A Sad Product of the Sedentary Age

I'm not the only cliché high school brainy kid who's had issues with P.E., but that definitely doesn't make it any easier. I am the slowest, the weakest and the shittiest at throwing balls in my entire class (much of this tragically proven through horridly public tests whose results were then to be compared with an average, oh the trauma). The overweight and asthmatic alike whoop my unathletic ass. I dislike exercise and hardly ever do any, so when we got this assignment to create a training plan (to be followed six days a week for two months) and then show improved results at the end of the period, I wanted to break down and cry. No wait, I did. (I didn't do the assignment and was - actually legitimately - absent on the re-test day, so I may be in some deep shit, but that's another matter.)

The thing is that it's not the exercise itself that deters me, it's the way the whole thing is organized. We just finished a painfully short dance unit, comprised of three lessons, which was really, really fun - not competitive, easily adaptable for both groups and individuals, alterable exertion levels, and a design where the performance itself is intrinsically more important than the final score. Come next lesson we'll be doing invasion sports instead. COOPERATE. SCORE. WIN!!!! Yay.

When you're pretty bad at P.E. and are playing team sports against people who're average, you learn to stay out of the way. If you know that if it were up to you, the team would lose every time, things tend to lose their appeal. Plus, there's no help to be had for a subject like this - no support groups or anything like there are for math or English. Which should be logical since it's not academic at all ... but apparently you have to pass to become eligible for university. Which also wouldn't be a problem - participation used to be enough - but at this school, not only do they give us homework, but homework that is more difficult and at least twice as time-consuming as that for any other subject. And then there's the whole thing about how public everything is - being red-faced, unable to breathe, and so sore the fillings in your teeth hurt (which actually happened once) is, in my opinion, slightly more humiliating then looking disappointed after a bad test score.

yeah pretty much

I'd love it if they had some sort of alternative P.E. class with a larger focus on individual activities, like dancing, yoga, or even aerobics-type exercise. I might even enjoy Physical Education then. But for now I guess it's back to the sidelines. Not just because of self-pity either, mind you: I dislike the thought of my glasses shattering from the force of a stray projectile.

Lobbing flying projectiles!!! Whoever invented organized sports was a sadist, I tell you.

Did you guys have issues with Physical Education, or was it just another subject, or even one of your best subjects? Was there anything you'd rather have done during this time? (Such as actual schoolwork???)

Bluh. Gonna get off my own case now and go do something productive. Like dance. Or read.

...yeah, read.