What I learned from PE.

By Melissa Newsome

From Kindergarten until I graduated high school, I had PE every year and I think it rounded my education experience.  As I have often told (preached to) my children, your education experience extends beyond the classroom.  I learned very valuable life lessons on the playground, lunchroom, bus and PE class.  If the goal of today’s education is to graduate students that have rote memory of facts, statistics and reading skills then, bravo, perhaps you are doing a good job.  However, I may be old fashion in my thinking that I expect graduate students to be well informed, in the process of maturing, be good citizens in their communities, resourceful, independent and learn how to cope with difficulties and triumph over victories.  My education system did not fail me.  I learned those lessons and most often, in PE class.

Early on, I learned how to be a team member.  We would break up into groups and compete and even at something as simple as Dodge Ball, I learned the camaraderie of a team.  When our team won, I tasted the sweetness of victory.  When we lost, I learned how to accept it graciously and to try harder next time.  In addition, on a similar but different note, back in my day the WINNING teams got the trophies –not every kid that played. 

I learned games and often times, those games made their way into my own playtime.  Learning new things in PE class encouraged me to get outside and play at home.  Sometimes we played the games exact to the T and other times, our variation of it was so watered down it barely resembled the original game but the point is, learning new things in PE class inspired me to want to try new things on my own.  I remember my first year in high school, much to my dismay, I was put into a badminton class because that’s all that fit into my schedule.  I hated it and yet I not only survived it but at picnics or outings, I would often find myself in a badminton game, to which I could hold my own.  It may not have been my first choice of things to do but I was up and active and not sitting at a picnic table stuffing my face with potato chips.

I was always the pipsqueak; short, skinny and not very athletic at all.  Yes, I was the girl that would scream, wince and hide her face when the ball came her way.  For that reason, when we had to divide into teams and the team “captain” picks their members, I was that little girl that was last or next to last to be chosen.  My only redeeming quality was I did have many friends so sometimes; I was chosen first, just out of friendship.  Yes, sometimes it was humiliating being the last one standing but I learned how to deal with disappointment and humiliation –just like in my adult life when I interviewed for a job I was certain I was going to get and I did not.  It was humiliating and disappointing --especially since I knew everyone on the search committee.  It is part of life.   Parents and Educators, stop trying to shield children from pain and difficult situations –allow them to learn from them and to deal with them.  I learned that in PE class.

It’s not always going to go your way.  In PE class, I learned the art of compromise.  My favorite year of PE in grade school was every Friday we were allowed to pick whatever activity we wanted by voting. Sometimes it would be corporate play and sometimes we would break off into several groups, depending on what the consensus was.  I did not always get to play the game I voted for –and watch this –just like in my adult life the candidate I vote for does not always win.  Whoa –a life lesson learned right the in the stinky gym/make-shift lunchroom.  I hated basketball the most because well, I never could make a basket and I also hated having to climb that stupid rope.  I would not get very far and I would usually get rope burns on the way down.  I still did it.  I wasn’t very good at it but I participated.  Just as some kids were not very good at the spelling bees or the math quizzes –I could rock those out.  Perhaps somewhere someone is writing a blog about how stupid spelling bees made him or her feel.  Its okay, basketball and rope climbing made me feel pretty stupid, weak and inept.  I am not.  I am not stupid, weak, or inept –I just learned to find my strengths and focus on those and I learned to try harder at my weaknesses.  I learned that in PE class.

Today’s education systems are budget driven and often times, that is much to the demise of education and children.  I am a huge advocate of music, art and PE.  I am a huge advocate of them because –they teach our children valuable lessons.  I recently read the Hunger Games trilogy and I was tickled at the thought of actually knowing what it feels like to use a bow and arrow, and in the storyline, I could appreciate the skill of the protagonist, Katniss.  Right there on the grounds of good ol’ Wheeling High School, as part of my PE curriculum, I learned to shoot a bow and arrow.  And because of my education at good ol’ Wheeling High School, I can also use the word “protagonist” because my education went hand-in-hand; what I learned in Language Arts and PE somehow melded into one educational experience.

The irony is that though sometimes in PE class I felt stupid, weak or inept, those feelings empowered me to the contrary.  My fear is with the cuts made to these essential programs; music, art and PE, we literally are going to turn out into society graduates that are stupid, weak and inept.

I tip my hat to you, District 214.  My education has served me well.

And to District 214’s PE educators that always encouraged this little pipsqueak to try harder and continue on, thank you.  My PE classes served me well, also.