So there will no longer be a national P.E. scheme. The Education Secretary Michael Gove has announced that the £162m budget for school sports will no longer be set aside, instead allowing school headteachers to decide how best to spend on P.E. Basically, it's screwed. Forgetting entirely that this has been announced in the wake of the 2012 London Olympics, depriving the UK of future sporting heroes and sending out very mixed messages indeed, there is one thing in particular that disappointed me about the annoucement of this policy, based purely upon my own experiences of secondary school.
Some elements of the media were rejoicing the dismantling of school sports, in particular one article by i writer Harriet Walker. She describes school sports as a tyrannical realm of jocks and bullies (both teachers and schoolkids included), amongst whom the sensitive, 'nerdy' kids hastily forge medical letters to their teachers to try and avoid humiliation at the sports they care nothing about, rendering any educational experience useless.
It sounds like your run-of-the-mill American high school drama - full of stereotypes and cliche, it is a basic first impression of the situation that miserably fails to generate the picture of school that I and others will certainly remember well. For starters, there are no black-and-whites when it comes to people. Sure, there are bullies and there are others who don't wish to participate for whichever reason, but they are tiny minorities. There is more to children than just that.
My own high school experiences prove just that. None too popular and a little nerdy, I don't exactly fit any one stereotype perfectly. But nonetheless, I really looked forward to sports at my high school, and many of my peers no doubt felt exactly the same. I wasn't exactly the epitome of fitness and energy in my youth, but I still gave my all when it came to any sport - rugby, cricket, tennis, basketball - you name it, I did it 100%. I was never of the opinion, as has been taken up by some, that people were judged based on their sporting performance, that it pure nonsense. I had a solid group of friends and none of us judged another in that superficial way, and I'd like to think that other children can form bonds that are based on firmer soil than mere physical prowess.
Back then, the actual playing of sports was enough to teach me how my body works, and how it needs exercise to thrive. You know this instantly when you finish playing whatever it is you're playing, your heartbeat raised and your spirits high. Your body tells you that exercise is what it needs to flourish. It also teaches you how to work as part of a team and bolsters your social skills, although you may not realise it at the time. You learn it effortless as you play, like rediscovering your old natural instincts. Without sports at school, I wouldn't be interested in swimming or badminton, both activities that I try and do as often as I can spare the time and money to do - so there are long-term benefits of keeping the sports programme as well.
And bullies? I played alongside bullies occasionally, and the trick is simple - you ignore them. Wow, amazing! It really works! And as for sports teachers being bullies, that sounds like every other group of teachers in any academic subject, yeah? Simply root out the bullies at the top and it'll be a lot easier for everyone. Isn't this why we have so many Ofsted inspections?
The small selection of kids that sat on the sidelines during P.E. (there were about 3 kids in my school year like that, one a good friend of mine) had only themselves to blame for not participating - whether being cowed by bullies or not enjoying the sport on offer, you still owe it to yourself to give the exercise your all so you can at least say 'I tried my best'. Celebrating the cutting back of sports for the reasons of institutionalised bullying will just provide schoolkids with an easy escape from confronting the problems of said bullying in school, surely exacerbating the problem. None of these assertions add up.
The suggestion from some quarters is that schools should try to go back to the basics of 'teaching physical education' to help children understand how their bodies function and how exercise is integral to a healthy lifestyle so they can practise it themselves without alienating the small portion who don't actually enjoy team sports. I agree with wholeheartedly with that, but a scheme of this sort should be placed alongside playing sports, otherwise schoolchildren will have no way of implementing what they've learnt during the school term, which will most likely dissuade them from pursuing any extra-curricular activities after school. Without any time to implement sports in schools, I predict that obesity rates will rise astronomically.
By announcing this policy, Gove is continuing a familiar Labour trend of returning decision-making powers to the schools. However, I still feel that a set budget for certain subjects is important to ensure that all schools across the board are able to purchase equipment for every subject area that they can. Hopefully school heads will be able to assess school sports based on it's merits and choose to adapt it for the better of the bodies and minds of their students. Sadly, many schools out there will be all too glad to sacrifice it to free up some cash, setting a bad example to children and placing idleness the victor over action.
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