Grind My Gears close

Another month and another monthly mind cleansing Grinds My Gears.  Earlier this month I read a news article that really rattled my cage. Schools are being urged to introduce more ‘female friendly’ physical education lessons into the national curriculum.

Now, when I was in high school, and I’m talking seven years ago now, my understanding of physical education was that it was physical. It was a lesson that incorporated putting into practice what you learnt about how the body works, repairs and can be conditioned. However, it appears that over the years it has changed to be a lesson on learning who kissed who, looking cool and being lazy.

The WSFF (Woman’s Sport and Fitness Foundation) want to introduce activities such as Zumba, the new Latin dance craze that is sweeping the nation, and rollerblading to young girls P.E. lessons. Personally these sound too much like a cop out of sport and exercise. Now I’m not completely cold hearted, I understand that secondary school can be a hard time for some girls and that they are finding themselves and don’t always feel completely comfortable in their skins. However British kids are the heaviest in Europe, there are always new debates on introducing healthy school dinners, increasing tax on sugary snacks and drinks. It is just common knowledge that you should exercise as well as eat a balanced diet to stay at a healthy weight. Modern British kids have got a lazy diet as well as a lazy lifestyle.

Another big part of P.E. is learning how to work as a team, and heightening your competitive drive. These are both characteristics that young girls are going to need and demonstrate when they leave school and enter working life. Within the digital industry, you need to demonstrate a focus to go one better than your competitors, push the boundaries further. To achieve these goals you need to be a key member in a team that share your goal values. All aspects of a digital project are vital, from the initial immersion sessions and briefing to the coding and go live. Pulling together as a team and having a “make it happen” attitude is something that will get you far in the industry, especially for women in this predominantly male industry. Demanding equality in the workplace and simultaneously disadvantaging girls at a key stage in development is a contradiction in terms. The easy way out is not usually the path to success.

The irony with this laziness rant is that I am in the business of making processes easier for people. In a way you could say that I am helping make society lazy.  Peoples lifestyles are all turning mobile, everyone is looking for new ways of altering their lives to be quicker and easier which is great and hugely positive. But even those in the industry know the importance of getting physical, playing a good old fashioned team sport or going for a run. Something that still involves some proper athleticism, not just exercising your fingers updating a Facebook status during PE.

Because, encouraging already dangerous levels of laziness in kids is, my fellow class mates, what really Grinds My Gears.