Zatera Ul

Minneapolis schools are offering online phys-ed classes:

Teachers said they had to embrace a shift in physical education that was already under way: Less emphasis on team sports, and more on personal fitness, health and wellness.

About time. I could have told them that in 1989: “Why should I bother memorizing the dimensions of a soccer field? Or the rules of field hockey? I’m never going to need to know that!” So I didn’t do all that great on the PE written tests. My PE grade pulled my GPA down just enough to avoid being valedictorian. I didn’t want to give the speech at graduation, so there was some benefit to that stupid class.

The main thing I got out of PE was a passionate hatred of volleyball, so much so that I solemnly swore never to play volleyball again. My only moment of success was in being able to dribble a basketball left-handed better than anyone else. It didn’t help that there were an odd number of girls, and I was always the one left over when pairs or teams were formed.

The class never got around to any activities that I was actually good at, and taught very little that would apply to adult fitness (unless you are counting the Jane Fonda workout videos that we did). In a more flexible class setup, I would have been doing a lot of rock climbing and hiking, and maybe wrestling and some form of yoga.

I deliberately chose a college that had no PE requirement.