Although the goal of physical
education is to teach students and make their lives better, the results can be the
opposite if the class is taught incorrectly. My experience in physical education
classes has been mostly negative from elementary school to high school and even
college. I was the small, shy student that nobody wanted on their team, and the nerd
all of the other students liked to pick on. Many of the things that happened to me in
my p.e. classes could have been prevented by my teachers.
One bad experience I had happened in the ninth grade. It
was time for physical fitness testing. You know that time of the year when you do as
many pull-ups as you can even though you haven’t done them at all previous to the
test. The whole class got in a big line in front of the pull-up bar. One by one we
would go up and do as many pull-ups as we could. After we were done we would just
stand around and see how many pull-ups everyone else could do. It came to my turn, and
I went up there and did three. It was the most I had ever done. As I hung from the
pull-up bar I squirmed and gave it my best to do one more. I always gave everything my
best effort. My twig like arms began to shake, and I started to make some upward
progress. Suddenly out of the audience of the rest of the class shouted the voice of
one of the many bullies of my past. "Go Greaseball!" His cry disheartened me and I
fell from the bar. I was done. The rest of the class laughed. My coach yelled,
"Vanier, 25." Casey, the bully, went to the ground to do 25 pushups. For once my
teacher had actually done something about the bullying, but it would be the only time.
My physical education teacher, also the high school
varsity basketball coach, did nothing to help my situation one day in the locker room.
We were waiting for my instructor in the locker room so we could go into the wrestling
room. As we waited a group of my classmates thought it would be fun to throw me in the
shower. It started out with just a few of them. They grabbed me and started dragging
me to the shower. I resisted the best that I could. My last chance was the lockers
next to the showers. I grabbed the inside of one of the lockers and held on. The
students pulled, but I still held on as the metal from the locker cut into my fingers.
Other students in the class realized the group pulling me needed some help, so they
joined in. I struggled, kicked and held on the best I could, but eventually my grip
couldn’t hang on. They threw me into the showers and turned them on. I tried to
escape, but they pushed me back in. Eventually I got out. The group of bullies
laughed, and I walked to the corner of the locker room and tried to dry myself off the
best I could. I looked down at my wet, gray shorts and thought about the trouble I
might get into for going to class dressed in a wet uniform. I stood there waiting for
my instructor and for class to begin.
I knew it was going to be an uncomfortable period.
Besides wearing wet clothes, we were wrestling. Sometimes we got in a big circle, and
two people went in the middle and wrestled. I was the smallest, thinnest person in the
class. No one was as small as me, and I couldn’t wrestle. I didn’t look forward to
class. My teacher never said anything about my clothes. I don’t know if he didn’t
notice or didn’t care.
I also don’t know if my teacher didn’t notice or didn’t
care whenever he told us to pick teams in class. I was always the last one picked. It
had been that way since elementary school and would go on that way into college. Even
if someone was injured but could still play, that person would still be picked before
I would be. Everyone based my playing ability on my size. They never gave me a chance.
I wondered what it would be like to be wanted and be thought of as one of the better
athletes in the class, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen. Many times I started to
believe I was a weakling and a failure that no one wanted.
When we played I would always be stuck in the positions
no one wanted. When we played hockey I was always the goalie and when we played
football I was the center. No one thought I could run or catch. I didn’t think it was
the greatest idea to make the smallest person on the team the center, but what did I
know about sports. Even though I was just a center I did my job the best I could. I
blocked the biggest guys in the class as they rushed the quarterback. I got thrown to
the ground over and over again, but I always back up and did my job. Nobody else on
the team seemed to care, but I knew that I had done my best.
I had many other bad experiences in my physical
education classes. I dreaded going to class everyday. I didn’t look forward to being
beaten up, humiliated and laughed at. I would lay in bed at night, my arms sore from
the punches they had received from the bullies at school, and wonder what was wrong
with me. Why did people treat me the way they did? I had never done anything wrong to
them. I wondered what it would be like not to be picked on. I wanted to know what if
felt like to be successful, or to at least be given a chance. I dreamed about what it
was like to be treated equal to everyone else instead of less than. I didn’t have much
of a chance in my physical education classes.
To the students that bully and make fun of other
students: Think about what you’re doing. Would you like to be treated the same way
that you’re treating that other person? The person that you might make into your enemy
could have been your friend.
To those out there that were bullied or are being
bullied: Don’t ever give up on yourself. You can do anything you want to do. Don’t
ever let anyone stop you. In order to get from one side of the road to the other you
must cross the traffic in between. Through dedication, hard work, and by believing in
yourself you can do anything.
To the teachers and future teachers of physical
education: Please do what you can to help prevent your students from having the same
experiences I did. Don’t let students pick teams. Don’t test students in front of the
rest of the class. Watch the students at all times and if you see students bullying
other students do something about it. I believe that teachers can make a difference. I
hope I can.
--- A Future Physical Education Teacher
