charliesmum | (no subject)

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I've been reading Charlie this book called "The Math Wiz". It's about a boy who is really good at math, but terrible during "PE" i.e., Physical education, Sport, or Gym class. In the book he is upset because he is always picked last when choosing up teams (and I can't help but wonder if there is a class all Gym teachers go to where they learn how to be as insensitive and cruel as possible)

I liked the book because it was about a boy who was good at maths like Charlie, but always got picked last in gym class. I have no idea if Charlie has suffered that humiliation yet, but I know I have, and it got me to thinking.

When I got to high school, I finally found a large group of friends, and it turned out they, too, had suffered the humiliation of standing all alone in the gym, waiting until the last team captain rolled his or her eyes and said "I guess I'll take (insert name here). My college friends were comprised of the same sort of people, and that helped me get over the trauma that had been Gym Class grade school through junior high.

Since people on flists are also comprised of a bunch of people who share similar interests, I was curious as to how many of you had the same sort of experience - were you chosen last? First? Don't remember and don't care to? So, I did a poll. (I love polls)

[Poll #518569]

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I was never picked. What I loathed was that it was a school you had to pass an exam to get into, and yet there was this idiotic emphasis on sports. As I cared. When I was seven, I had a tested reading age of 19.

I now feel that sport was good in that it gave the stupid ones a chance to shine at something, but being picked last for some stupid game was not my finest moment. I console myself they all probably have seven kids and live in highrise council flats.

Not that I'm bitter, you understand

I suppose, more accurately, I *was* bad at sports. I had a learning disability involving spatial relations which virtually guaranteed that without extra coaching (which, surprise surprise, I never got), I'd fail miserably. But I'm actually pretty good at some sports stuff now.

See, I knew I wouldn't be the only one on my Flist this happened to.

I like your theory that it gives the stupid ones a chance to shine.

Did you have to play stupid games like volleyball and dodgeball and...well volleyball was the worst for me - I was short and not very strong and could never get the ball over the net.

We didn't do that whole 'pick teams' thing. We were either separated by the teacher or told to get into groups of whatever number, and that was it. I liked some PE lessons, I just hated hockey with a vengeance. I ♥ netball and athletics, though.

At first I picked "It was painful at the time, but I have learned to let it go", but I don't know that it's true, so I picked "Finally realise I'm not the only one that happened to". Some things in as much as you get past them, I don't know if you ever truly let them go.

Gym class was a cruel cruel experience. I didn't have "natural" athletic ability and it certainly wasn't nurtured at home. My parents weren't athletic, I wasn't overly interested in it, but could have been under the right circumstances.

Charlie'll find his niche.

I still remember the words "Oh well I guess somebody's got to have him" as I got picked.

I was relatively good at sports. However, and this is a big however-- my class was comprised of about 26 people. It didn't take much to be "above average" when there were so few people. I wasn't ever picked last, but I don't recall getting picked first much either. Also, when I was captain I always tried to pick people who I thought would be fun to play with rather than those who might ensure victory.

I had an interesting level of too nerdy for the jocks and to "jocky" for the nerds.

Hmm. Interesting.

I was always picked very close to last if not actually last in gym class, but I never worried much about it because I expected it so. If I embarrassed myself in any overt way, like the time that we were playing football and I didn't know how and I tried to pass the ball to someone else after it had already been passed to me, *that* was upsetting. But I was so quiet and unpopular in high school (not in the sense of people not liking me, but in the sense of their not noticing me at all) that I never expected anyone to notice me to pick me until there was no one else left.

When we used to play volleyball at our summer home and I wanted so much to be good at it and I would be allowed to play grudgingly and picked dead last, THAT upset me. One time I was told, at sixteen, that I couldn't play in the adult game. My twelve-year-old brother played. I cried for hours. My family is very, very competitive, and they do not suffer people who screw up their volleyball games lightly. Every time I made a lousy play, everyone would cringe.

It was netball and hockey, and god save us, tennis. I am and was the worlds worst ever tennis player. I can never return service. I went to a school that considered itself ever so slightly grand (it wasn't) and so we did sport like that.

Netball is no good. I am short. Oh, and we had rounders which is an embarrassing approximation of baseball, only pathetic (I like baseball, but then I loved Bull Durham, mainly for Susan Sarandon).

Net ball sounds like Volley ball. blech

I always thought Cricket looked easy. And I liked football (aka soccer) because you could run around after the ball and shout alot and never get near the thing, but as long as you were running around and shouting you looked like you were involved.

The worst gym class I ever had was the day we had a substitute; we had to run laps for the warm up, and the substitute pulled out a new rule: “No Passing!”

So there we are: I’m plodding along, at about the speed of molasses running up hill, and trailing behind me are all 30 of my classmates, grumbling and cursing like a surly caboose.

I am *so* glad she was just a substitute, if I had to do that every gym class I would have shot someone.

Netball is possibly nearer basketball, but there is no bouncing the ball around - it's a passing game.

We never played soccer as girls (what we call football). Nowadays girls do, but in my day there was very strong delineation between games for girls and games for boys.

I'd probably still have hated that one, too.

Uh, Jews don't call G-d Yahweh.

It's a song lyric... what religion does, if not Judaism? I'd like to switch it to a more appropriate picture if there is one.

Jews for Jesus might. Haha. Jews don't.

Your icon isn't seriously comparing Bush to Hitler?

That's kind of an amusing image, actually. :)

Netball used to be call "women's basketball". Its about the only women's sport you get prime time TV coverage of here.

Not except in the sense that they both use(d) religious rhetoric to propagandize.

(Hitler did do some of that at the beginning - less so as the Aryan race became the only thing worthy of worship. To be perfectly honest, Hitler isn't the first image I'd have picked for that part of the icon, but though I picked most of the pictures, the friend who animated it for me chose the final two images. I definitely wanted Bush in there, but Hitler wasn't the first name that came to mind as someone who used religious rhetoric and propaganda to sell hatred and prejudice. However, as he did do some of that, I don't feel it's inappropriate.)

Ancient Hebrews did use "Yahweh," though (well, the Tetragrammaton, but Slammerkinbabe's not bound by the requirement to munge it), and modern Christian scholars sometimes refer to the Jewish God that way, so it's defensibly an association with Judaism.

would Jehovah, Adonai or Elohim be better?

No, they didn't. Yud Hey Vuv Hey (the Tetragrmmaton) was never pronounced literally Yahweh.

We certainly don't call him Jehovah, and Adonai is for prayers thanks very much.

well, yeah, pronunciation in ancient Hebrew and in English is going to differ. It's a moot point, though, as she's *writing* it.

OK, so what *would* be better?

Uh, I think you'll find that if you're talking about Judaism, most Jews just refer to God as God. Lord, Hashem maybe?

It's true. I was just trying to figure out what might be of any use in an icon. :) Though I guess just superimposing "God" or "Lord" on the star of David would get the point across, particularly as she chose "Jesus" to represent the Christians.

(I didn't mean to be confrontational, just hoping to determine what would make an acceptable substitution if she were to correct the icon.)

As one of two (so far) who have answered "good at sports", I suspect I'm not really the target for this post. I don't think any of my schools had students pick teams past elementary school. I was always in the middle then, because the boys, regardless of physical ability, would get picked first. I was generally among the first of the girls to get picked, though. But yeah, I like sports and am generally good at them. Got a killer competitive streak too. ^_^

Well, the fact that you were one of the 'picked first' people proves that even people you might think don't have anything in common with you, actually do.

Or something...I don't know.

I am not terribly competitive, but mostly because I'd lose so why bother? :)

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