The Psychological Impact of Gym Class

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Recommended: advantages of participating in team sports and individual sports

Gym class was never much fun. I knew that I wasn't going to be an athlete; the other kids knew I wasn't going to be an athlete, and the coach knew I wasn't going to be an athlete. With all this knowledge floating around, I still had to move the ball and make it go that way, very fast. So I would approach the ball, and make it move in a general direction, at an adequate speed, which was good enough for me. I was still beaten up.

You know what I've got issues with, the gym propaganda. There's tons of it, leaking out of the mouths of teachers, coaches, celebrities, committees, activists, presidents, and the like. They say over and over again that sports help children develop self esteem, as well as help them live happier, healthier lives. Well, my question is, why do over half the students in my gym class sit with a depressed look on their faces? They look at the ball go by, scratch a little, look up at the clock, and look at the ball go back by the other way. If they're not going to enjoy the athletics and aren't going to even try, then give these kids another option.

Eg. Instead of actually playing baseball, kids can watch "Pride of the Yankees". Instead of playing hockey, there's air hockey. A nice alternative to football would be foosball.

Why do aerobics when you could simply watch Cindy Crawford do them for 45 minutes?

Old Coach Curko, there was a coach. He could tell who wanted to be in gym, and who didn't. He put all the boys who could, and wanted to, play basketball on the full court. He put us boys who really didn't like gym all together on a half court with some partially inflated relic from the Carter administration. So we would talk about computers and politics, and at least attempt to shoot a basket once in a while. Of course, whenever we did try to shoot a basket it would bounce off the bottom of the rim and end up in the full court. Then one of the larger boys would kick it at us and shout something about us being of homosexual orientation. And the cycle would begin anew. We boys on the half court had fun because there really wasn't much pressure to do well.

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