A Sub, a Gym, and a Gem

-posted by Eric-

As a substitute I have seen a lot of different angles by which the youth of America are educated. I am constantly wondering about the best methods to get a class under control and get them to actually learn something meaningful. I'm sure we can all think back at our past subs and the **ahem** respect we showed them throughout the years.

So there I was subbing for a P.E. teacher at an elementary school (which apparently, if you say the word P.E. to a second-grader they give you a blank stare, the correct word is "gym") ready to flip the paradigm of the young people of America and how they view Physical Education.

And this is what I walked in to.

Apparently the school was an old set for the movie Saw VIII and this is where they kept all the dead bodies. This place was really spooky. I couldn't imagine how anyone could get a proper physical education here. But at least the teachers office was a state-of-the-art coaching HQ...


Wow. Seriously though, I understand that schools have to take over old buildings and have to make it fit sometimes. And honestly, the room kinda grew on me. After the first two groups of second graders came in and I saw how natural and willing they were to get to the activities I was ok with it.

Then the coolest thing happened.

As I was heading to get my third group of students one of the teachers stopped me and told me that since it was Monday the students had a special P.E. thing to do in the cafeteria and that I should just go down there.

And this is what I walked in to.


"Feet together, arms by your side, look straight, don't move any part of your body!!"
"212 [one of the classes] what is your ???. 209 [the other class in the room] can you make it better than 212?"

I was absolutely floored. Here we had two first-grade classes in perfect control, order, and having the absolute time of their life learning Taekwondo from a real instructor. They were all yelling what the teacher told them to, always followed by "YES SIR!" (I tried to get them to say that to me...it didn't work :)). Every time he had them run through exercises, like the one below or jumping jacks or anything else they would always end by saying "THANK YOU SIR!!"



To me, this was simply incredible. I don't know about you or what your response would be if you walked in to a bunch of mini Bruce Lees going through their paces, but I just love seeing these kids have SO MUCH fun running through all these exercises in such an unwestern-educational approach.

As the class went on the teacher kept yelling them instructions which I'm sure they couldn't even understand and they kept doing them in near perfect order and near perfect obedience. Then he asked for volunteers, and this kid took the stage.



Such passion, such devotion.

All in all there were two groups of first graders, each with two classes in them, they each worked for 45 minutes non stop and there were absolutely no issues with the classes while they were there (I wish I could say the same for the P.E. classes I was in charge of for the day).

I guess the takeaway here is that there are so many different ways to educate kids. P.E. programs are getting cut across the nation because they don't teach kids what "they" want the kids to learn. I wonder if taking an approach like this would help kids gain a bit more self respect, self control, and respect for authority, not to mention a good solid work out. I'm just going through all of the really good things this can bring to our kids and the list keeps getting longer. I would LOVE to see more programs like this in our schools.

But before I get too political here, let me just say, this was one of the funnest things I have ever seen while I have been substituting.

-posted by Eric-

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Extra footage
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"Tie your arms...very good...if you move your arms you get push-up push-up"