The Quiet Man and I have been engaging in a minor disagreement about school sport. Before going any further, it’s worth pointing out that I do agree with his main thrust about competitiveness and the “all must have prizes” ethos. if you are going to compete, then someone wins and someone loses, such is the nature of competition.
Where we disagree is over the value of sport in schools. I am of an age where games lessons were a compulsory part of the curriculum; so twice a week we were expected to strip off and prance about a muddy field for a double games session. This, according to those who approve of such things, taught me teamwork and application. No, it did not. It taught me nothing. Also, the idea that it did no harm is a fallacy.
For much of the time, I was exhorted to dress warmly in the winter – yet for a couple of hours twice a week, I was forced to go out in freezing cold weather clothed in nothing more than shorts and tee-shirt. Great, did me a power of good, that did. Then I was expected to chase about after a ball and kick it between two posts. Frankly, I had no interest in doing any such thing so I didn’t. I would wander as far from the action as I could and if the ball came my way, I would simply stand aside. Yup, this annoyed the hell out of everyone else, but if they force an unwilling participant onto the field, what can they expect? Call that a life lesson, if you like.
Those who tell us it is character building and that it teaches teamwork are merely fooling themselves with excuses, for it does nothing of the sort. It is a leisure pursuit, nothing more. It has no place on a compulsory curriculum. I hated mathematics, but knuckled down and persevered because even at that age, I recognised that numeracy was an essential life skill. Sport is not. It never will be. It is entertainment, nothing more. If you like it, fine. Do not presume to impose it upon those of us who do not like it. These days, football has become such a fashion that everyone is expected to support a team. I don’t. And everyone is expected to follow the national team during international competitions even if they don’t normally follow it. I don’t. It is a mind-numbingly tedious game at every level. I detest it – watching paint dry is scintillating in comparison.
As for the idea that forcing me to strip off and go out into the freezing cold twice a week caused no harm – I endured a miserable ten years at school. I hated that time with a vengeance and much of that was a direct consequence of enforced games. So, yes, it does do harm.
If schools wish to provide extra-curricular sport, fine and dandy. But it has no place being enforced for it is not an essential component of education, it does not teach anything of any value and simply makes the lives of the unwilling participants a misery. Likewise, the state should play no part in the matter.
Oh, and teamwork? The usual cliché trotted out in support of this nonsense? I can and do manage to work effectively in teams – including managing them. Most people do. It is an instinctive part of our make-up as we are a social animal. So, no, we don’t need to be forced to prance about after a bag of wind and kick it between two white posts.
I hated football as much as you did, and rugby. (I also hated geography with the same passion)
I liked all the other sport stuff though – Hockey, rounders, tennis, they even took us roller skating once.
Education doesn’t have to be all about sitting in class learning from books, it can be good to have some fun time thrown in.
There are many things about school that some children detest but are still necessary.
That’s of course, assuming we have to have a state education. A system that teaches Latin to all pupils, but politics and economics to none, and then expects you to vote a couple of years later, is rotten to the core anyway, in my opinion.
I have no problem with fun. My school used to put on a play and they co opted me one year to do the sound. I enjoyed it and it was not an essential part of the curriculum. Neither was it compulsory, which is my point, of course.
You remind me of the time I heard a games teacher vociferously complaining how unfair it was that that a whole year group were obliged to take part in an end-of-term theatrical production whether they liked it or not.
This lengthy diatribe against the drama department was delivered without a trace of irony, despite the fact that this same teacher had for years been forcing dozens of pupils, my unwilling offspring among them, to take part in games lessons and matches in sports they detested.
Games teachers aren’t exactly cut from the mother lode. That’s why they teach kicking a ball about as opposed to proper subjects such as English, maths or the sciences.
… but are necessary …
Except spurts are not necessary. They have NO connection with education, whatsoever ….
We’ve covered this ground before, but I think it’s worth pointing out again that, just as history is always written by the winners, team games are almost always taught – and advocated – by those who succeeded at them through innate ability and have little concept of – or sympathy for – the effort required by the less talented or motivated.
Indeed so. My own experience would reflect that very point. I was treated with contempt by PE teachers. Mind you, the attitude was returned in bucket-loads…
I recall one occasion when they decided to cover other sports. When it came to Judo, I turned up with my Judo kit complete with green belt. They were strangely quiet after that.
I hated all forms of sport – I was no good at any of them, and frequently argued with the teachers on the point of being forced to take part, when I could have been learning useful skills in the physics or metalwork room instead. I knew (and they knew that I knew) I was right, but the curriculum said you had to do it. Fortunately many of our games periods were preceded by RE lessons, and an active sick note forging club sprung up…
Heh!
Did I mention that the metalwork teacher soon realised he didn’t need to teach me how to use basic hand tools? Within a short time I was given free reign of the workshop, including the wonderful Myford ML7 lathe, and the gas/compressed air blowtorch & coke hearth. I admit my welding might not be the best, but I can braze better than anyone I know! I seem to recall him leaving me in charge of the class on a number of occasions, when he wanted a fag break – can you imagine the ‘Elf & Safety or legal consequences if that happened now?
I agree whole heartedly. At my school it was rugby union. Played in winter in the snow and iron hard frozen mud. I utterly hated it. I also detest football as in soccer and certainly have no interest if England wins or loses. I have not watched one second of any world cup game and nor will I except by accident. However, there is nothing so mind numbingly boring as cross country running. A sport to kill the brain. As for teamwork, teamwork didn’t get you top of the class or an A at A level did it? No, you did it yourself for yourself. No wonder I preferred tennis!
I enjoyed most sport at school excepting gym and rugby – just an excuse for the bullies to beat the crap out of smaller kids and get away with it.
Winter of ’63 Newcastle upon Tyne they gave up on football as the snow was too deep on the school fields and after a couple of x-countries they gave up on those as well. So for the next few weeks we had too change into football kit and run about a mile to the local swimming baths with our towels and bathers tucked under our arms. We ran down the road part of the way, the main west road out of Newcastle, the pavements were a bit of a death trap,
One week I slipped on the ice of the steps leading into the baths, skinned both knees, my mates suggested I jump straight into the pool and let the chlorine in the water clean up the mess. It stung a bit but worked. After the swim it was run back to school wet hair and all in the freezing cold. I can;t say it did me any harm and given a choice of physics, latin or PE I know which I would have chosen everytime.
Physics and Latin and I hated physics.
I quite liked sport, what I hated was Gymnastics, because this we had to do in our big blue bloomers and a vest, (I went to an all girls school) being a plump well endowed adolescent who went through puberty early prancing around in my pants was a no no, but I did it anyway.
However I loved Hockey, rounders, cricket and netball and was on school teams for all of them.
I agree sport is not for everyone,
But where i do disagree is , as a dyslexic underachiever (whilst not stupid) maths and English were the bain of my life and made me feel stupid and worthless it was not that I didn’t want to do it but I couldn’t, I was derided and bullied and belittled.
I would rather have played sport than 24/7 than go through that trauma again.
I feel for the non academic kids or the Dyslexic kids if there was no compulsory sport maybe those kids would never find any outlet or anything to succeed in, after all if they were not taught in schools how many children would ever play cricket, hockey or lacross these days.
I also believe that given today’s couch potato / gadget mad generation they need exercise somewhere.
Some form of exercise should be compulsory until GCSE subjects (or whatever they are calling it this week) are chosen after all we all have to do things we don’t like in life it’s all part of the game of living.
And if you never try anything how do you even know you don’t like it.
My problem with sports—especially those involving a ball—is that I literally couldn’t see the damned ball while it was in motion; my eyesight has always been a bit crap, and it has only gotten worse since.
(Also, there was no way in hell I was going to play with my one and only pair of glasses on. If anything happened to them, I’d be out of school for more than a week. This was back in the ’70s / ’80s.)
That said, I hated school generally. Teaching has remained stuck in the Victorian-era approach of beating all the fun and curiosity out of learning. We are *born* curious! The system doesn’t need yet another overhaul: it needs to be completely ripped out and *replaced*. No amount of tinkering around the curriculum by the likes of Mr. Gove will ever be enough. The system is broken far beyond such futile attempts at repair.
It is amazing, knowing what I do now about ‘the natural world’, that I too was less than happy with physics lessons. I vaguely remember that the teaching of physics was very dry, a little like taking piano lessons outside of the concept of music. The teaching was all about mathematical equations, with little demonstration of the wonder of the effect being described. Only when a child learns to be amazed at the power of gravity does the description of the power (32′ per second per second’) and the notion of acceleration start to make sense.
I must have been fortunate that my science lessons involved plenty of practical demonstration, and we were generally allowed to experiment by ourselves. This (naturally) led to some “interesting” events. Charging up the Wimshurst generator and pushing an unsuspecting pupil against it was a favorite, and according to an enraged chemistry teacher I came close to blowing up the lab, on one occasion…
I could have written every word of your post Longrider – and totally identify with what you have written. I went to a grammar school in the sixties in which sport was the be-all and end-all of the school ethos. There was blatant favouritism shown towards those who shone on the playing fields, and, of course much bullying of those of us who didn’t (some teachers joined in too). Compulsory participation of sport poisoned the education process for me and I left before I was due to sit my O-levels. So what has an ‘introduction’ to competitive sport done for me? Curtailed my (formal) education, left me with emotional scars which still affect me on occasion even to this day, left me feeling uncomfortable in any competitive situation,and left me with an undying hatred of sport in general, and a LOATHING of football in particular. Nice one Mile End School, Stockport.
I also detested school sports in general and football in particular. I was a really weedy kid but at about the age of fifteen I filled out and became distincly unweedy. Once I could choose what I wanted to do I became quite keen on sport. Karate, cycling and swimming mainly. Recently I have started doing some running too and I’m considering having a go at a triathlon. Now at 55, I find it quite satisfying to compare my lean fit body with those of my contempories, at least some of whom must have been good at sports when at school. Of course, being lean and fit doesn’t mean that I’m not overweight according to the infamous BMI.