This summer, two of my high school age students have completed an online P.E. course so they don’t have to take Phys Ed during the year.
Wait, whaaaaat????
Clearly, I was born in the wrong decade. I cannot even begin to tell you the misery and angst this option would have saved me in high school. Wear a heart rate monitor, log and upload your daily activity, and voila! You have completed your gym requirement. Jealous, jealous, jealous. I am dripping green with jealousy. And yes, I mean jealousy, not envy. I feel resentment towards these teenagers who get to blithely skip the horrors of gym class and do their own thing. (Not really, just kidding, kids, if you’re reading this!)
Gym was AWFUL. At least I only had to have two years of it in high school, but that was still two years too many for me. I did not come from an athletic family, and sports were pretty much anathema to me. Add in a racist, misogynistic gym teacher who looked down his nose at orchestra students, and high school gym was an absolute horror for me. Funnily enough, I’ve become more athletic as an adult than I ever was as a child or teen. (Thank you, United States Army). However, I don’t think I will ever feel comfortable joining in a team sport of any kind. Pickup volleyball game? I can still hear the other kids (and sometimes the teacher) yelling at me to spike the damn ball and stop ducking. Pickup softball? Yeah, I can still feel the impact of that softball hitting me in high school. Thanks, but I’ll pass. My workouts are solitary, just the way I like them. Online P.E., where were you when I was growing up? Oh yeah, having the internet would have made that a bit more possible…
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