I never had dancing in PE in any grade. Can’t decide if that sucks or not. Maybe I’d have better coordination now. We did get roller skating week though.
There’s usually a dance section included in PE instruction, mostly to break up hard physical activity snd allow kids to have fun. The type of dancing depends on the school and the state, we did salsa dancing in Florida.
I’m over 60, growing up in SoCal we had Square Dancing and the Maypole but also the Mexican Hat Dance, plus Tinikling, the Filipino one with two poles. Oh, and I think a bit of Hula.
(Later as a teacher I taught my 2nd graders some Russian dancing I had learned from my ballet teacher, because little kids are bouncy and kicky and we could do it inside when it rained.)
Should have told that to my PE teacher in grade school. I’ve never been good at dancing, and I got pulled aside multiple times in front of the class because I just couldn’t follow some of the dances we were supposed to do. These weren’t for competitions or anything, just as an activity.
That’s when I learned that not all bullies are children.
That might be why it was added to the curriculum at first, but that’s certainly not why it stayed, nor why we did it at my school. It’s a pretty fun activity too, so a good use of that PE time.
I had horrible eyesight and was shockingly inept at all sportball games, even compared to other hopeless nerds, so I found it slightly less awful than the stuff we usually did.
Speaking of crazy things in US PE classes, if you learned to Square Dance, it was because Henry Ford was a racist who was afraid of Jazz.
I never had dancing in PE in any grade. Can’t decide if that sucks or not. Maybe I’d have better coordination now. We did get roller skating week though.
There’s usually a dance section included in PE instruction, mostly to break up hard physical activity snd allow kids to have fun. The type of dancing depends on the school and the state, we did salsa dancing in Florida.
You’re younger than I am. For my generation, it was all square dancing.
Same. I lived in Minnesota and Indiana and did Square Dancing in both.
I’m over 60, growing up in SoCal we had Square Dancing and the Maypole but also the Mexican Hat Dance, plus Tinikling, the Filipino one with two poles. Oh, and I think a bit of Hula.
(Later as a teacher I taught my 2nd graders some Russian dancing I had learned from my ballet teacher, because little kids are bouncy and kicky and we could do it inside when it rained.)
“Allow the kids to have fun”
Should have told that to my PE teacher in grade school. I’ve never been good at dancing, and I got pulled aside multiple times in front of the class because I just couldn’t follow some of the dances we were supposed to do. These weren’t for competitions or anything, just as an activity.
That’s when I learned that not all bullies are children.
Let me guess: “if you only applied yourself, you’d get it. It’s easy (for me). Watch!”
That might be why it was added to the curriculum at first, but that’s certainly not why it stayed, nor why we did it at my school. It’s a pretty fun activity too, so a good use of that PE time.
Man. We hated square dancing time in PE.
I had horrible eyesight and was shockingly inept at all sportball games, even compared to other hopeless nerds, so I found it slightly less awful than the stuff we usually did.