Shaping Up PE: The rise in childhood obesity prompts a gym class makeover

[SoulManX]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/30/AR2010073004747.html

 

[terry78]

I was never that athletic as a kid, but I still looked forward to gym class.

 

[LastSunrise1981]

I think PE was every childs favorite class. When I was a kid I only like going to school for PE so I could play basketball, dodgeball, kickball, and football.

 

[SoulManX]

I think PE was every childs favorite class. When I was a kid I only like going to school for PE so I could play basketball, dodgeball, kickball, and football.

"Dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball."

 

[terry78]

Well, some kids just didn't like it because they didn't like being active, or were picked on when it came to that one part of school where brains didn't mean ****.

 

[ChickenScratch]

It's a step in the right direction. Kids now have a lot more distractions that seem to keep them sedentary, video games, internet, cable.

When I was a kid at lunch we played soccer for the whole hour. After school my friends stayed late, sometimes till sundown playing soccer, rugby or tennis. Three evenings a week we had karate after school, then it was back to soccer.

Yeah, I was an athletic child/teen/adult so I really don't understand the whole deal to a certain extent, never needed PE to get active.

 

[SuperFerret]

It just doesn't seem like a gym class when there's no ostracism of fat and weak kids.


Otherwise, it seems pretty good.

 

[Victarion]

I always liked when we all surrounded the fat kid and touched his moobies. That, and football. PE was ****ing boss.

 

[mrvlknight21]

It's a step in the right direction. Kids now have a lot more distractions that seem to keep them sedentary, video games, internet, cable.

When I was a kid at lunch we played soccer for the whole hour. After school my friends stayed late, sometimes till sundown playing soccer, rugby or tennis. Three evenings a week we had karate after school, then it was back to soccer.

Yeah, I was an athletic child/teen/adult so I really don't understand the whole deal to a certain extent, never needed PE to get active.

^ Im with you on this.

 

[kane9321]

I loved gym...dodgeball, football, basketball

 

[ChickenScratch]

^ Im with you on this.

True man. I played every sport my school offered, tried out for every team (and made quite a few of them), I was on the soccer, rugby, tennis and swim team in prep school, in high school it was the tennis team, in college it was the swim team. All the while also moving forward with karate.

It's a totally foreign concept to me to not be active, in my job it would be quite easy to be sedentary. I work for a music magazine so I spend all day sitting at home playing guitar and transcribing sheet music when I'm not going to do interviews. I go to the office once a week, hell, even my ghost writing gig I pretty much sit at home. If anything it's made me more active because I can schedule myself around working out.

I'm glad they are doing something to try making the kids more active but focusing on individual work makes the ones who want to be lazy just do less I think. Teams make everyone work hard across the board.

 

[mrvlknight21]

True man. I played every sport my school offered, tried out for every team (and made quite a few of them), I was on the soccer, rugby, tennis and swim team in prep school, in high school it was the tennis team, in college it was the swim team. All the while also moving forward with karate.

It's a totally foreign concept to me to not be active, in my job it would be quite easy to be sedentary. I work for a music magazine so I spend all day sitting at home playing guitar and transcribing sheet music when I'm not going to do interviews. I go to the office once a week, hell, even my ghost writing gig I pretty much sit at home. If anything it's made me more active because I can schedule myself around working out.

I'm glad they are doing something to try making the kids more active but focusing on individual work makes the ones who want to be lazy just do less I think. Teams make everyone work hard across the board.

Definitely. I played 4 sports at my high school and played summer league AAU basketball and YMCA leagues and church leagues whenever possible. Almost everyday at school, I played either basketball or football at lunch.

During college this continued as I played nearly every intramural sport offered and still played in YMCA and church league basketball while also playing on a flag football team every Sunday that won a few state (South Carolina) and 1 national championship (we actually had div 1 college players and 1 on again/off again NFL player on my team).

So, to me, PE was just another opportunity to play ball for an hour. However, when I was in 5th grade, our PE instructor was a former drill sergeant and he ran class like the Army. No sports, just standing in formation, marching/turning/stopping on command and plenty of pushups, squats and running. It was kind of weird looking back.

 

[El_Citrus]

Bring back dodgeball!!!

Anyway, changing the food at schools is one way to help the problem. That gruel they served just a few years ago caused me to start packing everyday. Hopefully they find ways to keep even the obese kids interested in gym class.

 

[Matt]

I wish there was a way that I could play Dodgeball as an adult.

 

[mrvlknight21]

I wish there was a way that I could play Dodgeball as an adult.

You can. There are adult leagues all over the place. Check your local YMCA and places similar to it.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I wish there was a way that I could play Dodgeball as an adult.

You sadistic bastard.

 

[Manic]

I have a few fond memories of PE class. Dodgeball, tumbling, dancing, tennis, badminton, that week in 6th grade where the girls found out I was ticklish and started ganging up on me...

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

Did anybody really work up a sweat during PE?

I mean other than the fat kids.

 

[ChickenScratch]

If you do it right, yes.

 

[CelticPredator]

I hated High School PE because it was never fun. We'd only play a sport for 20 minutes, max, out of the 1hr and 30 minute class. The rest of the time we did stretches, push ups, sit ups....it was brutal.

I mean, I wouldnt mind if it was 20 minutes of warm ups, and the rest of the time is spent playing a game of some kind...but ugh.

 

[ChickenScratch]

So you didn't like the calisthenics you say. I liked that we did them, otherwise I wouldn't have gone out and done push ups on my own, I would have spent the whole hour playing soccer or rugby.

 

[webhead731]

PE was stupid. We had no AC so in our 80 degree summers it was just swell.

All our school would do is play football.
Boys=football
Girls=Frisbee

You kidding? I hate football. I'll take frisbee anyday.

It's useless anyway. You can't exercise then go home and eat whatever and do nothing. 20 minutes a day won't do much for you. Especially since in those 20 minutes, you really do nothing.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I always liked when we all surrounded the fat kid and touched his moobies.

Hahahahahaha

 

[CelticPredator]

So you didn't like the calisthenics you say. I liked that we did them, otherwise I wouldn't have gone out and done push ups on my own, I would have spent the whole hour playing soccer or rugby.

And playing the game would've been fun...and not painful. Because by the time we did the 30 minutes of stretches, we ran a mile...and then we played a game....ugh....

 

[ChickenScratch]

That all sounds great to me.