How to improve physical fitness among students who don't like phys. ed.

It seems the media's on about phys. ed. again, this time fretting over the fact that fewer high school students are taking phys. ed. The comments here are inspired by this interview from Metro Morning (direct link to RAM file) but here's a brief print article if you don't want to bother listening.

The problem in all of this is that the experts they are consulting are people who like phys. ed. The two people in the interview are both gym teachers, and a grown adult isn't going to become a gym teacher if they hated phys. ed. in school - they're going to pick another teachable or a completely different career paths. If they really want productive suggestions, they should ask people who hate phys. ed.

Therefore, I offer myself up as an expert. My credentials: I was raised in a family where physical activity was strongly valued, and was in excellent physical condition throughout childhood. However, phys. ed. class in middle school and high school led me to detest physical activity of any sort. The last day of mandatory gym class in grade 9 was the most liberating day of my life thus far, and then I turned my back on all physical activity until almost 10 years later, when I picked it up again, strongly against my will and hating every moment, in the service of being able to fit into my clothes.

First I will go over the points that the original interview completely missed, and then I will offer up two simple suggestions for improving physical fitness among students who don't like gym class.

Points they missed:

1. Phys. Ed. is a class, and students get grades. This means that those of us who aren't athletic or coordinated, or are timid as the result of a particularly traumatic childhood athletic injury, or, in some contexts, are near the bottom of the social ladder, will get a poor grade. This will pulls down our average, decreasing our chances of getting university acceptances and scholarships, as well as the possibility of putting "Honour Roll" on our resume at an age where people don't have very much to put on their resumes at all. If you're getting A's in all your classes except for one in which you're getting a C, of course you're going to drop that class!

2. Phys. Ed. is the most "Lord of the Flies" part of the school experience. For those of us who were at the bottom end of the social spectrum, it was pure hell. The locker room forced us to expose the details of our physique to our tormentors, and gave them the opportunity to sexually harass us and steal or vandalize our possessions. The gym gave our tormentors plenty of opportunities to throw things at us, grab us, and swarm us entirely as part of mandated activities, plus the noise and chaos gave them plenty of opportunities to hiss vicious insults in our direction without the teacher noticing. Plus it added a myriad of complications to the system of unspoken rules that you must obey to avoid being tortured on the playground. Performing well athletically was commendable, but sweating was an egregious violation. Also, showering was "gay", but so was changing your bra, and changing your socks made you a total dork. If your classmates could tell that you were making an effort, then you were a keener and a suckup and therefore subject to public humiliation, but they'd also get mad at you if you didn't hold up your end of the teamwork. Oh, and if your job in the basketball game was to cover a popular girl, and you did your job well, you'd get a lecture on how rude it is to stand in front of someone while she's trying to play basketball, and then all the popular girls would block your way outside of gym class, like when you're trying to go to class or find a stall in the bathroom or a seat on the schoolbus. Associating all physical activity with this sort of environment isn't going to increase people's desire to engage in physical activity - quite the opposite!

Ask yourself:

1. How many people did you know who originally had no particular interest in athletics, but grew to love athletics because of phys. ed. class?
2. How many people do you know who originally had nothing against athletics, but grew to hate athletics because of phys. ed. class?

So, taking all this into account, what do we do for solutions?

1. Do NOT make ANY phys. ed. mandatory. While it may get people moving in the short term (or may just get them wedgies and fractures), it will only increase dislike and resentment for the subject in the long term. Life after high school is much longer than life in high school, so what you want to do is give students the tools they need to make their own informed fitness decisions. How do you do that?

2. Make Health and Phys. Ed. completely separate subjects. In my school days, they were one class, taught by the same teacher in the same period. The teacher would just deem certain days phys. ed. days and other days health days, as necessary. The problem is that this associated health class with phys. ed. class, which gave it negative connotations, and also told us that it really doesn't need to be taken as seriously. Picture it: you take the very group of people that has already established a bullying dynamic, the very teacher who has allowed the bullying dynamic to be perpetuated under his or her watch, at a schedule time that everyone has associated with running around like idiots, and then try to take this opportunity to teach the students sex ed.? Not the safest-feeling environment ever. Health class taught us a lot of useful things, such as some pretty decent sex ed., physical fitness theory (I acquired the basic knowledge required to design a physical training regime - without the help of the internet!), first aid, how your bones and muscles etc. work - it was all quite useful, and I would have enjoyed it as an academic class. However, by associating it with phys. ed, having it taught during a phys. ed. period by a phys. ed. teacher, I got the subconscious message "This is not for you," "This is not academically serious," "You are not going to be able to succeed in this class." (I ended up getting 98% in the health component, and 64% in the phys. ed. component. Unfortunately, the phys. ed. component was weighted more heavily). Health is for everyone, not just the most athletic among us. A student who does well in Health will be able to come up with their own plan to take care of their body, even if they don't want to take phys. ed. as a class. Schools should give students the background knowledge they need to do this, and then let them choose whether or not they want to be subjected to phys. ed. A student who knows basic fitness and nutrition theory is better equipped in the long term to take good care of themselves than a student who has had any enjoyment of athletics beaten out of them by mandatory gym classes.

Perhaps the best solution would be to separate health and phys. ed., and require only one course in one or the other in high school. That way, the athletic kids can enjoy running around playing Lord of the Flies, and the non-athletic kids can learn the theory they need to make their own fitness regimes whenever and wherever they feel safe doing so.