PE needs to change if kids are to get healthy

Posted by Caroline Innes on July 17, 2007 10:12 PM

A CAMPAIGN to make sport a part of every child's day has been announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Unlike his predecessor, the new PM has realised that a national curriculum that requires youngsters to do just two hours of exercise a week is not going to keep our children fit and healthy and certainly won’t curb the growing tide of obesity.

He now wants all school children to get the chance to do five hours of sport a week and wants PE teachers to encourage competitiveness and return to traditional team games.

In the push, which will include a new National School Sport Week, schools will even be urged to compete against each other, with 225 national competition managers in charge of promoting rivalry and a desire to win.

Now while any initiative that encourages children to get active has my backing, Mr Brown must remember that activity and fitness is not just centred around sport - and certainly not competition.

While it is good to encourage children to participate in competitive sport, to work as a team and to understand the highs and low of success and failure, what will Mr Brown offer for those children who can’t catch for toffee and are more likely to trip over the laces on their football boots than ever get the ball into the back of the net?

Now here I speak from experience... and bitter experience at that.

My PE lessons were enough to turn you off any form of exercise for good - and to be honest almost did.

The memories of standing in blue gym knickers on a freezing cold wet all-weather pitch waiting for the humiliation of being picked last by “sporty” team captains for a hellish game of hockey still sends shivers down my spine.

The PE teachers (who by the way were over weight and would stand on the touchline in pink shell suits SMOKING FAGS - SERIOUSLY!) always had their favourites and the likes of me never got a look in.

Now as a friend of the cool kids at school - who for some reason were also always the sporty ones - I was never picked last.

But my heart used to go out to the same handful of pitiful rejects who week in week out would stand in line wiping rain drops from their National Health specs until there was nobody but them left to choose from.

Instead of being made to feel like a worthwhile member of a team they were left feeling ashamed - knowing their lack of sporting prowess rendered them the team handicap.

Even after just one cruel humiliation, why on earth would these children ever want to do PE ever again?

I know I didn’t and between forged notes from my mum, excuses that it was the time of the month and forgetting my kit I think I managed to escape at least two years worth of lessons.

HOWEVER, I did want to exercise and at the same time as dodging PE lessons and school showers I used to go to dance classes and aerobics with my mum.

And I loved it. So why didn’t my school offer anything like this?

I became interested in fitness in spite of PE lessons at school not because of them and fear that unless more is done to offer different ways to get fit and active more children will be turned off exercise for good.

Motivating yourself to exercise is hard enough - let alone if you are expecting people to do something that they don’t enjoy.

As well as promoting competitive sports, Mr Brown must broaden the curriculum to ensure there is something for everyone to enjoy and to excel in.

That way children will be inspired to get active, will actually enjoy exercise and forge habits of a lifetime to keep them fit and healthy.

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