Age of Angela and Danielle

General discussion about the nineteen episodes of "My So-Called Life". Note: Our episode guide can be found here.
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grim4746
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Post by grim4746 » Jun 15th 2004, 8:59 pm

I did quite poorly in PE. I didn't have the confidence then to accept how bad I am at many sports and to just take the ridicule, so by the ninth grade there were some things I outright refused to take part in, or maybe it was just baseball. If my high school had required me to take PE each year I might not have made it through. It sounds petty but it was completely terrible. If I'd been a little bit less confident or my classmates had been a little more viscious I may have been so inhibited that I would have sat out more activities and ended up failing.

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Natasha (candygirl)
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Jun 16th 2004, 3:09 am

At my high school, freshmen were randomly assigned to groups and then rotated to different teachers every six weeks. Everyone had to take one session of swimming (they tried to tell us it was a state requirement, and we believed them). The upside to this was that no matter how much you hated the sport you were learning, you knew it was only for six weeks. I'm sure the guys were all thrilled about six weeks of gymnastics. No one was happy about six weeks of badminton. I managed to break all my nails at least once during six weeks of basketball. For sophomore PE, we were allowed to choose a class but it lasted all semester so it was imperative to choose carefully.
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Nothingman
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Post by Nothingman » Jun 16th 2004, 10:49 am

We had a similar sport rotation, but you stayed with your class the whole time. Different classes in the same period would do different sports for a month or so and then switch. Badmiton was a hit with us, and pickle ball was far and away the most popular unit. We'd play huge tournaments and people would be talking trash in the halls about up coming games, good stuff. Circuit training sucked and ruined me on the weight room for many years, only this year have I learned to enjoy it again. The worst unit was aerobics. All the classes would do it at once and they would teach us choreographed routines to songs. It completely ruined the Rolling Stones – Satisfaction for me. Once you were a junior, PE became an elective class and I never took it again.
"To come to your senses, you must first go out of your mind." - Alan Watts

heater_05
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Post by heater_05 » Jun 16th 2004, 6:33 pm

PE what a great topic. Her in CA PE was a joke and a waste of time.
You had to take it for 2 years in High School and I will never forget that last day of PE and how free I felt. PE was mostly for sitting around and talking very little physically activity ever occurred. Bad Minton was the game of choice because it was in the GYM and therefore you did not have to run any laps and it also required the least amount of movement. Although they tried to make us care by making us play and advance up the courts if you won or lost. So everyone knew if you sucked at the game but no one really cared. It was a waste of time. We too had to take swimming but I got out of it by being in track, if you were in a sport you did not have to do PE. PE was an elective after Sophmore year but lots of dead beat burn outs would take it in their Junior and Senoir years becasue it was easy and required absolutely no effort.
We too had areobics but it was a joke. They would put on ancient Jane Fonda records and we would all sit on the gym floor and talk and completely ignore the record while the PE teacher/basketball coach would play basketball with the PE aide who was on the Varsity Team while all the girls made eyes at the PE aide. So anyway that was my experience and we never took showers they did not even work but that was a blessing!
"It just goes to show you, if it's not one thing it's another, but it's always something!"

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Jody Barsch*
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Post by Jody Barsch* » Jun 16th 2004, 9:17 pm

As I was on the swim team I never took PE after Jr. high, but I am glad to report that public high school PE is improving. At my high school you could petition for independent study PE (although it was rarely granted), take PE, or do a sport. (Sports at our school excused you from PE requirements, but I know there are some schools that make atheletes do both.) At my school now students can do sports, take regular PE or take our specialized PE classes including: dance, sailing, la crosse, horse back riding, surfing, and golf. I don't know if any of our students have tried it, but I know when Tony Hawke was in high school he petitioned for Independent Scateboarding PE. A lot of our kids do martial arts, gymnastics, or ballet.

Does anybody know if schools still include Square Dancing? We did it in fourth grade, and in 1997 and 1998 we did it in Jr. High. Not quite sure why it is necessary, but, whatever. (They probably just get a kick out of little awkward Jr, high kids freaking out about their partners, etc... :P

Also, nice Breakfast Club reference CandyGirl! :wink: [/i]
Sometimes I write a little MSCL fanfiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1039807/Jody-Barsch
Also, after multiple V. Mars reiterations, and finally a Deadwood movie, still wishing for some continuation of The Riches !

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grim4746
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Post by grim4746 » Jun 16th 2004, 10:45 pm

Ugh, sqare dancing! What was that about? I had to do sqare dancing in grade 4 and 6. In grade 5 we had a young female teacher who mixed it up by making us learn Janet Jackson routines. I was better at sqare dancing.

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Natasha (candygirl)
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Jun 17th 2004, 12:19 am

I remember doing square dancing, but that was at my elementary school in Chicago.

My high school was in California. Even though I am older than Jody Barsch, our school district always had the option to apply for independent credit. They were pretty strict about it - you couldn't just fill out a form that said, "I do other stuff a lot." Both of my sisters were able to get out of regular PE that way, but they both went above and beyond the required hours. One sister trained at a private gym six days a week, and the other took dance classes five days a week (usually two per day during the week plus two or three on Saturdays).

I, on the other hand, took part in regular PE, much to my chagrin (what can I say, I was the oldest so I wasn't aware of the option to get out of PE!). In middle school, that consisted of a LOT of running, which is why I still hate running to this day. In high school, no matter what sport we were currently doing we had to run at least twice a week. I was also on the dance team, so our teacher made sure that we all kicked ass on the Presidential Fitness Testing. All of the PE sections had around 30 students, so the teachers definitely kept everyone working. There was none of the aforementioned sitting around. When I took aerobics, we all had to aerobicize unless we had a doctor's note. Same thing when I was assigned to swimming, basketball, weight training, track & field, everything.

In junior high, we were required to shower. I'm talking the butchy lesbian teacher would stand at the shower exit and check every single person off. We got in trouble for not showering. We would try to get away with just getting our shoulders wet, but usually they would send us back to make sure we were soaking wet.

In high school, we were told to shower but no one checked. I guess they figured if we wanted to stink, that was our business. The six weeks that I took swimming was a joy - imagine swimming at 7:30am and then smelling like chlorine the rest of the day.

The problem with both junior high and high school was that there was a shower bell that rang seven minutes before the period was over. The shower bell was supposed to be the signal for the PE teachers to let us get to the locker room so we could shower and change. Unfortunately, 99% of the PE classes are not actually near the locker room, so by the time we ran in from wherever we were (and sometimes it was a loooooooong way), we barely had time to get dressed and get to our next class without being late. Sometimes the teachers wouldn't let us go when the shower bell rang either, which meant we were almost definitely going to be late. Considering that my high school's policy was one detention for every tardy (meaning you could rack up eight tardies in one day if you really made an effort), no one wanted to be late for class.

heater, when I took badminton, we had a similar thing where we would move up or down the courts. They didn't take complete lack of motivation into account though - a few people (including me) decided that the easiest thing to do was not care, so there was a small group of us who rotated among the two or three lowest courts, always losing to each other.

Anyone want to share stories about hideous PE uniforms? In elementary school, our uniforms were a hideous shade of bright marigold. In middle school, girls wore white shirts and boys wore maroon shirts, adn everyone wore maroon shorts. Why on earth would the school decide that WHITE is an appopriate color for adolescent girls' PE uniforms? The shirts weren't even good quality, meaning thin enough to see some bras. Obviously a pervert made this decision! We also had our names written on both the shirts and shorts so that we couldn't share our PE uniforms. In high school, we didn't have uniforms the first two years and then they switched to red shorts and a white shirt with some graphics on the front. By the time those were mandatory, I was taking dance and they weren't dictating anything about our leotards. I did hear that after I graduated they tried to make everyone in dance wear only red or black leotards, which is just stupid.
Natasha aka candygirl :: MSCL.com

Look, if this is weird for you, being tutored? I don't mind helping you a little longer.
You could have sex with me if you really want to help...I guess that's a "no"?

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Post by Nostradamus » Jun 17th 2004, 2:05 am

Like CG's sisters, I lucked out with an independent PE credit plan. The gym was nicely equipped, friendly staff, and I set my own shedule. Sadly, most of the hard-bodied women must've come later in the day, because all I ever saw were old geezers. The men's locker room was especially bad; some of those guys had enough blubber to rival a sea lion.

:shock:

My best friend was stuck in a conventional PE class, but I did envy him in one respect: the boys' and girls' locker room doors were right next to each other, and he had an almost supernatural talent for "accidentally" getting them confused, usually when the hottest girls were changing. Lucky bastard got away with it too.

:bathroom:
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-- Clarence Darrow

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
-- Mark Twain

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Natasha (candygirl)
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Post by Natasha (candygirl) » Jun 17th 2004, 2:25 am

The student office aide who came to collect the attendance sheet always managed to come by my aerobics class when we were on all fours doing butt exercises. Coincidence?

:mrgreen:
Natasha aka candygirl :: MSCL.com

Look, if this is weird for you, being tutored? I don't mind helping you a little longer.
You could have sex with me if you really want to help...I guess that's a "no"?

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K-man
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Post by K-man » Jun 17th 2004, 9:06 am

P.E. in my high school wasn't much different except we were nowhere near having swimming, 'cause we didn't have a pool. That was unfathomable to us out in the trailer-park-white trash area where I lived. Schools with swimming pools were "a long way from there"...closer to civilization where the high schools looked more like shopping malls than a high school, with carpeted floors and fancy things like that. Gym class was usually a bunch of 18 year old whiskered footbal players on their way to a full ride at a big university beating the s**t out of 14 year old skinny freshman like me. My usual day in gym was a lot like that scene in Freaks and Geeks where they are playing dodgeball. Most of the teachers were a**hole football coaches or Bull-Dyke chicks who hated men. Either way; I was way at the bottom of the food chain and thouroughly abused on a regular basis. And as for showers????? That topic is still too painful to confront. :oops: :oops: :cry: :cry:
Daddy sold the farm and they've killed my trees. K-man

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Nothingman
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Post by Nothingman » Jun 17th 2004, 10:30 am

We barely had time to change our clothes and run to our next class, showers where there for the football team after practice. PE kids never dreamed of having that much time. I find it ironic that many of the reasons it took me years to get back into lifting weights and running had to to with the fact that I hated it in PE. I thought PE was purpose was to set me on a healthy lifestyle path.


grim4746 wrote:I had to do sqare dancing in grade 4 and 6. In grade 5 we had a young female teacher who mixed it up by making us learn Janet Jackson routines. I was better at sqare dancing.
Something tells me you never got citizenship in the Rhythm Nation. :P
"To come to your senses, you must first go out of your mind." - Alan Watts

Leo
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Post by Leo » Jun 24th 2004, 7:03 am

candygirl wrote:Reminds me of this conversation:

"Why did you think shop would be an easy A?"

"Have you seen the guys who take shop?"

"I take shop."

:mrgreen:
Breakfast Club! :)
Let's Bolt!

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starbug
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Post by starbug » Jun 24th 2004, 10:19 am

I seriously think that between us all we could probably recite the entire dialogue, of the entire Breakfast Club, in order.
It's clearly a favourite of MSCL'ers!
:D

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Jody Barsch*
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Post by Jody Barsch* » Jun 24th 2004, 2:23 pm

"And these children that you spit on,
As they try to chnage their worlds,
Are immune to your consultations...
They're quite aware of what they're going through" -- David Bowie

"Saturday, March 24th, 1984 ...."



JUST KIDDING!
Sometimes I write a little MSCL fanfiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1039807/Jody-Barsch
Also, after multiple V. Mars reiterations, and finally a Deadwood movie, still wishing for some continuation of The Riches !

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