User: pip23

We all took showers after PE at my school - it was expected and we all did it. I don't remember thinking we were "forced" to take showers any more than we were "forced" to read books or write with a pen. It was just something we were told we would do and we did. It was an all boys school and all the PE teachers were male.

Anglian - perhaps if it is standard practice throughout the school for boys to stay behind for individual tuition in subjects they do not try hard in then it would be acceptable in p.e. as well.

Encouragement and realistic help to overcome reluctance should be the emphasis rather than punishment. If a child is turned against maths or history by having extra lessons as punishment it would be regrettable but if a child is turned against exercise by having it used as a punishment the consequences for the child in later life could be much more serious.

If punishment is needed then standard school punishments should be used.

I'm glad you say going bare-chested and barefoot is very good for boys - it doesn't seem as common these days which is a great shame. Again, this is something which should be encouraged and not seen as punishment.

We did all our PE shirtless at my all boys grammar school over forty years ago - we had no problem with it and most of us enjoyed cross country runs. Shirtless runs would not have been any sort of punishment for us.

I don't think physical exercise should be used as a punishment - PE exercise should be enjoyable and not associated with punishment. We certainly had a lot of fun in PE despite, or perhaps partly because, we were shirtless and bafefoot, inside and outside in all weather. We were often quite boisterous but I don't remember boys getting into trouble in PE - if they did I expect they got the usual punishment - detention or the cane for bad misbehaviour.

Janey - you do write a lot of sense. Whilst I have read various things similar to the ones you seem to be refering to I, like you, failed to make a note of the references for future use. There are, of course, plenty of references to nudity at Summerhill - you only have to google the 2 words Summerhill and nude and plenty of references will appear (well in the U.K. anyway - should be the same in the USA but you never know!)

A study was carried out around 11 years ago comparing teenage prenancies in 5 Western industrialised countries. There is a long report available online but there is also an abstract available at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12833743. It seems that teenage sexual activity is similar in the 5 countries - USA, Canada, GB, France and Sweden. However, teenage prenancies are far higher in USA; less so in GB and Canada and even less in France and Sweden. The abstract includes the following sentences comparing attitudes in Sweden and France with those in USA - "Societal acceptance of teenage sexuality is reflected in open-minded sexuality education and easy access to contrantrceptive services. In contrast the official message in USA is to delay childbearing until marriage by abstinence only, and use of contaceptives is not supported."

The prudish attitude in USA seems to follow on from the excessive modesty which seems to be a problem there. It does not result in less sexual activity amongst youngsters but by "sweeping it under the carpet" it does result in far more teenage pregnancies. Whilst I would personally support abstinence until marriage clearly it is an attitude that does not work. Hopefully, whilst this may appear a bit off-topic, it is not completely irrelevant.

I used to think that CaDad was somewhat gullible and that the posts about inappropriate behaviour by child-minders were all fantasy. Then I did as he suggested and googled the 3 words and was horrified at what I found. Whilst the proportion of female reported child molesters is very small it seems that a much smaller percentage of victims of female molesters report it than do the victims of male molesters. (female-offenders.com) Thus the actual problem is far larger than would appear from the statistics of convictions alone.

I still believe that quite a few of the posts are little more than fantasy or I certainly hope so though it is not easy to tell. Also, I found that a high proportion of rapists claim to have been sexually abused by females in their childhood. Society likes to view the fairer sex as caring, nurturing and never any danger to children. This is, of course, true of the vast majority of females but we should not let this lead us to believe that all child molesters are male.

CaDad, I agree with much of what you say though if you were a little less aggressive in the way you said it, perhaps more people would take notice of you.