As you know, I am a fat adult who grew up as a fat kid. My weight has always been an issue and its dark sisters of Diet and Exercise have been lifelong complications. Actually, they tend to be the two words and concepts I hate the most, mainly because I've spent a lifetime sucking at them. One-size-fits-all gym classes never helped with that.
Off the top of my head, these are the ten impressions I have from gym from my various 13 first years of school.
- Being hit in the face by a dodge ball.
- Being snickered at by other girls as I changed into my gym clothes.
- Being told to run laps when I couldn't run laps.
- Being looked at like I was a monster.
- Being hit in the arm by a softball.
- Being hit in the face by a volleyball.
- Looking at my gym instructor and thinking "Are you SHITTING ME??!?!" when asked to do a pull up.
- Skipping the day they did that rope thing.
- Being hit in the face with a soccer ball.
- Spraining my ankle. Actually, this happened a lot.
As you can see, my time in gym classes are a blur of failure, pain, cognitive dissonance, and balls hurling towards me. It's one big nightmare where I learned only that I wanted to avoid PE as much as possible.
You can imagine how happy I was when I got the chance. Past my sixth grade year, PE was no longer required. I didn't have to face it again until college. My PE class then was bowling. I sucked at it, but we were only graded on our ability to keep score properly, so I got an A.
At this point in my life, I realize that this was completely backwards of how PE should have been presented to me. As a fat kid, who would grow into a fat adult, I was EXACTLY the kind of person who needed to learn physical education. And by that, I mean truly learned. It should have been TAUGHT to me in a way I could handle and practice. Instead, it was some kind of punishment class where the cool kids (who were already physically fit and really didn't NEED to learn anything) were rewarded and the people who truly needed to learn were punished. This is the exact opposite of how PE should be handled.
The new method allows the kids to learn physical fitness at their own pace and ability. They are taught activities they can perform at their current level and then shown how to increase that activity. The focus is on individualize goals of learning to be strong and capable. In some cases, it's a matter of reteaching people how to be mobile.
I know that as a kid, I would have been so mortified to find out I had to take 'fat gym.' I would have been soul crushed and devastated every day . . .at least, for a while. But with the right instructors (as in, people trained to work with the unfit, not some asshole fat phobic coach), the proper approach to learning to be active, and a nonhostile setting, there is a good chance I could have avoided a lot of the issues I'm now having to struggle with as someone about to turn 40. It could have made a vast difference in my life.
SO, if you live in an area with a lot of unhealthy kids or if you are on a PTA or have any power in deciding what happens in the schools around you, it might be a good idea to suggest they start a program for remedial fitness. Have a safe place for the kids who need help finding a way to learn to work with their bodies, have lessons designed to teach basic movement, and, most importantly, have instructors who can do this in a way that doesn't make the children feel ashamed.
Like I said, it could make all the difference in the world.
You can imagine how happy I was when I got the chance. Past my sixth grade year, PE was no longer required. I didn't have to face it again until college. My PE class then was bowling. I sucked at it, but we were only graded on our ability to keep score properly, so I got an A.
At this point in my life, I realize that this was completely backwards of how PE should have been presented to me. As a fat kid, who would grow into a fat adult, I was EXACTLY the kind of person who needed to learn physical education. And by that, I mean truly learned. It should have been TAUGHT to me in a way I could handle and practice. Instead, it was some kind of punishment class where the cool kids (who were already physically fit and really didn't NEED to learn anything) were rewarded and the people who truly needed to learn were punished. This is the exact opposite of how PE should be handled.
The new method allows the kids to learn physical fitness at their own pace and ability. They are taught activities they can perform at their current level and then shown how to increase that activity. The focus is on individualize goals of learning to be strong and capable. In some cases, it's a matter of reteaching people how to be mobile.
I know that as a kid, I would have been so mortified to find out I had to take 'fat gym.' I would have been soul crushed and devastated every day . . .at least, for a while. But with the right instructors (as in, people trained to work with the unfit, not some asshole fat phobic coach), the proper approach to learning to be active, and a nonhostile setting, there is a good chance I could have avoided a lot of the issues I'm now having to struggle with as someone about to turn 40. It could have made a vast difference in my life.
SO, if you live in an area with a lot of unhealthy kids or if you are on a PTA or have any power in deciding what happens in the schools around you, it might be a good idea to suggest they start a program for remedial fitness. Have a safe place for the kids who need help finding a way to learn to work with their bodies, have lessons designed to teach basic movement, and, most importantly, have instructors who can do this in a way that doesn't make the children feel ashamed.
Like I said, it could make all the difference in the world.
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