My Child Got a “C” in Gym and I’m Pissed!

bianca - When I was in high school, we had to dress out (they starting making us wear white tees with blue shorts my junior year) and take tests!! Yes tests in gym!! And the only people who ‘failed’ gym were the ones who never dressed out. It is stupid that they have to put a letter grade in gym, but I guess they have to in order for it to be a class?

pamela collins jester - I would raise some cane about this bc I was athletic and a track runner in school and there was no such thing, this is crazy insane..just makes me so mad!! At that age all they should be worried about is participation, you would think she is in Jr High competing…just nuts…this is why we changed schools bc mine daughter was NOT athletic and had hypoglycemia and almost blacked out in a basketball game and all the parents could see it. After that she could not play anymore, so they chose to treat her like crap. She was straight A in GT classes, but still exercised with them, but bc they were a small school all their money went to athletics and they could not supply activities for every child. I took her out of school moved her to a bigger school and she got on the dance team and life was grand. She was nervous at first but she loved bc she had more in common with those students bc there was more of them. All the other school offered was track, basketball, volleyball for the girls which she participated in.

Jessica Compton - Poor thing! I remember my first ever C… cried for 3 days because I was like her, honor roll from the time I started school! I can’t believe her grade got docked because she isn’t as physically athletic as what they think she should be! Grades should only be docked for lack of attendance, not dressing out, or refusal to participate.
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Nicole - That is just plain wrong! There is no reason for kids to be given letter grades for gym. Especially for not being fast enough!

Nicoyle - That is really ridiculous! I never have been graded in gym by how athletic you are. I do remember the little testing of push ups, mile runs and such, but never been graded on those, only on questions from a health book. I can see how you can be upset by that. That’s just crazy to me!
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Cynthia Brooks - Yeah, I thought the message from the govt. on our tv commercials is “Get out and play 60 minutes a day” because its not about how well or how much endurance you have, it’s about putting out that set amount of time which is going to be healthy for your body just as healthy in fact as the child who has the skill to complete tasks faster. I’m not sure but I’ve heard that if you stay within your target heart rate, by going slower-faster depending on your own heart rate, you breath better and still get the benefit of exercising. And if it takes your daughter about 14 minutes doesn’t that give her in fact more exercise than someone who does it in 10 minutes. I guess it depends what’s more important in different situations. If needing to run away from something fast, than you wish you can run as fast as possible. But if the goal is healthy exercising kids, then I don’t get what the time limit for running has to do with a letter grade. It’s like them saying their goal for the children is 10 minutes and also 7 pushups, and they are grading them on performance ability according to those standards. I think govt needs to re-examine why they put this as a standard in the first place. It’d be great if my child works up to 7 pushups and 10 minute miles but I don’t know if pe 2 times a week is going to help them work up to this goal either. For me, personally, to do 7 pushups in great form I would need about a year, 4 times a week building muscle in my arms. And weight training would have to be involved every meeting pe time @ 4 times a week too, not just a sport and a few laps of running per each pe time. My daughter (5th grade) who is about your daughter’s age age says that on mondays at pe they run 1 mile and sports. And on their thursday pe time they focus less on running about 1/2 mile and do sports. So its not like they are breaking out the weights at school ever. They are just putting them to the task of pushups and keep letting them practice everytime they try them. But I would think weight training would be the tool they would need to actually pass the task of pushups. It’s as if they put the cart before the horse, so to speak. I’m not saying practicing pushups won’t gradually help you, but doing 10 pushups on monday and 10 on thursday for even a year might not be what it takes to build enough muscle to do the darned 7 pushups. So to that end, I agree with you. They should grade on participation. Or if Jenelle wants to really how them whats shes got and they won’t change their standards, then get her 5 pound weights and spot her and have her do that 4 times a week for a year, and you said in one of your posts she’ll be running with you in a 5k, also letting the school know how stupid you think it all really is.

Heather Lian - When I was in school I routinely got low grades in gym…I always refused to run because I was in too much pain and always out of breath. Since I was a chubby kid [although not fat, just not skinny] it was always chalked up to me being ‘lazy or just trying to get out of class’. Come to find out, as an adult, that I have a hole in my heart as well as osteoarthritis that probably started around this time [since it is now quite severe and I'm still in my 20's]. Needless to say, I’m against letter grades in PE as well.

L.H. - This brings up a question I have…how can I keep my 11 month old this age forever, lol? Ugh I’m NOT looking forward to ridiculous stuff like this! (the situation that you’re dealing with that is, I’m not saying you’re being ridiculous). :o)