Education

And you're overlooking the misery experienced by nonathletic boys in mandatory P.E.

The article addresses the question of whether forcing nonathletic kids to "play" sports in mandatory P.E. has had any beneficial effect upon them. The answer is "No." In other words, the supporters of mandatory P.E. were lying or self-deluded when they said they were concerned about sedentary kids not getting enough exercise. The fact is they were never really concerned about physical fitness; otherwise, they would have provided exercise programs for the nonathletic kids, the ones who were precisely the most in need. But the phys ed establishment never was interested in promoting physical fitness. They were only interested in promoting sports, as if that even needed to be done; and they cared only for the athletic kids. They viewed nonathletic boys as sissies, effeminate losers, "feminized males." A form of bigotry based on false gender stereotypes.

I'm concerned about this issue not as a sedentary guy. As a diabetic, I'm very concerned about physical exercise. For the last seven years, I've spent a small fortune on personal trainers at a local health club working on a bodybuilding program. I didn't set foot in a health club for reasons stated in the article. Since I felt rejected by the "jock" culture, I mistakenly believed that health clubs were the exclusive property of athletes. Believe me, my health club experience has been completely different (in the positive sense of the word) from the mandatory P.E. experience of my youth, which was nothing less than an exercise in hypocrisy (no pun intended). The difference between the two has astounded me.

Just to be sure I'm not misunderstood, I'm not saying team sports should be taken out of the schools. Traditional P.E. should be retained as an elective. Unless exercise programs are provided for the nonathletic students, they should not be required to take a class that is completely useless to them.

I'm sick and tired of masculinity being defined in terms of athletic prowess. How many of the courageous Freedom Riders in the early 1960s were "jocks"? I've not been able to find the answer to the following question in any biographical literature, but did the eminent Soviet physicist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov participate in any sport when he was a boy? Raoul Wallenberg, who was one of the greatest heroes of World War II, saved the lives of at least 10,000 Hungarian Jews. He risked his life repeatedly to save others. (He suffered a horribly unjust fate when he was abducted by agents of Stalin's secret police to the notorious Lubianka prison in Moscow, where he disappeared into the Soviet gulag never to be seen again.) His half-sister has said he "detested competitive team sports." So, I guess Wallenberg was deficient as a man because he never participated in sports? He wasn't a "real man," eh? He was just a wimp? Yeah, sure!