Poll: Why are gym / P.E. teachers such asshats?

[Mill]

Yep my PE teacher was a prick. Too bad I had ways around his BS he tried to pull on me and my friends.

 

[Dudd]

Wait, I've got another story. We played "hockey" in gym class, except they wouldn't let us shoot slapshots or wristshots, cause you know, someone might get hurt. I guess all you could do was try and deak out the goalie and ram the puck into the net. Anyways, I pretty much disregarded the rules and took a wrister, the goalie stopped it, and then she started to cry. It was a freaking rubber puck shot by a fifth grader using a stick without a bend, how hard could it have been going? Of course I got in trouble for actually playing the game. I'll say it too: stupid asshat.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: 911paramedic

Originally posted by: wje
Seriously, why are they? Those that I've had experience with while growing up treated all of the non-jocks like crap. Why don't they have any "people" skills?

Just today, my 9-year-old daughter bumped into another girl. My daughter suffered a severe sprain to her shoulder. Her gym teacher kept telling her "not to cry." Well, my daughter has a slight problem - she has "exercise induced" asthma. Once she gets a bit upset, she can't breathe without her inhaler. Additionally, my daughter keeps telling me about how they always need to keep yelling at the kids. What's up with that? What do they expect the 9-year-olds to do?

I thought the purpose of P.E. was to gain some knowledge on exercise and learn how to keep your body in shape - not to train for the friggin' Olympics.

PE stands for "Physical Education", and this person is lacking. Excercised induced asthma is a physical education issue for sure, and they should know about it. Unfortunately, they probably do not because it is more of a medical issue. PE teachers are more like physical therapy people, without the medical training.

Your problem is so scary to me, as a medic. These PE instructors have (I think) CPR/first aid training only, and that does not even touch on asthma and other medical problems. You should be concerned and you should also speak with the principal about this.

Not only is this a medical concern, but you should point out to the principal that it is a legal concern (just to get their attention) because the PE teachers are not qualified to recognize these medical problems.

Stick to your guns, you are in the right. I am a paramedic, its not just my name. Good luck.

911Paramedic,

Thanks for your response. We've tried endlessly to communicate with the school regarding the issue. In fact, last year, we had an inhaler for my daughter that remained in the nurse's area. We are in the process of getting another form signed by her doctor to accompany the prescription inhaler.

It's just getting frustrating for me. We've reminded them so frequently - and there is never any compassion. You can bet I'll stick to my guns. My daughter has already been hospitalized once for her condition - and on one accasion, we had to call 911 when she couldn't breathe (and before her condition was properly diagnosed.) She also suffers from acid reflux disease. However, this is minor compared to her asthma. We don't want to fully pull her out of gym. We want her to have as normal of a life as possible. However, the teachers in her P.E. class frequently forget.

 

[Beau]

Those who can't do, teach. 😉

 

[T2T III]

I also have an interesting story to share.

In the area where I live (well, actually about 20 miles away), there was a coach / P.E. teacher who would ride around the field on a golf cart. Whenever the girls were heading towards the rest room, he would offer them a ride on the golf cart. He would then take them to his "preferred" bathroom where he had a secret camera mounted. 🙁 Eventually, one of the girls saw the blinking light of the camera and turned him in.

 

[BennyD]

what is it with PE teachers and ex army folk?

always wearing those disturbingly small shorts and running like 2000 miles a day

"get up you stupid boy, i aint never heard of asthma but i'm sure another coupla miles with another 20k in the bag would do it a world of good"

asshats indeed 😀

 

[SherEPunjab]

Originally posted by: Beau
Those who can't do, teach. 😉

i know that was just a joke, but i have several teachers and professors in my family. REAL teachers, not P.E. teachers. not funny!

 

[Beau]

Originally posted by: SherEPunjab

Originally posted by: Beau
Those who can't do, teach. 😉

i know that was just a joke, but i have several teachers and professors in my family. REAL teachers, not P.E. teachers. not funny!

So do I, and I tease them with that all the time. Infact, I've voluntarilly assisted teaching my old highschool's broadcasting and graphic arts classes -- I'll probably end up taking a position there in the future. I enjoy teaching, it's fun to share your knowledge with others and in return learn from them.

 

[911paramedic]

Originally posted by: wje

Originally posted by: 911paramedic

Originally posted by: wje
Seriously, why are they? Those that I've had experience with while growing up treated all of the non-jocks like crap. Why don't they have any "people" skills?

Just today, my 9-year-old daughter bumped into another girl. My daughter suffered a severe sprain to her shoulder. Her gym teacher kept telling her "not to cry." Well, my daughter has a slight problem - she has "exercise induced" asthma. Once she gets a bit upset, she can't breathe without her inhaler. Additionally, my daughter keeps telling me about how they always need to keep yelling at the kids. What's up with that? What do they expect the 9-year-olds to do?

I thought the purpose of P.E. was to gain some knowledge on exercise and learn how to keep your body in shape - not to train for the friggin' Olympics.

PE stands for "Physical Education", and this person is lacking. Excercised induced asthma is a physical education issue for sure, and they should know about it. Unfortunately, they probably do not because it is more of a medical issue. PE teachers are more like physical therapy people, without the medical training.

Your problem is so scary to me, as a medic. These PE instructors have (I think) CPR/first aid training only, and that does not even touch on asthma and other medical problems. You should be concerned and you should also speak with the principal about this.

Not only is this a medical concern, but you should point out to the principal that it is a legal concern (just to get their attention) because the PE teachers are not qualified to recognize these medical problems.

Stick to your guns, you are in the right. I am a paramedic, its not just my name. Good luck.

911Paramedic,

Thanks for your response. We've tried endlessly to communicate with the school regarding the issue. In fact, last year, we had an inhaler for my daughter that remained in the nurse's area. We are in the process of getting another form signed by her doctor to accompany the prescription inhaler.

It's just getting frustrating for me. We've reminded them so frequently - and there is never any compassion. You can bet I'll stick to my guns. My daughter has already been hospitalized once for her condition - and on one accasion, we had to call 911 when she couldn't breathe (and before her condition was properly diagnosed.) She also suffers from acid reflux disease. However, this is minor compared to her asthma. We don't want to fully pull her out of gym. We want her to have as normal of a life as possible. However, the teachers in her P.E. class frequently forget.

Keep up with your situation, there is no reason for your daughter to be without her inhaler or in fear of not being able to get care. Trust me, I have even had firefighters or other medics that have given the wrong treatment. You need to be assured that your daughter has access to 911. You should get at least 2 paramedics, and probably more, and they will be able to treat her.

Your PE teacher has nothing close to the training required to determine your daughters medical treatment requirements. It takes us medics years to be really comfortable with all the problems that happen, but we do handle it. I teach medics now and I always tell them if you have any questions to ask for help, PE instructors dont think they have to. It is sad but true for most of them.

Have your doctor write a prescription for the inhaler or for an excuse from the trigger sports. Asthma is nothing to fool around with, ever. It can be one of our most stressful calls depending on the severity.

 

[T2T III]

what is it with PE teachers and ex army folk?

always wearing those disturbingly small shorts and running like 2000 miles a day

Actually, I think the P.E. teachers are slackers. There's no way those at my daughter's school run more than 1 mile per day. Also, they get to show up for work in sweat pants and a sweat shirt. It doesn't get much more laid back than that.

 

[AntaresVI]

Why are gym / P.E. teachers such asshats?

I dont know - every one I've ever had was, except this year. The guy's actually pretty cool, plus the stuff we do isn't the usual fitness crap - the first part of the year required problem solving instead of speed/strength/whatever, and now we're playing badmitton, which 0wnz j00.

BTW, I own aswedc at badmitton...

 

[Azraele]

The mayor of my town is a former gym coach.

 

[NeoPTLD]

My PE teachers have all been an ass and all the male teachers, but one was fat. Being fat is not good as a role model for physical education.

 

[911paramedic]

Originally posted by: wje

what is it with PE teachers and ex army folk?

always wearing those disturbingly small shorts and running like 2000 miles a day

Actually, I think the P.E. teachers are slackers. There's no way those at my daughter's school run more than 1 mile per day. Also, they get to show up for work in sweat pants and a sweat shirt. It doesn't get much more laid back than that.

You have to realize that it is not the distance, like a mile, but how the conditions are. Some people get asthma from cold air, dry air, exercise, etc. It has nothing to do with one mile, if she is prone to asthma she should be able to get the care she needs, immediately. If that is a simple puff from her nebulizer, or as severe as a 911 call, she should get it.

The problem is PE instructors cannot always recognize the severity of the problem, so your daughter should be able to carry her inhaler with her at least. Asthma can be controlled, or it can be very severe, and usually the patient knows best in my experience. I can see severe problems by looking at a patient, but that is because they know it is severe and they have a "look". (among other things, lung sounds, ekg, O2 sats, etc) but the patient is the best indicator.

Like I said before PE teachers have first aid/cpr certs, but that only works for cuts or cardiac arrest. It does not come close to teaching them about recognizing signs that show a person is going to/or is having a severe problem. I teach those classes, trust me on this one.

 

[vegetation]

I've found PE teachers to be low quality teachers. They do not have the energy to teach a real class (come on, you think they only care about PE?) so they just commit to a non-challenging career. Those who do possess some motivation eventually move on to an administrative position, but the 20-30 year PE veterans are some pretty lazy asses in my opinion.

 

[Jeff7]

At my school, some of the gym teachers were also football coaches, so they like yelling at anything and everything. Some of them could probably have used a daily dose of elephant tranquilizers.
That said, there was....um, one good gym teacher that I can remember - I had him as a PE teacher in elementary school; he was a fun teacher, understanding and just a good teacher overall. I think he moved to the high-school teaching level, but I'm not sure of that.

What you should be pissed off at is that the asshat administrators of PE who ruled that dodgeball is unfair, and they stopped playing it in schools. I used to LOVE to play dodgeball in school

Me too; I was actually fairly good at avoiding getting hit until the very end - when I'd be the last one left. It was an unfortunate, and fairly swift ending then.🙂 That was the only game I was even half-decent at though.

 

[fastman]

They get frustraded pushing all the fat kids these days in schools.

 

[Booster]

I don't think it's a dead end job. People who never worked as a teacher don't know how much this job rocks. You don't have to work nearly as much as at a regular job, get all the respect you will never have at a regular job, and it just feels good to be a teacher. In fact, you have more free time on your hands and far less problems than an ordinary employee who is always afraid of being fired. The job of a teacher is relatively very stable compared to any other job IMO.

 

[habib89]

Originally posted by: wje
Seriously, why are they? Those that I've had experience with while growing up treated all of the non-jocks like crap. Why don't they have any "people" skills?

Just today, my 9-year-old daughter bumped into another girl. My daughter suffered a severe sprain to her shoulder. Her gym teacher kept telling her "not to cry." Well, my daughter has a slight problem - she has "exercise induced" asthma. Once she gets a bit upset, she can't breathe without her inhaler. Additionally, my daughter keeps telling me about how they always need to keep yelling at the kids. What's up with that? What do they expect the 9-year-olds to do?

I thought the purpose of P.E. was to gain some knowledge on exercise and learn how to keep your body in shape - not to train for the friggin' Olympics.

i don't know if anyone's said this yet, but i also have "exercise induced" asthma.. it isn't too severe, but i run out of breath really easily when i run, so i usually walk it and use my inhaler.. i flunked PE for my first high school year because i couldn't run within the alloted time period.. i told the teachers, but they didn't give a rat's @ss.. anyhow.. i got a doctor's note.. shoved it up their @sses, and i didn't have to run anymore.. i would always walk part of it or something.. just to at least try.. anyway.. i guess my point is to get a doctor's note.. they can't force someone to do something they're not physically able to do.. if they do then they may as well make people in wheel chairs run too..