Should kids who are hopeless at team sports and hate PE lessons at school be engineers?

Is there any relativity? Maybe some kids are hopeless at team sports but goot at team music...

Is there any relativity? Maybe some kids are hopeless at team sports but goot at team music...

Is there any relativity? Maybe some kids are hopeless at team sports but goot at team music...

Is there any relativity? Maybe some kids are hopeless at team sports but goot at team music...

I would say that being good at team sports or PE has little relevance to being a good team payer in the world of engineering. I was hopeless at sports and I just put up with PE. Always brought my kit but never enjoyed it. Couldn't catch a ball, always came last in races, and I still don't follow any sports.

However, I've always been a team player, and have built and mentored a number of successful engineering teams. So, in my opinion it's chalk and cheese?

Hi David,

Me too!!!!!! Which also means I tend to be sunk when landed in a room full of blokes, as I know absolutely nothing about football or F1 - which in turn can sometimes become a challenge when working in some areas of UK engineering. Bring 4-10 random male engineers who don't know each other together for a meeting, and time how long the pre-meeting coffee conversation takes before one of these subjects comes up - I find it's usually pretty short. I'm sure there's been whole research papers written on "the role of football as a Lingua Franca in human male bonding rituals".

The only time I remember surviving (never mind excelling at) a team event when young was during the very brief time I was a Venture Scout. We were on a leadership training event, and when it was my turn we were faced with a fairly typical "get your team over this huge obstacle" challenge. So, not being my sort of challenge at all, I turned to the team and asked them how we were going to do it - apparently I was the only attendee in the whole weekend who thought of doing this. Actually I couldn't think of anything else to do. But the approach of the other trainee leaders probably says more about the typically mentality of 17 year old males who chose to be Venture Scouts in North London in the late 1970s than anything else.

As ever in answering these types of questions, what's an engineer????

Right, nearly late enough in the morning for me to be able to use power tools without feeling guitly about annoying the neighbours! 

Cheers, Andy

No, they all should become engineers regardless of ability in P.E. ;)


Personally, P.E. was not my favorite subject although I did like team sports (just wasn't very good at it).  However, some of my engineering collegues regularly play team sport or participate in various activities.  So I suspect, aptitude in P.E. is irrelevant.


However, it does point to a failing in our enducation system whereby schools only have time to introduce a small set of sports/activities.  Sometimes it is about finding the right niche.  My little one hates cross country running with a passion and is not going to be a star footballer.  However, I've introduced the little one to Brazillian Jui-Jitsu and they are thriving in that.


Engineering is sometimes similar.  We all have strengths and weaknessess.  Sometimes in a career it's about finding what interests you as much as what you are good at.


Mark

Should kids who are hopeless at team sports and hate PE lessons at school be engineers?


In short, yes. Without a shadow of a doubt. There is no occupation more inclusive, more open-to-all, than engineering. Team sports and team work are, to my mind, separate entities. Some team sports enthusiasts I've come across have been the least team-oriented people in the working environment. 


I don't think one's aptitude for sports or fondness for PE lessons have any real bearing on future career choices. Back in the dim and distant past, I actively avoided team sports, because I just didn't like them; I preferred "individual" sports such as running and cycling, and I was a very keen amateur boxer for many years. Whilst I was never destined for the triathlon or the Lonsdale belt, I was very fit, a decent runner and could cycle all day. I had a serious dislike of PE lessons, simply because they were all formed around team sports. 


But back onto topic. My working career, from day one 34 years ago, has consistently involved being a "team player" (I really don't like the jargon!) as part of a large team, and I don't think my dislike of team sports and PE lessons have had any adverse effects on my career path.

I know an engineer who attended a SEN needs school in the 1990s (that did not meet his SEN) where PE lessons were never called PE but were called games. He claims that the games teachers did not have sufficient knowledge of anatomy and physiology to teach GCSE PE and neither did they have any real interest in the human body. Instead they organised games lessons around team sports and gave credit to the sporty kids whilst despising kids who were no good at or did not enjoy team sports.


The engineer was recognised by the PE teachers at his previous comprehensive school as being very good at javelin throwing and they said that with a bit more training he could be up to competition level. The SEN school did not do anything to nurture this talent despite it even being mentioned on his statement.