They say things like, “It’s just a name they made up to make substitute teachers feel special…”
Maths+Sports teachers were the best ime. Only purely Art teachers could reach that level. Or maybe the odd physics+informatics.
to be fair the pe teachers where I grew up kind of earned that reputation. they never taught us how to do much of anything they were just like "go play baseball" and then they'd yell at you for doing it wrong because no one taught you
My one high school PE teacher was such a slacker that I actually admired him for it. He also played favorites in a hilarious way, like me and my friend would be talking loudly in class and he'd ignore us. But as soon as someone else spoke up he'd tell them be quiet. Then would bs with us about sports and what not. It was so obvious he was just checking the box every day.
Not a good teacher but kind of hilarious to see that level of professional apathy. Probably didn't help that he was only about 4 years older than us. I think people forget a lot of teachers aren't much older than teenagers
For real, most pe teacher positions are just busywork for the washed up jock.
Shame for the ones that actually studied physical education and pedagogy...
Fair enough.
I just want to know why they wear gym clothes and never actually do anything athletic.
TBF they'd look stupid wearing a suit in a room full of sweaty children.
But… is that only because we’re accustomed to not seeing them in suits??? I wonder…
Who knows?
My kid was having a tough time at school and the pe teacher went the extra mile to make him feel included and to cheer him up. He will always remember that guy as a formative force in his life, by extension I will too.
A higher percentage of PE teachers are bad at their job than other disciplines, because schools' tend to hire randos for that position. I salute all who're good at it despite this regrettable trend 🫡
In the Netherlands, PE teachers have a 4 year college degree. Imagine spending that much time to be the least relevant teacher.
Here in Germany, you need to subjects for your teaching degree. A teacher told me that sport and geography are the easiest way to become a teacher and that's why he chose them.
Once you are a teacher you can teach other stuff as well.
Sport is only easy if you have some aptitude. They have regular fitness exams and need proficiency in a range of physical disciplines.
And you can only teach stuff unrelated to your degree below a certain grade and never advanced courses.
Source: Studiere Lehramt
"easy" is relative. I probably was never once fit enough to pass the necessary exams even when I was regularly doing sports, but PE teachers aren't exactly pro athletes, either.
Oh, it doesn't work like that here, though you can assist other teachers I think.
You think they are the least relevant?
Yes? What important skill have you learned from a ~~PR~~ PE teacher? Because I can't name a single one.
I can name plenty of useful things taught by, say, my maths or English teacher, or chemistry, history. Or hell, even my art teacher (though they come a close second). But PE? Not one actual skill.
Exercise is important, lots of people would spend their entire childhoods with exactly zero exercise if they didn't have PE. If done badly it can be offputting, but I had very few negative experiences in PE despite being pretty unathletic.
Art is also pretty important IMO, if done well it teaches motor skills, thinking about things in a visual way, cultural contexts. It's an expression of thought and emotion and frequently (in the form of pottery and architecture) the only thing we have left from prehistoric cultures. And y'know, it's just fun - school life would be so much poorer without the occasional fun subject.
Exercise is important, lots of people would spend their entire childhoods with exactly zero exercise if they didn't have PE.
And thanks to PE, they get to have some 40 minutes (or well under, for many activities) of exercise per week. I personally think that's a terrible return on investment, especially with literacy going down the drain fast.
Honestly, all the money and effort spent on PE should probably just go directly into youth sports on a national level.
Your art class was miles better than mine, I'll have to grant you that. I don't remember much about mine, other than making lots of "art" (drawing, painting, charcoal work, clay... something) which was evaluated and finally graded completely arbitrarily but never worse than a passing grade, so after the first year art class quickly became time wasting class.
Actually, that's a good point. If you can't fail a class, it's not actually important.
We had 90 minutes of PE, you're right that 40 minutes is a waste of time. It's probably not going to do much in terms of training strength or endurance, but familiarizing children with the concept of exercising and sports does a lot. I never would have entered my first youth sports club if it weren't for PE.
Sure, I had 90 minutes of PE too, which included changing, explaining and waiting, and changing again at the end. Then depending on the activity, lots more waiting. I think spending half the time actually being active is optimistic.
familiarizing children with the concept of exercising and sports does a lot. I never would have entered my first youth sports club if it weren't for PE.
Right, but that means PE is an absolutely terrible way to achieve your goals. It's a massively expensive class. It requires huge special areas, sometimes both in and outdoors, with special equipment. And the return on investment is tiny (or in my case negative). And there is such an extremely obvious alternative too:
If you want to familiarize kids with youth sports, have them spend time doing youth sports. Why waste time and money on PE if your goal is directly available already, in a much more direct, effective and efficient way?
I would argue that PE in school is a thing the government uses to foist off kids being active on a school system that is inherently unsuited to teaching it. Schools are forced to teach it, wasting immense resources on something they ultimately don't do well, with a goal that's better achieved differently. The effects are tiny (or negative), but adults get to pat themselves on the back for a job well delegated at no extra cost, apart from every other area of a child's education.
My local highschool-equivalent also offered various things that were literally "youth sports", e.g. they had a handball team that was using the school sports facilities. I assume that's pretty common here, because why wouldn't you do it when you already have the facilities and well-qualified personell? And I'm pretty sure that this is a thing in the US, as well, school basketball teams are a huge trope. Though the fundamental issue with youth sports like this is that it only appeals to athletic kids, the unathletic ones are generally not going to care, or even be outright rejected if the team cares a lot about competitions. I think any youth sports thing that actually includes unathletic children is going to end up reinventing school sports.
Self defence? Physical exercise for health?
Climbing methods, flexibility training, overcoming fears? For maths I didn't learn much that ended up being useful.
Really? You never had to compare two numbers to tell which is bigger? Never counted anything? Never added or subtracted anything? And you apparently got enough PE to count as proper exercise too!
We have had two very different lives.
What important skill have you learned from a PR teacher?
Can’t honestly say I had one. They didn’t teach PR in my school lol XD
PE, of course...
Ik, it was just funny the way it looked lol. No harm done bro :D I had a similar comment earlier where they said ‘sofa manufacturer’ instead of ‘soda manufacturer’ and joked about that too XD
Yeah I guess bullying and insulting queer kids is an important function at a school. 🙄
The P.E. teachers in my town were just overgrown hockey boys who'd spend most of class joking around with the high school hockey boys while making everyone do laps and push ups. I'm in Canada and glad I was allowed to drop the class after grade 9 even if i definitely needed the exercise at that point
As much as I hated both school and my school in particular, my PE teacher was absolutely awesome. She was a really good athlete and she and her husband made me into a badminton machine. Like, I am and always was a fat fuck, but put me on a badminton court and I turn into Roger Federer.
Without her that would never have happened.
And they were also just extremely nice people.
Is this you?
better
Depends on the context, I suppose. There are definitely some ways in which PE is totally unlike any other subject.
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