Intruiging

In school I hated gym class.  Dreaded might be a better word.  I am uncoordinated and easily embarrassed, also I prefer to learn new skills privately.  Why did I have to play horrendously painful  games like dodgeball?  Or learn how to bowl?  How is it necessary for my life that I know how to do a layup with a basketball?   Will I really ever use the ping-pong skills I was taught? And why, oh why, was I forced to wear a polyester uniform and share a locker room with dozens of strangers???

What if instead I had been pleasantly and peacefully homeschooled?  What might my physical education have looked like?  I'm certain I would have done gymnastics until my growth spurt at age 14 prevented me from being a nimble tumbler.  I would have excelled at trail walking and creek wading.  Tree climbing would have scored me an A+ (as opposed to the C- on my report card from the quarter where we learned basketball and ping pong).  Running?  Yes! I would have run for miles without being forced to do it as a warm-up for other impending dreadful activities.  Bike riding would have been fun and I would have been up for the challenge. 

Some kids just don't really pursue sports or team activities, and those who do rarely, if ever, end up doing that sport for a living.  So why was I abused and embarrassed and made to feel like 'phys-ed' was a chore when quite obviously it is not?  Because in school you have to do what they say whether it fits into your life or not.

Well, here in this family my kids will never know such time-wasting tortures.  Bike riding on the next-size-up bikes has been all the rage recently.  Evan really wants to ride Todd's bike, so for unschooling 'gym class', that's what he is pursuing.  (Chloe said that watching Evan 'intrigued' her into wanting to try to ride his bike.)

No embarrassment, only intriguing personal growth and challenges, all of which are applicable and useful for life and living.

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p.s.  Of course some people loved gym class, and I would have never met my middle school best friend without that whole locker-buddy system.  What I am against is force, and what I am advocating is freedom.