once again thinking about how bonkers the presidential physical fitness test was and how, like, children should not be required to do competitive military exercises
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as a straight-a student who never exercised I thought it was even more bonkers that we spent gym class doing literally nothing to promote fitness (like… fucking around not playing football, or whatever), and then expected teenage girls (me) to do pull-ups out of nowhere
i was in good shape for a lil’ bookworm because i was a dancer and walked everywhere, and i couldn’t climb that rope (our gym classes were similar, we weren’t prepped in any way)
i only said i was a straight-a student because i’m still bothered by failing that test! it is all around terrible and it probably would have changed my life if we just had the option to, like, do yoga every day or anything actually useful (and no military tests which yes, is super creepy)
My elementary PE teacher was not kind to children.
Like, girl, I’m 7; no I can’t do a fucking pull up, but you don’t have to make me cry because of it.
I was, for better or worse, a varsity athlete, and basically refused the participate in the fitness test because it was such bullshit. I remember specifically doing, like, 3 beeps of the pacer test, quitting and going out before literally anyone else and every gym teacher being SO MAD.
On the plus side it helped learn percentiles at an early age so could be part of the reason I’m a data analyst by trade. Didn’t score well in most of PFT metrics but I learned what they meant. 🤣
It still baffles me it never occurred to them to put mats down. They had to call paramedics and everything. I still think about how lucky I was (and my classmates as well) regarding that to this day.
Have you heard the Maintenance Phase episode about it? When they got ro the part about the rope climb not even being a requirement, I screamed so loud my 6th grade self heard me.
It's totally a Cold War initiative. The Maintenance Phase episode about it goes into that if I remember correctly. When I did it, Reagan was president, and I was so mad about having to prove my fitness for that war criminal.
based on the handful of folks I know who grew up in the old USSR, what the Russians were in fact WAY ahead of us on was, "volume of vodka one is able to consume and still walk home."
I’d just love it if:
1) give kids more recess time
2) teach them how to play different games that capitalize on their developmental strengths
3) teach them skills so they can successfully play with others
we know so well now that the best strategy for building long-term physical health habits is “figure out what you like to do and what works for you in terms of moving yr body every day” and yet that is … not what is taught
UK system is different of course, but I spent 35 years of my life thinking I was somehow just a useless blob, and it turns out I'm athletic. My school only did long-distance and endurance exercise, and i'm built for explosive power and strength.
When I was in 8th grade our gym teacher was inexplicably allowed to change the grading scale to your ability to do X number of reps/run a mile under flat times and to this day I’m baffled that nobody stepped in when kids got their GPAs knocked bc they couldn’t do pull ups or run a 7 min mile
Those were all things you had to train up for as well, didn't matter how young you were. Deadbeat gym teachers should have been like "okay work on these for the upcoming fitness test" & they NEVER did. "WUT U CANT DO IT?" No dickhead, I'm not trained up like Lance Peakedingradeschool over there.
My kid is in middle school and gets graded on how well he performs at the sports they play/how fast he runs the mile. As a kid who has literally never played competitive sports he is definitely at a disadvantage.
Funnily enough some of my fav teachers were coaches who proved surprisingly wonderful and engaging at English and history but exclusively PE teachers are like a child’s first exposure to what adults would recognize as “HOA fascism”
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Like, girl, I’m 7; no I can’t do a fucking pull up, but you don’t have to make me cry because of it.
and i can still climb a rope, some 60 years later
but that's it
1) give kids more recess time
2) teach them how to play different games that capitalize on their developmental strengths
3) teach them skills so they can successfully play with others
Competed twice for my country in triathlon as an adult (age group). Wonder what I could have done if I hadn't been made to feel useless as a teen