I Don't Get It (High School Sports)

[ICF]

odd...when I was in HS, we had to have 2 semesters of PE. It was require 1 semester and a Freshman and one as a Sophmore.

In that class you did a wide range of sport activities....swimming, softball, basketball, flag football, tennis, handball, volleyball, running and probably a few that i missed.

There was no "baskeball", "baseball" or "golf" class. Those were afterschool sports that you tried out for to make the teams each year....not a class to be taken during the regular school day.

 

[bookgirl]

When I was in HS. The specific "sport" classes were all taught last period (actually last period was also dance, choir and honor band and they often not only had that but then stayed after school for more practice., Marching band was the first class of the day and sometimes held before school practice). And yes they were only for those on the actual team. So all the coaches taught thier regular subjects (PE, Math, Science, History, etc) for the other periods and at the end of the day they went and coached for the last period of school.

That was probably because when I went to school they allowed a sport and band to take the place of PE so they had to have an actual class to get the credit.

Of course I'm middle aged and haven't been a HS student for 25 years LOL.

 

[sasywtch]

Way back in my day...1975, it doesn't seem as though high school sports were as competitive as they are now. We still wanted to win but there were no mandatory camps, football practice morning, noon and night etc. Football players did have the last period of the day as football in place of PE and continued practicing for a few hours after school ended. Everything was after school and taught by one of the PE teachers.

Huge change when my son went to high school (same school). Coaches are brought in, may or may not be one of the PE teachers. In one case, it was my son's old 5th grade teacher at the elementary school who was the football coach at high school and getting paid for it by the high school. The women PE teachers back in the day were the coaches of softball girls soccer etc. When my daughter got to high school,, it was some of the same parents coaching that coached her private fast pitch and had nothing to do with the school. The days of the PE teachers coaching football baseball softball soccer were over.

If you have to be on the team, I would venture to guess that is part of their practice and as other posters mention, a way to get around any practice rules. I actually think what one poster had said earlier, they are now doing skills for life type PE such as golfing hiking etc is a great idea.

 

[mjkacmom]

Maybe I just went to really good schools that didn't have such a demand on their resources? Because at both of the high schools that I went to there was always a starter class you could take. For example, I wasn't good enough to make it into the private lessons for flute, so I was put in the orchestra. But I guess this is the exception?

Our middle school does have 4 choirs, and the HS has 3. There is a high demand (I think there were over 300 students in the middle school choirs alone - we have an awesome music department, in the top 100 in the country). It looks like golf might be popular enough that they only have enough resources for a limited number of kids, so they have to try out. Can you get him some private or group lessons? I did this for dd12 this past spring.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Back when I was in high school, it was the same way around here as well. If you were on a team, this was your last class of the day. This was so it wouldn't interfere and extend practice until all hours of the night. For us school ended at 3:30 each day. The players would start this class at 2:35 each day. At 3:30 when everyone else is going home, the players well already well into practice. No stopping and waiting for them to come in, change and get practice started. This way, practice ended at a decent hour to allow students enough time to go home, do homework, eat and get ready for bed; just to do it all over again the next day.

 

[mjkacmom]

That really astounds me! How many kids on that football team get offered football scholarships to go to college? How many get drafted into the NFL? That seems like an astounding waste of school time. You can either workout (which you can do after school and at home), or be taught a meaningful subject such as science, math, foreign language, etc, by a certified teacher. WTH? Maybe we've found the reason why Americans are getting progressively dumber with each generation while other countries pass us by.

Does your son have a choice about this? Like, if he only wanted to take one football class?

ETA: I don't want anyone to think that I'm attacking southern_redhead's son for his choices - I'm more in shock about the joke our schools are becoming. And this is coming from someone taking classes to become a high school teacher.

We have some HS classes, like one of the choirs, or jazz band, that count as curriculum, but they don't take the place of core classes. The kids fit them in at zero period, or give up lunch. The same amount of academic classes are still mandatory for them.

 

[NotUrsula]

Back in the 70's when I was in school, those of us who were on teams or in band were all scheduled for PE during last period so that leaving early for games would not require us to skip any of our academic classes; they called it "Athletes' PE".

However, PE for us was still PE -- we did whatever the rest of the school had to do. During their seasons the athletes did sometimes get a time-jump on practice, but only during their seasons. It was never a specialty-sport class; if everyone else was working on Archery the basketball and football players had to as well.

 

[hopemax]

When I was in high school, the gymnastics team all took a certain gymnastics PE class. It was the last period of the day, so during the season the PE hour was floor ex practice, and then during "practice" time they would do the other events. During, non-season it would alternate. Floor one day, beam/bars another. But you didn't HAVE to be on the team to take this class. I know, because I took it, and there were a couple other girls too. If you wanted to be on the team, you had to take this class, though. So that meant 4 years of PE, not just the required 2. But they won state 19 out of 20 years (the one year was when the coach had to take a medical leave of absence), so I guess it worked.

During my Jr year, the basketball coach decided this was a brilliant strategy, so he encouraged the varsity basketball players (both boys and girls) to sign up for the last period basketball class. We used to join up with that class for endurance drills and strength training. I don't know if he let non-basketball players take the class.

We didn't really have general PE. Each class, had a focus. I don't remember all of them, but there were 2 gymnastics classes, running, weight lifting (this was also a last period class, and now that I think about it the football team, but there were non-football team people in the class too), etc.

 

[Anne34]

Wow!! I can't believe how many schools have class periods for their extra curricular activities!! I have a varsity swimmer (who practices from 6-7am and again from 3:30-6pm and a sophomore soccer player who practices from 3:30-5:30pm daily. They take regular PE in addition to the team that they are on. My Senior does take varsity athletics for her PE, but it is mostly weight training and cardio -- no swimming whatsoever.

 

[pigletgirl]

Oh yeah, the only activity that was offered during school hours was band. That was only because you have to have a fine art credit to graduate and that was one of the options you had to choose from.

Other than that, everything else was either before or after school.

 

[luvsJack]

We have some HS classes, like one of the choirs, or jazz band, that count as curriculum, but they don't take the place of core classes. The kids fit them in at zero period, or give up lunch. The same amount of academic classes are still mandatory for them.

I guess there isn't much else they can do, but I would not want dd giving up lunch to take one of these classes. Do they get a chance to eat?

 

[Jason@dvcstore]

I asked him how he was supposed to improve his golf if they won't let him take the class, and he explained that they expect you to take the class during middle school. Well, he didn't go to their middle school. And even if he was interested, I don't think the one he went to offered golf as a class. I guess I was off to think that you sent your kids to school to learn.

This seems crazy to me. I grew up in Iowa and went to public high school. Gym was a class and everybody played everything. I graduated in 1992 and things might have changed since then but seems silly. I mean kids change their minds all the time. Your son was suppose to decide in 6th grade he wanted to play golf? It doesn't seem fair to me and your son should be allowed to improve. FYI: I hope your son doesn't give up and next year he kicks their butts.

Jason

 

[cats mom]

I too find it sad that kids who want to learn, improve, and play a sport are often limited to expensive club teams if they don't make their high school teams.

At DS's school 105 boys tried out for frosh baseball. 14 made the team. Many very talented athletes were cut, and I don't really know of any other options that don't cost a fortune to participate at that level.

Of course funding for team sports has been cut to the point that being on a public school team costs BIG BUCKS anyway, at least around here. I was shocked at how much we paid over the course of a year when DD was a varsity cheerleader.

In fact being cut might almost be better than being on some of the no cut teams. There are 93 boys on the frosh football team here, and booster club membership (along with a multitude of financial and fundraising obligations) is mandatory for parents. Any guesses on how many of those 93 boys (who all pay and/or fundraise a significant chunk of change just to be part of the team) actually get any more than the required minimum play time?

So sorry about the golf class OP. Hopefully you'll be able to find an good alternative so your stepson can continue to play.

 

[austin&pipermom]

When I was in HS (11 years ago), I was in band/marching band. We had band class the last period than practice right after. The football, cheerleaders, baseball and basketball all were the same. We did not lose any subject learning because of this. I took AP engilsh, AP history, science and math all four years; which is more than you need to graduate. I had many football and baseball players in my classes so they were not missing any subject learning because of the sports class they were in. Now to take the sport related class you had to be on whatever team that class was for, but regular PE classes were offered for all other students. Now my school didn't have a free period/study hall for anybody, so I guess you could look at it like the sports/band/choir took that spot.

 

[FireDancer]

In my high school the only sports classes available were generic team sports. The only way you played any individual sports (golf, tennis, baseball, football, soccer, whatever) was to make the team and you didn't get any credit for them. You couldn't take any of those as a class if you wanted to. I didn't realize any school offered individual sports as classes.

The city I lived in had leagues for most team sports that went up to 18 so that was a low cost alternative to club teams.

 

[cats mom]

The city I lived in had leagues for most team sports that went up to 18 so that was a low cost alternative to club teams.

Nice. Our community rec league opportunities end at age 12 - 14 depending on the sport.