Did you have swimming as part of your P.E. program?

Not in PE but in Lifetime Sports, a class where we did all kinds of stuff. It was indoors at the YMCA across the street from our high school.

No, my school’s thinking was that beyond football and basketball there wasn’t much point to anything else.

What did the girls do @Darth_Algar?

nope, a lot of basketball and track related stuff though.

Gosh. We did so many things. Track. Volleyball. Basketball. Archery. Dodge ball (Yes with those wicked red rubber balls!) Badminton. I remember doing gymastics. I loved it, whatever we did, I loved it.

@Dutchess_III

We had a girls basketball team.

But PE basket ball is a completely different thing from team basket ball. When you’re on the team you practice after school every day for an hour or two. In PE, we just screw around for 30 minutes while coach tries to beat the basics in to us.

Yes, everybody had swimming a couple times a week for a full quarter of the year. Outdoor six lane 25 yd pool, plus a diving pool with a three meter board.

California rolls that way.

Did y’all ever dive off the high dive, if they had one when you were a kid?

I dove off the high dive. And in PE class (and also in Lifesaving). You had to demonstrate an “unknown water jump” where you cross your legs at the ankles, and grasp your crotch with one hand and the other hand is raised up as you jump off the high dive.

^^^ What is that supposed to do?

When I was in high school, we had rape during P.E.

We did in the 4th grade. The school didn’t have a pool so they bussed us all the way across town to the public pool.

What @Yellowdog?

I still find it astonishing how much the schools can cram in to 30 or 45 minutes, @johnpowell!

Well, I don’t want to hijack the discussion, But the guys in my P.E. class would sexually assault anyone they could bully. I skipped P.E. for four years if we had to dress out or shower. I always got at least a C, and I now assume my coaches know why I always skipped P.E.

Did no one turn them in? What year would this have been?

Yes, my high school had an indoor pool with WAY too much chlorine in it. You skin burned after every class.

@Dutchess_III The years were about 1979–1982. Those bullied. even assaulted, back then didn’t know we had rights.

You knew it through the grapevine, right? So knew not to take PE?

Nope.

In our Middle School, for I think one year. it was indoors. They bussed us to a YMCA, where we changed. They tried to tech us some strokes, and maybe once tried to have us play water polo.

It was probably my least favorite part of my entire education. I already knew how to swim informally pretty well, but not the part about breathing out through your nose underwater without getting water up my nose, which was apparently on the not-so-bright-and-even-less-flexible teachers’ lists of required things to do. I had to get a note from parents insisting I be allowed to use a nose plug. I wanted to assault the teachers.

@Dutchess_III

What I’m saying is we didn’t have things like swimming because the school had no money for such things (or even up-to-date textbooks that weren’t falling apart) because it sunk all its money into team sports like football and basketball. We couldn’t have swimming, or theater, or textbooks what weren’t being held together with tape because the school “had no money”. But the football and basketball teams never wanted for a single thing.

Yes and the bullying that went with it!

So…did they not have PE at all @Darth_Algar?

I can prevent water from going up my nose….I’d be a sucky Weeky Watchee Mermaid if I wasn’t able to do that!

What was it about PE that led to bullying?

Athletic, muscular activity and emphasis on bodies is what led to bullying.

Maybe guys with sexual perversion acting out on weaker people or people who avoided violence.

I faced down my whole girl’s PE class in the locker room, when they were bullying a new girl. Assholes.

Not that I remember. If we did it was leaving campus and getting credit for it. I wish Auggie was here, she might remember better than I do if that was an option.

@Dutchess_III “So…did they not have PE at all”

Yes, of course we had P.E..

Did you have a question?

No. I misunderstood you first reply, “No, my school’s thinking was that beyond football and basketball there wasn’t much point to anything else.” then realized you were specifying that swimming wasn’t offered as a part of PE.
It actually doesn’t cost the school anything, as long as they have access to a public pool. If it had costed something, our parents would have had to pay for it. They had to buy our gym uniforms, for example. They weren’t provided by the school. Ditto for volley ball outfits when I was on the team.