So we can tell kids that they're stupid when they can't pass their End of Course exams, but we can't show them they're pathetically overweight and out of shape by having them run a mile - a single mile!
Unfortunately nobody realizes that setting yourself up for a healthy lifestyle is much more important than learning that "in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue".
High Life wrote:
Actually, if you read a little closer, he's talking about highschool (hs).
Good point. Just saw that. I absolutely apologize to Tony. Much more believable as a hs runner than as a 6th grader.
gimme a break: Give ME a break. Bone up on your reading comprehension skills. I remember the 600 yard from 6TH GRADE. IN HS (meaning high school) WE HAD TO RUN A MILE...
Is that clear enough for you. I ran a 400 in "about 55" (seconds). I took off like a bat out of hell for that 400...as can be done when you can run that fast (I had run a 52 split in a relay that year in track). I ran that 5:15 mile in PE class my senior year of high school (3 weeks after that 55 sec 400), and yes, I closed in 2:15 after an opening 800 of right at 3:00. Less than a week before, I had run 4:33 in a meet. And I never used the word "about" when referring to my grade, since I did not list my grade - I only said 'hs' (again, meaning high school). I used the word "about" to describe the 400 because the teacher was timing it and really didn't know what we ran exactly.
You are clearly and idiot.
Why are you defending your pathetic times? Who cares if you thrashed some nobodys in your pe class in highschool? You have to rise above people flaming Tony, dont give the perp. what he wants by responding.
fun pe class wrote:
I would like to report in that there are some high schools where PE is still a highly competitive endeavor. One of our high school gym teachers would make fun of the fat kids who couldn't run, egg on the fast kids to race each other, and quite frequently participated in dodgeball trying to hit kids as hard as he could (he played minor league baseball). There was even a special class called PE elective for juniors and seniors. My class was 12 guys and we did the exact same thing everyday. Our teacher set up wrestling mats, pitching nets, etc in the batting cages and we played a hybrid of paintball and dodgeball for 45 minutes. Losers got humilated, headshots were encouraged, hell we even got into fights and the teacher didn't say anything until one kid got his nose busted up pretty bad and the nurse got real upset. My arm would be sore the rest of the day from trying to throw so hard. Kids got knocked off their feet sometimes they got hit in the head so hard. Everyone had bruises and welts. It sure was a great time.
This is exactly the kind of thing I was trying to convey. A lot of HS gym classes can be a living hell for any kid who doesn't have a giant ego and great athletic ability. Extremely competitive, lots of taunting, etc. etc.
I'm not defending my pathetic times. I was defending my writing, and flaming his comprehension. Of course, I did that and then saw that he apologized...so, oops!
And the point of my original post was to further point out (in agreement with others) that most high school kids are pathetic.
This is one good thing about going to a Catholic School... they couldn't care less what the PC public schools are doing.
We had to do the Mile Run, Chin-Ups, Pull-Ups, Sit-Ups, Shuttle Run, V-Sit Reach, Push-Ups, Balance Test and i am sure there were other things that we did as well.
Anyway, the Presidential Fitness test was at the end of the year, and we would start these things at the beginning of the year and we would be allowed to attempt a better score each week.
So basically the PE teacher tricked us all into training all year for these things, it was great. At the end of the year, you had one last chance to do everything in one day.
We would all cheer each other on, pick sides, have rivalries. It really got us excited about fitness. We had one fat kid in our class, and everyone was nice to her. Looking back, it might have been the only time that everyone was nice to each other.
I was always first in the Mile run and the Chin-ups/Pull-ups. I had a chin-up bar in my room that I always practiced on. I had a rough time with the shuttle run, it was always the thing I was a little nervous about not making the Presidential mark.
I am a history teacher. I should have gone for PE. How I get paid the same as those lazy sob's, I'll never understand.
at the end of my senior year( a little over a year ago ) we still had to run the mile, do fitness tests like sit and reach, pushups, situps, and pullups.
my last gym mile i made sure to run sub 5, i ran 4:57 needless to say i lapped everyone around 3 times, it was certainly worth it
im pretty certain that my public hs still mandates the same fitness tests, and i completely agree with the everyone on how inadaquate most children are at managing nutrition and fitness, probably because of their parents
the pacer test, which i use in my PE classes is a great test. Not everyone has access to a track ( we run 25 laps around the gym for the mile run)and shuttling back and forth every 20 yards for as long as possible can be a good test. The students who will put in effort in the mile run will put in effort in the pacer test. And I'd rather have someone stop the pacer test after a minute than watch them walk a mile. I have also given the pacer test to my track athletes when the weather was bad and when I had access to a small area.
The end wrote:
Public schools around the US are actually banning the mile run for gym class because it is too "demanding" for the students. Even for the Presidential fitness test, there is a new option that takes the place of the mile for a "pacer test" which basically involves running back and forth in a gym about 10 times with REST inbetween. This is so pathetic!
Oh great. About fifty LetsRunners will now start caroming off onto tangents about how this is contributing to obesity.
Gym class in public schools is putrid, from what I hear (never had one, never went to one). It would turn anyone against physical activity.
Maybe the obesity epidemic has its roots in the President's Council on Physical Fitness in the early 60s, with that TV commercial showing that doofus doing pushups on the gym floor. Before that, people didn't know exercise was distasteful.
I just got out of HS. We had to run both the mile and pacer in PE. The pacer test (to clarify) involves running back and forth across the gym to measured out lines. It's like 20m or something. There is a CD the plays while you run, and you have to get to the opposite line before the beep. Then you must wait till the beep inorder to start running back. The pace of the beeps speeds up about every 12 laps. (hence "Pacer")The pace does eventually pick up to something fairly quick. The difficulty depends on the standards of the test. At my school "exceeds" in the mile was below 7:30, wayyy easy. Exceeds in the pacer was 75ish which made you break into a sweat. We'd challenge eachother, so most xc guys would hit 100-120 depending on how hard they actually wanted to try. So the runners at my school would agree that the pacer was tougher. My beef with it is that you have to accelerate then decelerate and turn around each lap. It's the dumbest and most inefficent way to run. One of my teammates always finished a few laps behind the other top xc guys, although he was the 5th man, and could beat most of us in a 5k, almost everyone in a 10k. He's got great endurance and strenght, but he doesnt accelerate well, so he had a hard time jumping right back into pace after each turn around. It's a dumb test, but not necesisarily easy.
I'm going to make a resolution not to call anyone on the message board "clearly an idiot" or anything else nasty until I absolutely KNOW this is true. I think everyone else should do the same. As shown by the above situation with Tony and gimme a break, people can often overreact and then find out that the person they just "told off" really wasn't that bad. Please, people, think before you react.
Or especially not to call someone "clearly and idiot." I mean, if you're going to call someone an idiot, you might as well do it without any simple grammatical errors. At least he used "you are" instead of "your".
In 80s,
the elementary schools (1-6th grade) that I went to did not have mile runs. The distance run at Field Day was 600 yards (twice around football field) and the sprint was 50 yard dash.
7th grade was the 1st time I ran the mile.
High School Fitness Test was 12 minutes run.
I teach high school pe, and we go to the track for warm-ups all the time. We do 15 mins of jogging or they can walk for 25 mins. Some kids run all of the time, but most walk.
We also have a wellness walking course in the school.
Everyone seems to be talking about the problem of childhood obesity and no P.E. There is a solution. Take a look at
The Big Sur Marathon has put together at great program that any school in the country can use. The kid's class registers and records miles and good deeds on the website and they try to run across the USA. The kids run, do other relays and drills, cooperatively work together to accumulate mileage, and learn goal setting, nutrition, lifelong fitness habits.
Any school or youth group in the country can participate FREE. Call the Big Sur Marathon office at 831-625-6226 to find out more information or look at the website and follow the instructions.
Presidential Fitness Test was:
1. Number of Sit-Ups in a Minute
2. Number of pull-ups
3. 600y Run
4. 50y Dash
5. Standing Broad Jump
6. Shuttle Run
By my senior year in HS, all of the track team just went down to the track one class and ran the 600y together. It was fun to blow the door off of every one running in the mid 1:1x's for 600y during a gym class.
We also had a 3/4 mile run in Junior High which was a pseudo tryout for XC in High School. They used that to find people who might be able to run.
You had to bring up the pull-ups, didn't you. I'd have more Presidential medals than a 5-star general if not for the fact that I couldn't do one damn pull-up.
Crushing 4 of the cross country runners in the mile run when I was a freshman convinced me that I had better things to do than be a 3rd string wide receiver on the football team. Who knows If I would have gone out for track and cross after that.