I had mainly negative experiences in P.E. We concentrated mostly on traditional ball sports, which I had no prior practice with, so wasn’t very good at. Also “team captains” were allowed to pick their teams, in a kind of twisted popularity contest, so it was always socially ackward. I always maintained that I hated P.E. and I skipped class a lot.
Despite my experience with P.E., I discovered, towards the end of high school, that I love being active, and I started dragon boating and hiking. These activities turned my life around in a lot of ways. It could have easily gone the other way for me though, and I could have spent my whole life being really intimidated by physical activity, all based on being miserable in gym class!
I don’t really have any fears about teaching P.E., partly because I’ve been teaching yoga for a long time. Also I think sharing things you love with children is generally pretty fun. Some of my best conversations with my daughter are when we are hiking, and it was a proud day when she got her first pair of rock climbing shoes. I’m really hopeful that she will have a much better P.E. experience than I had.
Hey Kate,
I’m really sorry to hear that you didn’t have an enjoyable experience in PE growing up. I was fortunate in that for the most part I had a good time. There were the odd activities (like dodgeball, and softball) that I would do absolutely everything to avoid, but for the most part had a relatively positive experience. At my school everyone really tried to make sure everyone felt welcome and wanted in our PE classes, so it pains me to hear that this wasn’t the case everywhere.
I’m so glad to know that your experiences growing up didn’t ruin physical activity for you forever, and that you get to spend time outside with your daughter doing something that you love together. I agree that some of the best talks happen on hikes. I think with your past experience with PE, teaching it will be a breeze as you can make sure any students that may feel the way you did about PE growing up simply won’t feel that way. Empathy and understanding are such powerful tools.
Isis
P.S. You did AMAZING today in our PE activities today in class! I would never have known you didn’t like PE growing up!