Geez, I'm the number cruncher for a school district and I just got the most random "request" (more like a demand with no please or thank you) from one of the gym teachers. He wants me to create norming data for the number of sit-ups, scores on a shuttle run, etc. and run a one-page report for each student in grades 1-6 (2500 students). And he didn't specify but I am guessing he wants it by the end of the school year in two weeks. And I have only received data from one school (out of 9).

All I can think is that he is a bully gym teacher with his students and he bullies everyone else in his life too. And this is based not only on the tone of his email, but on many of my school experiences in gym (although I honestly had some really good gym teachers as well).

I feel like if I had more freedom in gym class I might have learned to enjoy exercise much earlier in my life. The running around a track in tight polyester shorts and always being last did nothing to motivate me. Having to play volleyball in a group and being publicly humiliated day after day in front of my peers made me think exercise and games are bad. It was only in college, when I voluntarily went to the campus gym and could try out exercise equipment at my own pace to my own music that I started to understand that exercise was a good thing.

I remember the terrible zipper in the front one piece gym outfits we had to wear......I have no horror stories...

I do however have a proud mama story...
my son went to a Christian school for one semester...at public school he ran a 6 minute mile...so of course during the gym class when there was a race he won hands down...did that make me proud...no what he did next is where that moment come in...after he was done he ran back and cheered the ones that were in last place on and ran with them...piggy backed one boy who was having troubles to the end......did he tell me this story...no the parent of one of those kids in last place did....

Oh gym class, how I hated thee. Let me count the ways:

1) Having to buy a gym suit, a one-piece polyester outfit with a striped top and tight shorts. I never wore shorts in my daily life. I hated my fat legs. The mean girls had told me they were "stumpy" and called me Stumpy. They said things about how big my hips and butt were. Now I was going to have to put on clothes cut to emphasize these very publicly shamed features and show myself in front of everyone. Including the boys' gym class.

2) Having to undress in the locker room, in front of malicious girls who commented on my body, and put on those clothes in front of witnesses. And later, if we were yelled at because we ought to shower -- there was no way I was going into that communal shower area with a short towel that barely wrapped around me -- having to wet down my head so it looked like I'd showered.

3) Having to put on a bathing suit for swimming. If getting changed into gym clothes was bad, changing into a bathing suit was even worse. I refused, because I would not go out shopping for a swimsuit, and sat on the bleachers and got marked "fail" for that part of the semester.

4) Walking around self-consciously, full of anxiety, afraid of the bullies, for some reason did nothing for my hand-to-eye coordination skills or other skills, so I was the one who missed pitches, lost catches, couldn't serve, couldn't hit the ball. Do you know how many times I sprained a finger on the volleyball from an unbalanced uncoordinated slap? Over & over again. I spent about a quarter of my middle school years walking around with a plastic splint on some finger or another. (Which at least got me out of gym class!) Also, another coping mechanism that I used was to tune out my surroundings and fall into daydreams, writing stories in my head, which made me very inattentive in class. I got hit on the side of the head in the ball many times. I didn't hear instructions on many occasions and did the wrong thing or wandered out-of-bounds. Really I wanted to sit down with a book somewhere and let everyone else do whatever they were doing on the fields.

5) My physical ineptitude made me one of the last chosen for any team sport. So I was constantly reminded of my lowly place in the school's totem pole. I got some respect as years went by for being really smart & for winning prizes as a student writer, but in gym class, that dissolved, because the kids in my section were replaced by a lot of disaffected kids who were not particularly fond of my kind. If they couldn't score better than me on tests, or get into the classes I was taking, at least they could smack me or mutter things about me in gym class.

6) The President's Fitness Test always seem to spring upon us as a surprise, just when I thought maybe we'd skip it or it would happen on a day when I was out. And I remember my heart pounding and every breath hurting me and my body failing me, not doing what I begged it to, and me being way behind ... and falling further behind.

It's one of the most astonishing developments in my life, that I have ended up as someone who voluntarily goes to a gym to work out EVERY SINGLE DAY, seven days a week, even on holidays.

One clear answer for this stands out for me: No team sports. I did this on my own volition, as part of my own individual development, and for my health, and gradually built up my confidence, all on my own. It was entirely self-directed, which was what this introvert needed.

I went to a high school for the performing arts, so I was forced to participate in the torture called Dance PE.

For two weeks straight, we all had to learn the dance moves from Britney Spears and NSync music videos. I was one of the worst in class.

Oh Jules, tell me what you did raising such a compassionate achiever. I am raising two boys, still preschool ages, but I want them to have that kind of character! You deserve to be proud.

Aunrio-I give the credit to my Mom, she raised my brother and I to be compassionate and he was definitely Grammy's boy. They went on trips to see the changing leaves on Skyline Dr in VA and to historical places even after he moved out of my house and lived on his own. Just live the life and show the example is the only advice I can give.

So many baaaad memories!!! One of the BEST things about adult life is never having to do this.

Wait for it, the sob story!! hehe.

I've always been quite big, by far the biggest in my class. I am not sporty at all either. Watching and playing sport is of no interest to me. To that, I had no friends in my class, as the lesson was split by gender, and I have always tended to have more female friends. So most guys were not my friends, and some ecen were unkind to me.

In the changing room was awful because I got teased for my size; one time some guys stole my trousers and 2 people got in them, to show how both can fit into my clothes! *CRINGE!*. Sometimes in the showers, they say I am looking at them (some people thought I was gay too... this ended up true, but it was a big secret in my teens!!) In the lesson I was SO very terrible... when we ran, everyone lapped me at least once, ha! The games like football, I didn't even know those rules!

I used to make excuses to miss it all the time. One day the teacher lost his temper and said he was sick of it and that I 'of ALL people, should be doing this.' and that I might not hate it so much if I 'wasn't so fat'. I stormed out and never went back to a sport lesson ever again, ha ha!

No more PE for me, I am so happy!!

saef - Oh god, the one piece gym suit, with the striped top and the solid color shorts, made of the most suffocating 100% artificial material, mine were maroon, just the most unflattering piece of clothing EVER.

The 'rolling of eyes' when I went to whatever side team.

Dodge ball!! how cruel can gym teachers be?

Yes, being told to climb the rope up to the rafters? yeah, right.

One tormenting kid on my bus threw my gym suit out the bus window.

How about the yearly Weigh-In

Some of you guys have real horror stories.

Elementary school - the PE teachers were nice, but I didn't like PE. I was already very overweight, which made being active uncomfortable, (very probably) had below average coordination and balance for my age, found most of the activities boring (I found school boring in general, but, unlike the regular classroom, you can't get away with sitting and reading your own books during instructional time in gym), and found the physical change from the classroom to wherever we were doing PE that day, the equipment, the lights, the discomfort of exercise, etc. very distracting. It was also a good opportunity for the jerky kids to make fun of my weight and general weirdness. And of course, unlike the regular classroom or the other related arts (with the possible exception of music), if you do poorly at something in PE, it's not just between you and the teacher. Everybody sees it. Still, all-in-all, it wasn't too bad. No real horror stories. My school had after school clubs for all of the related arts. I was in the PE club for two years, and we did some fun stuff with that, including doing sports that weren't covered in class, putting together routines for an annual local talent show and marching in the Christmas parade.

Middle school - I went to a Christian school that did sex-segregated PE, which was probably good. I think we had a few different gym teachers, but the only one I remember clearly was an overweight man who was a bit difficult to take seriously as a role model for health, and, although he wasn't terribly critical, he didn't go out of his way to make the class interesting or encourage/recognize students' effort or improvement. We did some sports, but he also had us doing suicides and stuff like that. Not fun or interesting, and not exactly a transferable life skill for most people.

High school - I picked NJROTC instead of gym. The gym classes looked boring and the NJROTC classes looked interesting and educational (and we got uniforms and shiny things!), so it was an easy choice. We did PFT testing, which I didn't do too well on, but don't remember completely bombing either. It was nice to have physical activities and testing that corresponded to something in the "real world". In general, the instructors knew how to be motivational without being *******s, were still in shape themselves, and were realistic enough to recognize that the majority of the kids in their programs were either uninterested in or ineligible for military service. Most of the cadets were pretty cool, even the ones who took it very seriously and planned on going into the military. The ones who weren't reasonable had no real authority, so if they started being jerky about other people's perceived participation levels or failure to comply with their power plays (e.g., trying to make people exercise after the session was supposed to have ended - and then appealing to the UCMJ if we didn't cooperate ) it was a simple matter of telling them to Foxtrot Oscar or quitting whatever team it was (the totally-not-a-Raider Team, in my case) and joining another, more rewarding, extracurricular activity.

Not gym, but I did discus and shotput on the high school track team. Our first coach was good. He made us work, but his demands were fairly modest, he knew his stuff, and he helped everybody, even people like me who sucked and were never going to make state. Then he got promoted and the guy they brought on to coach discus and shotput was an assistant football coach who couldn't be bothered to show up for most of our practices. Spring football practice was more important. When he did show up, he only worked with the people who were already defending or in serious competition for state titles. Bit of a morale suck! Fortunately, the best people on the team were also good and gracious leaders and teachers, so we did manage to keep things together. My one and only time placing was that year, and it was only because one of the best female discus throwers in the state was on my team and helped me improve.

I absolutely despised Gym with the burning passion of a 1,000 firey suns.
I wasn't always grossly overweight, but I have always been notoriously uncoordinated. My mother tells me its genetic. I took 10 years of dance classes as a child because she hoped I would become more graceful. Examples of my grace as an adult:

*While running to 1st base in softball, I fell and fractured my elbow.
*I broke my foot getting out of bed
* I drove my bicycle into a parked car. (unintentionally)
*Someone fell on me, and I ended up having knee surgery.

As a kid in elementary school, I always dreaded the chin ups and free-hang on the monkey bar. I'd get maybe 8 chin-ups, and I think I could free-hang for all of 10 seconds (probably just long enough for my arms to extend and my feet to touch the ground).

I never could connect a ball/birdie/puck with a bat/racket/stick, etc.

We had these torture races. I can never remember what they were called. But you had to challenge someone else in class to race against you. The gym instructor would place two pair of chalkboard erasers on one end of the basketball court, and you both had to race down, pick an eraser up, take it back to drop it on the finish line, race back, grab the other eraser, and bring it back. Usually I went against my best friend. While she was not skinny, she was definitely more athletically inclined. I always lost, but it was the fact the entire class stood around and watched you lose.

In high school, we had to run the mile on the outdoor track, most of the girls would go slower, but still claim to complete the 4 laps required. I was always the last one, and while I was chugging away, everyone was already in the stands when I started my 4th lap. Oh the horror!

I do remember in Jr high when they conducted a BMI test. We had a male gym teacher who was mildly attractive. All of the twiggy cheerleaders were keeping track of the scores.

I remember waiting my turn with sweaty palms. He used the calipers on the back of our knee, and the underside of our bicep (tricep?).

Here all of the adolescent guys went first, 8%, 12%, blah blah..

I felt so nauseated, I was sure I'd be sick.

My best friend went up and got her measurements taken. Then it was my turn.

Thankfully, he didn't announce the numbers to everyone aloud, but he gave me my numbers, at the end of which I walked back and sat down next to my best friend. She asked me my numbers.

I had a 33 bmi estimate on my arm (not surprised), and a 23 on the back of my arm (well, I was biking quite heavily at the time).

I told her my numbers and she gave me a dirty look, got up and walked away.

I think she assumed that because I was bigger, mine would be much higher than hers. She never told me what hers were.

Ah, those old days I remember having to run to "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi. I never could keep up with the running and would sometimes slow down to a very slow jog around the gym. A few times we had to go outside and run around the track and were timed on that. Felt like my heart was about to burst out of my chest by the end of it. Fortunately, the gym teacher cared more about us trying to make an effort rather than how fast we finished the runs. There were some girls who, while perfectly fit, didn't try to run or even slow jog in case they ruined their hair. You know, the snooty ones. Needless to say, they failed gym.

I loved gym. After the 10-15 minutes of actual exercise/running we could do what we wanted most days. Other days we practiced dancing (square dancing, some kind of Greek dance that was done to attract a husband LOL) and I absolutely loved it. Some days they took us bowling for PE for 6 weeks or it was archery for 6 weeks. Good times.

We had to get weighed also. I just refused! I rationalised they cannot physically force me, haha!