Seems there’s a general anti-gym class sentiment going around, huh? (judging from the comments on the previous post.)

It makes me wonder, then–did we get ANY benefit out of gym? What purpose does it serve? If we hear our (future) kids coming home complaining of gym class, do we feel sympathy or tell them to buck up?

I mean, I don’t think gym helped me AT ALL. I was overweight as a kid and gym didn’t make me healthier or skinnier or feel like I ought to do something about exercising more. (Besides, most of my weight problem wasn’t due to lack of exercise, but poor food choices. Pudding for lunch and such.) Gym taught me how to fake an injury; how to lie about going to the nurse’s office; how to forge dr.’s notes; how to cry at will to get out of things. Gym class taught me about embarassment, about the difference between my body and other girls’ (in the locker room), about how I should be ashamed of the fact that I can’t do a pull-up. About the general disdain with which fat kids are treated by gym teachers.

Well, at least that was my experience. AKA Welcome to Hell on Earth.

That being said, I wonder what I’ll do when I have a kid that’s elementary-aged, if he or she happens to be less-than-fit? I mean, I’m obviously going to do my best to raise a healthy, fit child, but some kids just aren’t built for gym class. I’m not kidding myself, I don’t have 100% control over what my future kids turn out to be like. I can do my best to influence them, but not much else. So anyway, what if my child comes home crying from gym class? Talking about how the other kids make fun of him/her? Or how the gym teacher yells because he/she can’t run a mile? It’s tough! It’s brutal! It’s counter-productive!

But what happens?

…

I don’t really know the answer to that, and I guess I’ll just have to wait and see, when I become a parent.