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Interesting stuff about peoples pt and sports teachers - did anyone else go to Worden? I recall George Grimes who by the standards of what I have just read was a gentleman and a scholar. He didn't much like weaklings and I was a small thin type- I recall him getting us all to strip down to our pe shorts and pumps, no shirts allowed,and have a full half hour of snowball fighting when there was snow, in two teams facing each other from about 5 yards. Or the rugby we played on frozen ground with muddy puddles covered with a thin layer of ice that we got flattened into when we tackled each other. I was one of the first to end up with a chest type pneumonia infection from it, but it was all very character building - not too sure what type of character it built - probably a spectator sport character. I probably fell into the weakling category as I wasn't one of his favorites, but he seemed fair, I recall he had played football for England schoolboys himself and was a very good football coach, a probable further reason he didn't take much to me. Does anyone know him or remember him - he wasn't a tyrant at least, as I remember some to be and as so many teachers became as their teaching careers bogged down.
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Mick:
Based on my experiences in "sports" at Balshaw's. I have deliberately avoided anything with "sport" in its name. I was the typical "98-pound weakling" at school and have nothing but contempt for the whole system. My only interest in "sport" is something with either engines, wings or both! Maybe that's why I did an apprenticeship at British Aerospace and then went to work for Norton Motorcycles before I emigrated to the US.
Having had kids and grandkids go through the US school system, my opinion hasn't changed.
Admittedly, US kids have a lot more choices of sports than we did. They do golf, wrestling, US-style football, basketball, soccer, volleyball and so on forever.
My opinion is that inter-school team sports do nothing to promote physical fitness, but rather promote the "athlete as hero" syndrome so prevalent in the US. They also marginalise the poor kid who has no athletic ability (I was one of those) and promote "freaks" who are overweight (football players), have weird throwing ability (baseball) or other odd-ball skills which have no applicability to real life other than becoming a professional in the sport they're good at. What the system doesn't tell these kids is that less than 0.05% of them will ever become professional athletes. I think it's a big con.
We recently had a change of football coaches at a local university. The coach that resigned had a season record of two wins and 12 losses. The new coach is getting a salary approaching $2 million a year - almost 3 tmes what the Univerity President is paid. The losing coach was paid almost as much!
Go figure the priorities.
I'd like to see schools switch over to a PE system that focuses on teaching the kids how to get fit and stay fit for the rest of their lives. After all PE stands for "Physical Education" not sports. School "gym" should be more like a local fitness spa, with treadmills, weight machines, etc. In fact, it wouldn't be a bad idea for the school district to sub-contract PE to a few of the local spas.
I'm not holding my breath to wait for changes, though I am needling the local schools!
Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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Frank, I think there is a place for sports in schools - if nothing else it teaches teamwork. But for those with little or no aptitude (and I was one of those myself!) there should be an alternative. I know I only began to enjoy PE at high school when we reached the sixth form and were allowed to do keep fit to music rather than hockey/netball. I agree with you that subcontracting to a local gym woudl be useful for those who don't take to team games.
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I, too, was lousy at school sports - even when I still did them before the 1960s kidney op. In fact to this day I have never found a sport that interests me enough to learn its rules.
On the subject of shool sports teaching teamwork - well so did singing in the school choir and appearing in school plays, both of which I revelled in.
CD
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quote:
Originally posted by Colin Damp
On the subject of shool sports teaching teamwork - well so did singing in the school choir and appearing in school plays, both of which I revelled in.
I wasn't keen on those either! Or rather I didn't mind them, but wasn't very good. Thank God I was good at the academic stuff or there'd have been nothing doing for me! LOL!
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I too had an aversion to team games or any sort of ' joining in'. This included rejecting Ballet classes,and Brownies and Guides. I told my Mum I didn't like 'organised fun'!
What a misery- I'm quite sociable now!
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quote:
Originally posted by Caroline
This included rejecting Ballet classes,and Brownies and Guides.
I never asked to go to any of those either, though I think I might have gone to ballet classes had they been offered. I'm not sure there was much in the way of ballet classes near us - I can't recall any of my primary school friends going to ballet.
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I always wanted to do tap dancing as a kid, but the opportunity wasn't there (or, rather,the extra money needed for the classes)! However, better late than never with the dancing feet: I have been going to Irish dancing class for the last six months and am thoroughly enjoying it!
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My sister did ballet and tap dancing. The tap always seemed more fun, more noisy- and probably a bit like your Oirish dancing, Dot.
