Study Finds Girls "Prefer Chatting" to Being Physically Active

re: Study Finds Girls "Prefer Chatting" to Being Physically Active

Voice of Reason — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:15:27 GMT

Wow - I feel as though I've found my soulmates in the few people who have posted responses.

We live in a society where adult obesity is on the rise (among other related physical and mental problems) and we keep asking ourselves 'why?'. I would submit that one of the reasons is that the Physical Education system has a golden opportunity to expose children/teens to a wide variety of ways to live a physically active life and, instead, they focus almost exclusively on the competitive aspects of sports. The tragic part is that the athletically gifted kids have plenty of opportunities outside of PE classes to develop those skills and the kids who might otherwise excel at yoga, pilates, judo, etc., are left behind. The result is that less athletic kids (whom I would argue are the majority) are systematically made to feel excluded from partipating.

I was one of those kids, and for me it felt worse because I had an athletically gifted older brother and younger sister so PE teachers' expectations were dashed.

This is a really personal issue for me so thanks for the post!

re: Study Finds Girls "Prefer Chatting" to Being Physically Active

Bunny — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:20:49 GMT

Totally agreed! Gym class took all the joy out of physical activity for me throughout my childhood and teen years, but as an adult I've discovered the joys of running. There's gotta be a better way to get kids active than making them compete against each other - some kids just aren't cut out for it, and some kids use it as an excuse to be horrible to each other.

re: Study Finds Girls "Prefer Chatting" to Being Physically Active

Twintown — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:57:57 GMT

Another person in complete agreement here! I don't have a competitive bone in my body, which makes me a horrible person to have on your team. Plus, I was (and still am) super-uncoordinated. So during school, I always dreaded being on a team as much as the other kids learned to dread being stuck on a team with me. Winning/losing just doesn't motivate me one bit, but that's not because I prefer "chatting".

It drives my husband crazy when I ask him why he cares about whether or not his football team wins. It's because he knows he doesn't have a real answer ;)

re: Study Finds Girls "Prefer Chatting" to Being Physically Active

BlackOrchid — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:36:52 GMT

I completely agree! And even at my daughter's all-girls' school the PE and recess are completely focused on competitive sport -- leaving the girls who just aren't into that to sit and read and talk while soccer balls fly by their heads.

I always regret that I only found yoga as an adult - as a nervous, uncoordinated kid it would have been extremely helpful to me physically AND mentally.

re: Study Finds Girls "Prefer Chatting" to Being Physically Active

dreambeliever200 — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:32:24 GMT

I will agree with you. I love being active, but I hate being competitive and, sadly, I think that 98% of sports in gym and pe are all competitive