Given the current situation, I decided to serialise my third book, published in 2013 to celebrate my fiftieth birthday. And as we’ve all got plenty of time, I’ve reproduced each chapter with only modest tweaks.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SCHOOL SPORT?
Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body; it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. The relationship between the soundness of the body and the activities of the mind is subtle and complex. Much is not yet understood. But we do know what the Greeks knew: that intelligence and skill can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body is healthy and strong; that hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound gods.” John F. Kennedy
Many moons ago there was a novel concept called school sport which was generally played and enjoyed by many – loathed by a few as well – and responsible in part for developing youngsters in preparation for the varying challenges of later life.
We were encouraged to be competitive, accept that we would not win every time and understand that, complaining just because our toes felt like blocks of ice, would not get us one ounce of compassion or injury-based compensation.
If we got clattered on the field of play by a heavy tackle or a cricket ball bounced off our skulls, we did not blame everybody and anybody and then attempt to sue the school out of its very existence. Life went on and we were better for it.
What we enjoyed – or in some cases endured – was far from perfect, especially in the state school system; even in those days the gap between the state and private school sectors was considerable. Today it is unbridgeable.
However, at least in the state sector there were ample opportunities to play a wide range of sports encouraged by teachers who, even if they were not officially of a PE vocation, were dedicated and committed both to the school and the kids.
They offered up their time, almost always in a voluntary capacity, to run training sessions and fixtures, usually outside of school time. In short they could see the value to the kids and recognised the bigger picture.
Without a shadow of a doubt the teachers enjoyed it too – paid or not – because coaching and developing skills within kids is a very rewarding process.
Sadly, teachers withdrew their voluntary activities after the militancy of the 1980s in defiance of the Conservative government of the time. That relationship has never really recovered and the PE teacher died from that day on.
I’m Bobby Charlton!
If you have ever seen the wonderful film “Kes” directed by Ken Loach and released in 1969, there are bits of those scenes on a freezing, rain-swept school football pitch that will resonate with most who grew up then.
Brian Glover plays Mr Sugden, the PE teacher, part-hero, part-bastard, part-dreamer, part-failed at everything else at school and therefore never having left the very same school.
“I’m Bobby Charlton” exclaims Sugden as he kicks-off in the absence of any referee simply because he could be whoever he wanted to be on that mud-pot of pitch, surrounded by soaked and hapless kids.
Usually the PE teacher was a fit, healthy role model and most of us aspired to get in a team of some sorts. I believe the slow death of the old fashioned PE teacher has been a major factor behind the current social ills of growing obesity and inactivity levels.
As the PE teacher was mothballed to extinction, so quangos like Sport England were established to attempt to plug the gap, funded to varying levels by successive clueless governments. It has been several generations of a failure of our kids.
As a result of union leaders and politicians being too stupid and selfish to see the bigger picture, our children have become the unhealthiest generations in living memory.
What Legacy?
I wrote much of this piece during Olympic year in 2012, arguing that the promised Olympic legacy was a lie. I accepted I was in the minority, but I never believed the whole show would be worthwhile long-term. Initially projected at under £3bn, the final cost was closer to £12bn.
As I finished the book in 2013, the self-proclaimed City of Sport – Sheffield – agreed to bulldoze the 21 year-old Don Valley Stadium where Jessica Ennis trained because they could not afford the running costs. Some legacy.
Given the woeful state of school sport, plus the escalating issues of obesity and inactivity, this money would have been better spent here than on a summer jamboree for the privileged?
Approximately 93 per cent of children are educated by the state; so what sporting opportunities do ordinary children now have to pursue the legacy dream? This issue has been consistently ignored and the consequences swept under the carpet.
The NHS can also only estimate the future financial burden in terms of obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes.
Grassroots sports also depend on school sport to survive; many clubs are an essential part of their communities not only for participants but parents, volunteers and social members. They fuse communities together.
If the schools cannot play their part in providing early sporting opportunities then what chance of amateur clubs to develop more specialist skills? The opportunities to interact; to play, to compete and to shape personal confidences for later life are all diminished as a consequence.
After I left Barclays in 2011, I spent a year or so working on a part-time basis for a small social enterprise that specifically targeted primary schools on a health and fitness agenda.
Their message was compelling and the more I got drawn into the issues of obesity and all the future health problems being stored up the more frustrated I got by the failure of successive governments. In the near decade since, the issues have only got worse.
At the most critical point in a child’s life, the provision of PE is a shambles in state primary schools.
If we had really wanted a lasting Olympic legacy, it could have been based on partnerships between schools and grassroots clubs that are local to the schools and the lifeblood of sport. Government funded agencies simply do not get it staffed by career box-tickers.
The role of the PE teacher in primary schools should be key; if they need to work outside of normal hours to run teams then pay them. The costs today will be far less than the NHS tab in future years.
We need to make kids much more aware of the choices they have even at this early age because they all deserve the chance of living a healthy life. But we don’t.
As many schools have limited sports space or specialist equipment creating positive links with local clubs is essential but this would also have real benefits for the clubs struggling to attract new members. Ultimately, local communities are the long term beneficiaries here.
This is not simply about sport; we have to change our culture and arrest this decline. Reversing several decades of ignorant living is not easy and sport, in isolation, is not the answer
However, sport can be a means to an end and a hugely valuable one as JFK alluded to above.
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