The last time I was in a PE class with boys was when I was eleven. So I do remember that it’s not so bad doing somersaults and star jumps with them, even when you forget your PE kit and you’re in your knickers and vest.
But running around in a tennis skirt with a load of 17 year old boys doesn’t sound like something that’s going to improve your racket skills. It’s unusual for women and men to compete at a professional level, so why do we have mixed PE classes at school?
It’s not as if it’s everyone’s favourite way of spending time with the opposite sex. Firstly, as always, there’s the problem of what to wear. All too often girls get stuck in tiny netball skirts, even in the winter, while the boys are allowed to wear tracksuit bottoms.
Ok, perhaps I’m being a bit unfair – maybe the boys want to feel the wind and rain on their legs and don’t want to wear tracksuit bottoms: after all, they do say the cold improves your senses.
But we all know it’s not just the weather that’s the problem. Short skirts can cause all kinds of other upsets, especially for girls who feel a bit self-conscious, especially when contact sports are involved.
You don’t want to show your knickers off accidentally and add insult to injury when you’ve just been rugby-tackled to the ground by a boy. And I haven’t even started on swimming!
But mixed PE lessons aren’t all bad. You could say they encourage both sexes to take part in sports they normally wouldn’t. There’s no good reason why boys can’t enjoy netball, and girls cricket, it’s just a stereotype that has built up over the years that says we can’t.
Lathaniel Dyer, 16, went to an all-boys secondary school and he’s ready to challenge the idea of certain sports being just for girls or boys. "It’s just a convention - I love rounders. I’ve never played netball but I’m sure I could master the rules." Maybe in the meantime he could get a job as a referee then?
So, with the right attitude (and the right sports kit), it sounds like we could make mixed PE lessons work. Maybe mixed sports lessons that don’t terrify and humiliate young people could help to break the mould and the division between men and women’s sports.
About this team
This story was produced by Ella Parry-Davies, 17, from our London newsroom. It was published on the Reach for the Sky website.
