Should gym teachers want kids to play down?

I used to be told off by my PE teacher for tackling too hard at football (soccer).
It just so happened that I was left back (defence) and he was right wing for the other team, so he was the one I usually came into contact with.

I must admit, there's a certain satisfaction to taking out your teacher at full pelt on a cold, muddy midwinter football pitch.

I was always going for the ball, of course......

To be fair, the only other time I ever heard such a comment from a teacher was when we were playing cricket, and it involved an American lad.
His name was Jerry Hamilton and his dad had something to do with embassy staff, definitely diplomatic stuff anyway, and he was relocated to England for a year.
His kids were put into our local schools, and Jerry (10 year old) was fielding waaaay out on the boundary.
The batsman hit one his way and Jerry picked it up and lobbed it about as far as I had ever seen a kid lob a ball before.
Our teacher was umpiring by the stumps at the time, and nearly had his head taken off.
Next time, and every time after that when Jerry got the ball, the teacher would shout "MADMAN THROWING!", and we all laughed. Jerry loved it.

Ps......he stayed on after his family went home, lodging with a classmate's family, who then sent their son back with Jerry to stay over there for a year. Great experience.
Ps2...while he was here and just about to leave, Jerry gave me his big box full of Superman comics, dating back from his grandad's day. It included issue no3 and two or three years later, my parents had a big bonfire while clearing the house of junk and.......
I am too scared to look how much that comic would he worth today.

Sorry to derail, but you know what I'm like when I get going.....

One day when my son was 15 he came home from school and very proudly told me that he had "broken a boy's arm" in a Rugby match. He assured me it was the other boy's fault somehow. (a tackle done wrongly, or something, I don't know much about egg-chasing). I knew the games teacher socially and a couple of weeks later I ran into him in a bar. "What's this about Bill breaking a boy's arm?" I asked. "Is that what he told you?" said the teacher, laughing, "it was a sprained wrist actually". I never let on that I knew.

There may be some contex missing. Perhaps he was encouraging her to throw with less power and more precision? It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask.

She got marked down for being too good?

That's crazy, Linkat. If she was too good in any of her academic classes she'd be tagged as "gifted" and given special considerations.

I don't put a lot of stock in grades but I think I'd be talking to the school about this just out of curiosity about their marking system.

That was my first - and only reaction. Maybe we should do the same thing in math. You know, make everybody feel equal.

Schools are really keen on standardization...

I thought I posted a response but suppose I mis-hit the reply button.

Assuming she's fairly accurate with her throws, I don't get it why slower throwing would be a good idea. In the big leagues, fast accurate throws are the thing. Remember "Tinker to Evers to Chance"? (a famous triple play in baseball history)

Even if she's not precision throwing at this point, she'll be improving as she goes along. Well, in my opinion.



Even Kaepernick goofs once in a while. If you don't know the name, he's a terrific quarterback who, when he first showed up, hurt receivers hands he threw so hard/fast. They're used to him now.


Thinking some more - does the coach mean she doesn't take any time to aim?

There's definitely an element to teamwork of making sure that you're not playing above the level of your teammates.

If you throw it too fast/too hard and they miss the catch, you still don't get the out....

No - it wasn't precision. It was that she throws too fast. I asked that (even knowing how precise she is at throwing - that is another quality she as a softball player - strength and precision).

The gym teacher was afraid the other kids would get hurt. She said the kids would put their hands up to their head and she would hit them in their chest. Exactly where as a softball player you are taught to throw as a target.

Oh, so that explains his concern, which he should talk with her about modifying. I still do NOT see that as a reason to mark her down, unless she doesn't modify in the future with these particular teammates as he suggests.

It was only a point overall for gym she got 76 out of a possible total of 77 points so it isn't like it hurt her in any way.

Personally I found it funny. If I had heard it earlier though, I would have sent a note or talked with the gym teacher. My concern being that he is encouraging her to hold back rather than encoraging the other children how to catch. If he was concerned about the others getting hurt then he should have caught with her - my opinion.

But I would have explained to him that she plays travel softball and by encouraging her to slow down, he would be hurting her when she went to play competitively.

I should ask her if the boys were afraid to catch from her too. Gives new meaning to throwing like a girl.

No - and it is the gym teacher - certainly no coach. Seeing this is her last day at elementary school I am not worried. Her softball coach loves her.

The kids don't much like this gym teacher any way - I get the impression too he isn't the best/most reliable as a teacher. I got a call from the school nurse - just recently (why I am not pursuing this with the school) but she got hit in the head with the pole on a net. She complained about a headache (no real damage just normal kid stuff). Sounds like what the nurse was saying to me that the gym teacher was trying to hide the fact that she got hit - he said he didn't see it and thought she was just grazed on the arm.

Supposedly he had some of the the boys carrying the net fooling around and dropped it and hit her (per my daughter). The gym teacher claimed (according to the nurse) that he was carrying the net not the boys. I think he is worried about parents get upset about that - which if it didn't appear he is trying to hide something, I wouldn't get mad about. I mean stuff like that happens with 4th graders.

This is gym not her team. Her teammates can catch her throws.

Definite shades of Harrison Bergeron (Kurt Vonnegut jr)

.....a world where equality is everything, and just one example is that ballet dancers are made to attach weights to their ankles, so they can't jump higher than their colleagues.



www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

I'd rather have her get marked down. I don't want her to get in a bad habit of not throwing as she is capable. She will not do as well in softball if she were in the habit of throwing to accomodate the other children.

If she were to lower her speed for pitching then everyone would be able to hit off her easily. You don't want to teach a ball player to throw slower or easier.

Well, there's you're problem right there. This makes it seem like there are people who deserve to catch her throws, and people who don't.

IMO, if she's throwing a ball for someone else to catch, that other person is automatically on her "team."

Marks in gym class? I don't have a clue about what grade my daughter was given in ball throwing, nor do I care.

I am surprised that you even took the time to read the thing... let alone spending time and energy to get so upset about it. This number is meaningless.

Why not just forget about it?

you don't know her gym class, they rarely play team sports. It is more doing "skills" - not much fun and the kids cannot stand gym at her school. The gym teacher gets mad at them and yells at them if they do not precisely follow the correct skill of how to do something.

Her class is dumb any way you look at it - I would think you would want to make it fun to entice kids to exercise and move.