Gender separated phys. education school classes

[shootingstar]

Well, I had to take remedial PE, aka flab lab, in 10th grade, because I flunked the physical fitness test, which consisted of such necessary skills as a basketball shoot.
However, remedial PE is where I found out I was good at endurance activities. One of the things we had to do was jog for 15 minutes. Since it was winter, we ran around the gym and locker room. Can you picture me, a 95 pound, 5 foot tall hippie with hair down to my back, leading a pack of of hugely overweight girls on a run?
Funny thing is, that once I passed the test to get out of this class (which was truly a fitness class), I promptly flunked the skills test again which got me in there in the first place. I mostly hated PE because it consisted of team sports that required eye hand coordination: baseball, basketball, kickball, or things like gymnastics, that terrified me. Soccer wasn't even heard of back then. I did love field hockey, but once I moved to Florida, they never heard of it. It wasn't until 1978, when I went to a fitness class at ASU when I was finishing my master's that I did anything physical at all.

Don't agree with remedial PE classes. There would be even more kids struggling with self-inferiority complexes. I had pretty good PE teachers but each woman had distinctly different style.

A. Jackson- she was a even-tempered, straight-shooter who did keep herself in good shape. Most girls respected her but found her distant as a person.

P.Miller-- a warm woman that smiled alot who made it her teaching philosophy to praise effort of her students, regardless of how lousy/good they were. Fashionable, chic and popular.

A. Greinbnow- after 1 year, I dropped out from PE. She was more of a motherly/matronly figure. Also popular but because of the latter style.

Now I realize for particularily the girls who were coached on school teams by any of these women, these women probably did serve as de facto role models (in addition to other adult female mentors in the lives of any girl.) Organized sports teams for girls outside of school did not really exist much in the small city where I grew up. So what the school provided for girls who wanted to pursue abit further, the school was the place.