Dear Ms ______ (My Secondary School Physical Education Teacher)
Due to a slightly sore shoulder slowing me down, today as I was swimming I had some time to ponder a few things. No doubt due to being engaged in it at the time, my train of thought naturally landed on the topic of exercise and I’d like to share some of that monologue with you. Now, as I currently reside 4500 miles away it’s unlikely that I’m going to bump into you in the supermarket any time soon (and even if I did I doubt you’d remember me but we’ll get to that) I thought I’d post them here instead.
Lets start with the good things – I’d like you to know how important exercise has become to me in my adult life. Through my PhD the cheerful staff at the gym put me through hell each lunchtime, and in doing so salved my mental state enough that I completed in three years with my sanity mostly intact. For this I am eternally grateful. Last year after long days at work I ran up Welsh mountains, usually in the rain and always for the fun of it. Here in a new country, exercise has helped me find like-minded friends and never fails to provide a constructive excuse to leave the computer for a while and get out in the fresh air. Did you know I’m training to compete in my first triathlon next month? The swimming bit is a no brainer, (I would train at that seven times a week when you knew me), but in the interim I have taught myself how to run competently and ride a road bike without endangering life and limb. More to the point, I’m excited about swimming, cycling and running my way around an uncharted course in a foreign land with a bunch of other crazies. Granted, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it seems that it is mine.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no Jessica Ennis or Becky Adlington. I won’t ever be the fastest or most skilful. Neither do I in any way look like an athlete, but it turns out that I actually do enjoy being one. This is surprising in only one respect: not once can I remember actually being encouraged to enjoy exercise at school.
It seems strange to me as an adult who regularly laces up her running shoes to pound out a few miles with out really batting an eyelid, that the only contact I had with running in my teens was as the FSI, (AKA the Fat-Stand-In: one of those who gamely volunteered to chuff round the 400m track 2.5 times so that their house could have the requisite number of entrants in the inter-house athletics competition).
Oh I’m sure there was greater job satisfaction in coaching those who already had “talent” rather than teaching those that didn’t. After all the kudos of having a team that defeated those of neighbouring schools in netball and hockey (did we ever get an opportunity to play anything else?) and athletes who represented the county must have been a pretty nice buzz. Sadly most of my cohort didn’t fall into these categories and therefore were never really worthy of your attention. With hindsight I can’t help but feel that we were undersold. Perhaps if instead of arbitrarily deciding to send us out on a “cross country” run round the playing fields to keep us occupied for an hour or so, you had actually attempted to teach us how to run, to pace, build, breathe and practise, then the frustration and self-dismissal I felt when I couldn’t keep going for more than a few minutes at a time wouldn’t have led me to conclude that I simply wasn’t born to run. Incidentally, I remained of this opinion for the best part of a decade (until I realised it was bunkum and taught myself to how).
I was clearly interested in exercise (no teenager trains every single day at a sport without being interested in it – there are way too many other fun things to do) and yet because at school my sport wasn’t on the curriculum (along with 98% of all other sports currently known in the world) and I didn’t fit the athletic schoolgirl mould, it took until I reached university and beyond, for me to wise-up and realise that not being the best (by who’s measure?) at something is no excuse for not doing it.
In retrospect, I think what I wanted from PE lessons was actually empowerment. Young men and women need to be encouraged to embrace a range of physical activities and have fun while not be constantly judged against the best of their peers. This does not mean that competition has to be prohibited, but that students need to be coached to their own fitness goals, learn to record and be proud of their personal achievements so that they can see the results of the work they put in. In no other subject is so little instruction or information imparted to the student, and yet there is so much of value to learn. Students should leave school not just with an appreciation of the holistic benefits of an active lifestyle, but the tools and knowledge to make that lifestyle fit theirs.
It has been a long time since I was at school and in the interim I sincerely hope attitudes and methods have moved forward. Sadly, I suspect that they haven’t, so if you are reading this, dear Ms _______ and all your colleagues, I’d like to challenge you, not to a race or a duel, but to up your game and in doing so make your students up theirs.
Yours in sport,
Rebecca