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October 1993: The Great Phys-ed Paradox
As with many schools in the US, the Midwestern school that my Mother sent me to had both a strong sporting culture and a physical education program which mandated that “If you were physically able to take part, then you had to take part”. No excuses, no exception. I found this quite irritating, as I didn't want to take part. At least, not in the way that they wanted me to. Introduction It wasn't that I had something against school sports, or even sports in general, it was just the rigid way that the school applied the mandatory nature of its physical education program. Specifically, that it applied it to me at all. You see, as strange as it might sound, I'd never had to participated in normal physical education classes in Japan. Instead, I'd been given special leave to practice what my teachers considered to be 'more important' thing. Namely, competitive sports that looked good on school resumes, and which could be utilized to win nice shiny trophies. Coaching From the age of 7 onward, and by special arrangement with the school, while my classmates had played soccer, I had practiced Kendo or Battojutsu, and while they took gym I practiced Akido, Karate or competitive gymnastics. Put frankly, and at the risk of sounding conceited unbelievably conceited, this meant that I considered regular school phys-ed classes to be little more than a disorganized warm up sessions, and thus beneath me. Therefore I could not for the life of me see why couldn't just go on the way that I always had always done while I was living in America. Unfortunately for me, my school new school didn't quite see things the same way as my old schools had. Course of Action When presented with my new class schedule, right at the start of the semester, I went to my homeroom teacher and explained to them the way that things had worked in my old school. In turn, they explained to me that the school's curriculum only permitted one contact sport, namely wresting, during school hours, and would not allow me to go off site for independent coaching. They then suggested that I get my Mother ask the teacher who was in charge of the school's physical education program for permission to see a private instructor on site. Following this advice, I took matters to the teacher in charge of phys-ed and sports . Who pronounced that I was no different from anybody else, and thus that I had to take the same classes as everybody else, but who also suggested that if I tried regular classes I might find that I liked them. Gym Class Having found the school's reluctance to allow me to skip regular phys-ed classes slightly perplexing, I decided that I would take the advice that I was given, and to see what I was fighting against before I pressed the matter further. So, soon after starting highschool, took my very American phys-ed period. According to my schedule, we were supposed to have 'gym class' on Thursdays. Not being used to speaking English as a first language, I took gym to mean 'gymnastics', which I am extremely good at, so I was mildly disappointed when I found out that gym actually meant 'gymnasium'. I was even more disappointed when I found out that the main purpose of 'gym class' was to make sure that we had what amounted to a state mandated period of physical exercise, rather than to teach us useful physical skills. Bad Start I'd already sat in on one gym class prior (having been boosted a grade, my schedule changed), and had managed to get on the Coach's nerves then, and he was well aware that I was the boy who had refused to take the pledge the day before. So things didn't go well from the start. The Rope After some basic stretching, and a quick run around the sports hall, were were lined up in front of a rope, or rather the Rope. With the capital letter being an important and integral part of the name. Being the new boy in town, was told to demonstrate the art of Rope climbing to my class and, just to add a nasty twist, that I had to use my arms only. It was a very long rope, and my hands were slippery because I'd had sword practice early that morning and had used copious amounts of moisturizer afterwards in order to ward of calluses (contrary to popular belief, rough skin doesn't make your grip better, it just makes it less flexible), so I wasn't even get half way up before I had to paused briefly - locking the rope off with my feet in order to get my hands in a better position - The Coach didn't like this, and said so. Unhelpfully proffering that 'if I was afraid of heights', he could 'come up to hold my hand' for the rest of the climb. Needless to say, I was not amused. At about 2/3 of the way up, I needed to pause again. To which the Coach responded by grabbing the bottom of the rope in both hands, and shaking violently. Causing me to almost loose my grip, and to fully loose any desire to go up any further, lest he decide to set fire to the rope if I didn't make it to the top in time. I was pretty embarrassed by the whole thing, and even more so when the Coach effortlessly climbed up to the top of the Rope in less time than it had taken me to get half way up. So, when he got back to the ground and asked, “If you didn't learn to climb rope in your last school, what exactly did you learn?”, I replied, “Back-flips, sir”. Which was more or less true. To this, the Coach smiled and swept out his hand in the direction of the matted section of the hall, in the semi-universally 'after you' gesture. Inviting me to demonstrate said skill. As I have already said, I'm very good at gymnastics. Exceedingly good in fact. Good enough to have won my last school several trophies at prefecture level competitions. Demonstrating a simply back-flips was too easy. Put simply, I showed off. I stepped up to the far end of the gym, turned my back, took a few steps as a lead-up, then did half a dozen backwards somersaults followed by a competent mid air 360 twist. Not enough to win an Olympic medal, but impressive, none the less. Once the cheers from my classmates had died down, I invited the Coach to follow me by demonstrating his gymnastic prowess to the class. Unsurprisingly, being a heavy set man with the build of a pro-footballer, rather than a gymnast, he declined. Looking back on the situation, I probably should not have done that. Dodge Ball With the unpleasantness of the first period over with, the Coach switched the lesson over to dodge ball warm ups. We were told to get into pairs, and line up opposite our partner with one ball between two. Then to 'practice'. Which left me a little confused as to what exactly the Coach wanted us to do. While we do have dodge ball in Japan, and it is played in schools, it's not a sport that we are known for, and thus it is not a sport that I had either played or watched sufficiently to know how it is played. As balls flew back and forth down the lines, I stood there, with the ball in my hands, and looked bemused. Wondering if the aim was for me to throw the ball to my partner so that he could dodge it or catch it, or if I had to alternate between the two. Seeing my confusion, the Coach yelled, “Just throw the ball at him. Take him out”, so I did. Though not quite in the way that a dodge ball player is supposed to. This is to say that my partner was bouncing from side to side - going from one leg to the other - in an effort to make himself harder to hit - and I threw the ball as hard as I could, hitting him just beneath the knee as his leg was about to connect with the floor. I took him out all right, right off of the court and into the nurse's office. It raised a laugh from the class, but most certainly did not endear me further to the Gym Coach After that debacle, I decided that regular phys-ed classes were not something that I wanted to and in October, about a month after starting school, I headed off to the vice-Principle with the proposition that I should be allowed to train in martial arts, rather than having to attend regular sports and phys-ed classes. On my side, I had logic, an explanatory note from my Mother, and my new Sensei; who also the school's assistant soccer coach. However, against me, I had a vice-principle who was still steaming about my refusal to give the Pledge. Not to mention both the Gym Coach and the school councilor. Who got together in order to further hamper my efforts to escape school sports. Reactions As was probably to have been expected, things didn't go quite my way. I explained how things were in my old schools, and why that was a good thing. My then Sensei explained how he was willing to take the extra time to teach me whenever it didn't clash with his existing commitments to the school, and how extra practice on my part could equal extra trophies for the school. However, this didn't really make much difference, if any. The Vice-Principle resisted any effort to make special provisions for me in case it inspired anybody else to ask for something different too. Saying that the school had a one-size fits all policy that had been carefully worked out so as to meet both school board requirements, and the needs of as many students as possible, and that I had to adapt to the system, rather than try to change it to suit me. Which sounded kind of strange coming from the man whom, only a few weeks before hand, had angrily lectured me on how American was founded on the principles of democracy and individual freedom, and that by refusing to take the Pledge, I was mocking both. Then came the Gym Coast and the councilor. According to the Gym Coach, I couldn't possibly be allowed to skip phys-ed class in favor of 'extra curricular activities', because I 'lacked vital discipline' - which is to say that he thought that I lacked the kind of discipline that you can supposedly gain by playing team sports in gym class, rather than the kind of discipline that is mandated in every Japanese school, the kind that is gained thought a decade of high intensity martial arts training, the kind gained when you are raised by a grandfather who considered a thorough adherence to Bushido to be the best way of ensuring that nobody else tries to make downtown Seoul a subdistrict of district Tokyo, or the of discipline kind that comes from being part of a forces family whose adult members saw no need to distinguish between parade ground drills and everyday life. The latter four of which I had such ample amounts of that people were forever telling me to dump some and 'loosen up'. For his part, the school councilor was no better. He not only played the 'team building' argument for my participation in regular phys-ed classes - A point which he made by rambling on almost half an hour about how participating in group sports would instill 'school spirit' in me - but he also threw in his own personal crusade against my lifestyle by proclaiming that martial arts were, “A violent and isolationist pseudo-sport” that was encouraging me “to hang on to outdated elements of an alien culture”, this being my native Japanese culture, which was 'disrupting' his efforts to 'integrate' me into “patriotic American society” (his exact words, I may add). Outcome After spending three exhausting hours trying to convince that school to let me practice martial arts instead of taking phys-ed, the school concluded that giving me extra choices meant that they would have to give everybody else extra choices too, and that they were not prepared to do that. Which is perfectly fine and logical on paper, but isn't exactly what a teenage boy, pining for home (not to mention a way out of gym class), wants to hear. The school also decided that I lacked “the proper attitude” towards the both school spirit and American way of life, and that something needed to be done about it. Which isn't perfectly fine and logical, and also not what I wanted to hear. As a result, I went into the Vice-Principle's office looking for a way to swap one kind of phys-ed class for another, and came out with note that said that I was excused from Math class every second Monday, in order to see the councilor. It goes without saying that my suggestion to move these meeting to on a Thursdays, thus excusing me Gym, was soundly thrown out. Epilogue For the first two years that I spent in high school, Gym was a monumental pain, and so was any phys-ed class that was taken by the Gym Coach; who never quite let me forget the upset that I caused during those first few classes. Things did, however, get better when we rotated round to Soccer, which I was quite good at, and which had a sane Coach. Finally, in my final year, the school hired a new female coach, who, upon learning that I was an accomplished gymnast, proposed that I be allowed to skip phys-ed in order to help her out teaching the junior gymnastics squad. Naturally, I jumped at this chance. Much to the envy of my classmates. Most of whom also hated gym. |
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Paula Reed (29.3.07 15:53) You and me, both! I hated gym in elementary school. When I was in high school, you could take gym or music. I opted for music. I think somewhere along the way, someone realized that was illogical, and now gym is required for everyone. Fortunately, I had already graduated when they made that change. |
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Akito / Website (29.3.07 20:12) Gym OR Music, I suppose that makes sense on some level. One option for the boys, and one for the girls. Kind of like when they say you can do Home-ec and wood-shop nowadays. It probably saved money by halving the class sizes. You're a little older than me (your blog says that you were teaching in 99, while I was still in college), so I guess that my school might have done the same at one point in time. To bad, I would have quite like to have been able to choose to do music instead of gym, but I didn't have the option. I used to play the violin when I was a younger, and I was quite good at it, but I drifted out of it and never picked it up again when I moved to the US. |
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kc (18.2.08 14:28) Lucky bastard. I have athletics, fitness and track coming up, and in 20 mins I'm gonna be in an ambulance, as I'm just about to jump off the stairs to break fibula/tibula or ankle. Wish me luck! |