, but girl power here certainly has by a lot.
Well, I'm no troll, and I'm surely old enough (born 1949) to attest that the world of both high school sports and Phys Ed has been turned upside down --- mostly for the better, but some of the feminization and sensitivty may have gone too far.
I strarted Junior High in the fall of 1961, less than two years after major spinal surgery that left a noticeable deformity. The militarized/institutional method was likely at its height, or close to it. We mostly did calisthetics, wore full uniform, including supporters ("jock straps") and were expected to shower afterward in an open room. Our school had no provisions for swimming, but a few classmates who had transferred had stories of swimming totally nude, in all-male groups, as was also the custom at the local 'Y'.
It was, in short, a perfect environment for the Predatory Ape, and the most-alpha within that category usually has a small following. Their target was anyone reasonably intelligent and different, --- the racial mnority, the sexual "late bloomer", the one or two boys who weren't circumcised -- anything physcial and unconventional.
But that was Junior High; six years later, everything turned aound.
I had never learned to swim, and that's something expected in just about every undergraduate cirriculum. So I was mandatorially enrolled in swimming, and found the environment there fully-supportive, since the dumb-bullying element had been sent off to the University of Viet Nam. Instead of being the last picked for team games, I was able to master a physical challenge for the first time. (We wore swimsuits, BTW, but they covered a lot less than the "tents" of the present day.)
So the satisfaction of conquering a physical issue turned into a life sport of lap swimming. I also lost my fear of a locker room environment -- the cameraderie among mature, accepted men in a clothes-optional environment is real -- as someone I met there once told me: "I'm not a fan of ether boxing or opera, but I've learned enough of both, and many other things, in locker rooms, to get the other guy, whatever he knows, started."
That's how it went for men of my generation, and likely for most of us born before, roughly, 1975. But the "New Sensitivity/Puritanism" has set a different code of conduct for younger men, especially those raised in single-parent, female-headed households. They sometimes do a "towel dance" when donning or removing swimsuits, and seem to regard their physical selves as "wasting assets" -- Heaven help us all if they begin to think of them as bargaining chips!
Just a couple of war stories and observations from one who's been on the front lines for a long time.
Wow, I was not expecting this. Thank you for sharing.
I have a little war story of my own. Your generations gym class and mine had something in common. The predatory alpha was ever prevalent. You could say I was one of the different kids. 1st and second grade gym class was dodgeball time, and that was the perfect opportunity for the bullies to do what they do. And this was the 90s
I was often times challenged to come up to the line, and if I did not want to get beaned in the face, I would be taunted as a chicken. Funny, now that I think about it, I think the girls were the ones teasing me. Anyways, had no choice but to accept the challenge and get beaned. But that did not last long at all. I am lucky to be blessed with lightning reflexes. I actually started catching these point blank throws. Not long after, I became the dominant dodgeballer in the whole school. The older 4th, 5th, and 6th graders even feared me. I was ricochette-ing balls off multiple people heads.
I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of slack for this but I knd f agree with the OP
In 10th grade I had coed gym and the guys usually avoided girls at all costs. Obviously you had the handful of girls that took gym class like they were competing for the gold in the Olympics, and they would play. Otherwise "the boys are hogging the ball" was a great way to avoid having to do anything.
Now as a senior I am in all girls gym & I'm one of the few that "kind of plays" as in I'll run a little and pass a ball. From my experience the problem isn't guys hogging the ball the problem is that a lot of girls just don't care about gym. Me personally, cannot stand gym especially since I have it first thing when I was into school (9:10 am) and my thing is there is no way in hell I am going to put in a crazy amount of work so I'm all gross and sweaty the rest of the day.
In elementary school gym was coed and we all played well and had a good time and no one cared. In middle school I always had gym at the end of the day, which was perfect because I wouldn't have to change back into my jeans. I am super athletic- I go to the gym everyday after school and I play softball year- round but I HATE gym so I do tend to put more effort into doing nothing then into playing.
Ummm, my school must have played dodgeball differently than other schools. When we played dodgeball and nation ball (in elementary school), we tried to get our friends out.
Growing up, my fondest memories of school has always been gym class, phys ed. But just now it dawned on me how bad it must have been for the girls, and how selfish I have been all these years. I am a boy by the way.
Basically, it was me and a couple of other boys dominating the play, and the girls just stand around watching their potential future mate develop physically. What a horrible experience it must have been. Being forced to stand around and do absolutely nothing, and watch other get to have fun simply because they were born that way. And of course there was a few boys standing around unable to compete too.
Really, there are so many things fundamentally wrong with public education. It is suppose to be about educating the child to make them better, but turns out to be nothing more than babysitting/daycare. Gym class is the best example of this. What can we do to improve phys ed so that everyone can have fun, learn to play, develop physically, and grow as an individual.
It sounds like you had terribly gym teachers. They're not supposed to let students stand idle the whole time, it defeats the purpose of gym class. I've never heard of this before.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
