2000s P.E. Class Was Weird 

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In elementary school, we didn't have a field day, but we had something called water day (legit the best day ever). These were usually on the weeks leading up to the last day of school, and we would have water slides, water games, Popsicles, it was legit the funnest day in my life. I miss those days where school would celebrate you going to a new grade by letting us do fun activities

I have seen one kid complete the pacer test, in fifth grade. He vomited on the floor and collapsed right after. Ambulance came, I’ll never forget that though he lives in my head rent free

I got sent to the principal’s office in 2nd grade because I refused to shake hands with the other students after games on the basis that I’d seen them fail to wash their hands in the bathroom.

The big parachute thing was my single favorite thing in P.E. growing up. Idk why but it brings me so much joy. Also I will never forget the distinct *prang* of a rubber dodgeball and the PAIN of a slightly flat one hitting you in the face.

I said a “Poops for fart” joke about hoops for heart, & my friend group disowned me after lol, I wish I was joking.

As a fellow 2000s kid, I can confirm the accuracy of the video. Probably the weirdest thing my elementary school PE class ever did though was that we had a unit where we literally just played Mario DDR for like a few weeks.

All I remember from PE is that they made me hate exercising as a whole. It was either competiton sports (and I hate competition and how everything has to be one) or comparing (as if 2 people are going to be exactly the same) I would much rather have had a math test than any PE-test, I would fail either, yes, but with the math test I at least wouldn't have to try to catch my breath trying to find the square root of 335.5. I was well into adulthood, when I found out from exercise-videos on RU-vid that exercise doesn't have to be competitive, and it doesn't have to involve military-like behaviour, and that it's okay to take breaks. That whole revelation changed my perspective tbh

Pacer test in Australia is formally called the ‘beep test’ because it goes ‘beep’

Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like the kids who were really good at PE became either cops or PE teachers

It is fascinating how distinct the smell and sound of rubber kickballs were, to the point I can instantaneously recall both despite not having seen one in over a decade

I grew up in a rainy town, which meant us kids could choose to play outside in the weather OR in the gym with FULL ACCESS to the PE closet during recess. It was seriously the best!

I’m glad to know we can all bond over the fact we hated the pacer test. I always told myself to at least make it past 20 so it would be less embarrassing when I would quit. I remember my classmates and me hyperventilating and clawing on the floor coughing like crazy. Some of us even had to go to the nurse because it was so bad. And the lines for the water fountain were awful. The pacer test for me felt more like a punishment then us getting exercise.

did anybody else have a huge gym class unit on speed stacking cups??? there were so many video tutorials and we always got catalogues for them at school. if you were good at it or if you had your own glow in the dark ones, you were COOL

Gym class was so intense back then because they knew boys would likely be drafted shortly after high school. They were training boys to be soldiers. The British Pathe video you showed is from around the Korean or Vietnam war (I read about it but can't remember which). If the new recruits are in great shape right off the bat, they military doesn't have to spend as much time/effort getting them ready to go to war

I remember my elementary school had a “field day” but it was just us running the mile while our parents crowded around the track handing us water bottles and spraying us with water misters while we ran. As someone with asthma, I despised those days 💀

We called it the Bleep Test in secondary school in the 00s here in the U.K. I was the fattest girl in the class but I wasn’t the first to tap out, far from it. I was determined not to completely humiliate myself. I remember gritting my teeth, snarling and fighting every part of my body to keep going. It was awful. 🙂‍↕️

I threw up after every pacer test. It got to the point where I actually snapped back at my teacher after they berated me for "crowding the trash can" instead of running. I was going to the nurse, I was getting some rest, and I would definitely NOT be doing another pacer test ever again. I'd love to say "and I never did", as if my 13 year old outburst made a difference and the teacher changed their ways, but the reality was I didn't have to do it because I had therapy during PE from then on. Still a lifesaver, though.

My parents didnt gice a damn about health. I was 315lbs in my freshman year. My soul left me when I saw that and I told a couple teachers i wanted to change my life and I credit them for taking the extra step to help me change and not just follow curriculum. I graduated HS at 220lbs and continued my better choices into my 30s today.

I was manufactured in 2001, and my school never had the moon shoes. We did, however, have a rock wall we weren't allowed to climb and occasionally went to a portable to watch a video of some dude spreading germs onto a whole dozen of donuts. That little roll out TV cart had many a scary video on it.

Hello, Gen alpha here and I can indeed confirm, scooters, rubber bolling balls, field day, and jump rope for heart are all still things I did at my elementary school.

The scooter boards were removed from my PE class because myself and a handful of other delinquents started riding them like skateboards because of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater being popular at the time and someone ended up breaking their arm in the process

Scooter boards are about maneuvering your body, moonshoes are about steadiness, parachute is about teamwork - all also get you moving and developing your little muscles. These activities were genius bc these super important skills were presented to us as the best gym days.

My coach and class treated the pacer test like an elimination game. For us it was to the other side of the gym and back every time (the gym was like 1 basket court size), and whoever didn’t make it to the other side before the beep was eliminated.

Not to brag, but at my school, we went to an actual bowling alley every class during the bowling unit in gym class. I know, very fancy.

Seeing scooter boards made me remember when I used to hold out one of my dog’s toys and have him drag me around on it when I was 10

With the parachute, we used to put a dodgeball in there and see if we could launch it at the ceiling as hard as possible. It caused a pretty good amount of dodgeballs to forever be wedged inbetween the ceiling beams.

I will never forget the smell of those jerseys. Such a distinct smell beyond that of just sweaty kid

Remember the panic of your dad chasing you up the stairs as a child? That's what it felt like trying to get to the line before the next PACER beep

13:56 the sit and reach test was SUCH a confidence booster for me in school because even though I was a fat kid, I'm really flexible so I was able to get a further reach than anyone. Then I grew up and learned that my hip/spine problems actually make me hyperflexible lol

why was using the scooter boards so embarrassing though especially when people were yelling at me to go faster LMAO also happy webkinz day!

Hey, Canadian here. We had scooter boards, but not too many of us rode them in the traditional sense. We had access to jump ropes and hula hoops in our class, so we created crazy train-like contraptions where you would have like 8 kids being pulled along by some kids in a hula hoop like they were fkin horses.

I work at an elementary school, and can tell you with certainty that 90% of these things are still used today. I was SHOOK to see those jumpropes with the like "beads" still in the PE storage room and the rolly things and then shook again to see them USING them. They still do stack cups, but not fitnessgram or square dancing. The only new thing ive seen added (which only three schools in the district even have) are mini rock climbing walls. They still do 5120+, the mile, and the mileage club. It was wild to see 14 years later (I was in 5th grade in 2010)

God pe terrified me as a kid, you could always tell when the pacer test was coming up because one day you would be in the library and you would hear the incessant beeps and squeaks of gym shoes from the gym next door. We also had this game called “stinger tag” where about 6-8 kids where given a segment of a pool noodle, and, obviously, these were always a small rotation of the gym teacher’s favorites/athletic kids. Meanwhile, everyone else would be lined up against the bleachers, waiting for the game to start. In these few agonizing minutes the kids with the stingers would prowl the open gym floor, sizing up their prey, slamming their pool noodles against the floor in a bid of intimidation, the sound reverberating and multiplying around the high ceilings as more and more noodles slapped the floor in no describable rhythm, before the piercing shriek of the whistle blew, signaling the start of your mad dash to survive. Oh and we had a jump rope test

In 6th grade my middle school got funding to build a track, and P.E. just devolved into walking around the track. They'd count the number of laps you made and that was the entirety of P.E. Different school in 7th grade, their system was P.E. half the year, elective the other half. But they never switched so I just had band all year and never took a single P.E. class.

This is making me realize how much I miss elementary school and how easy it was. Making friends, the school work, the activites. If only it was like that forever.

I remember being the one severely asthmatic kid in class during the pacer test. I was always the first one out and had to sit there for 10-20 minutes while all the REALLY competitive and athletic kids ran back and forth endlessly My gym teacher would force me to at least finish the first round because I honestly didn’t care enough put in even THAT level of effort

10:00 The FitnessGram™ Pacer Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The 20 meter pacer test will begin in 30 seconds. Line up at the start. The running speed starts slowly, but gets faster each minute after you hear this signal. [beep] A single lap should be completed each time you hear this sound. [ding] Remember to run in a straight line, and run as long as possible. The second time you fail to complete a lap before the sound, your test is over. The test will begin on the word start. On your mark, get ready, start.

That kid getting pulled under the parachute like someone from a horror movie @8:17 broke me lol

Half those stuff were in my PE class in elementary and middle school in the 90s! I found the rainbow parachute was like Gymboree in elementary school. The scooter boards in middle school was so much fun, we did obstacle courses! Also we didn’t have moon shoes, instead we had Skip Its! Also Jump rope for heart was a charity scam, my high school stopped doing it by sophomore year and they changed the fundraiser.

8:53 My elementary school back in the 2000s would put the middle stations inside in the gym so that you could cool off.

As someone with a chronic illness that went undiagnosed until my late teens, P.E was the absolute worst to me. Needless to say, getting things thrown at you and running around all the time when you have a very low pain threshold and endurance is not very fun. My secondary school had two gym teachers and the one I had would always do this insane endurance test at the start of the year that always left everyone pretty much crippled for a week because of how sore our muscles would be

I bought one of those scooter boards. I've ridden it around the house enough times to tell you they don't do well on carpet

little silly comment idk what to title this but in elementary school in pe there were these rubber spiky clear sports balls and oh my god i got so attached to this stupid pink football 😭 i would cry if people got to it before i did and there were these weird toy things i would use as a leash for it. like i would literally drag it around and act like it was a dog i was walking 💀 anyway i love ur videos !! they’re so fun to watch and bring up some random childhood memories for me 🫶🏽

What I really hated about the pacer test was that there were to many kids on the line. The first part it was incredibly difficult to touch the line since everyone was so squished together.

The dude who announced the Pacer test also had other things, there was one for push-ups and sit-ups that's all I can remember. But for my school we ran all the way to the other side instead of the middle.

Grew up in Germany during the early 2000s and we had those scooter boards, too! However, ours were made of wood, not plastic, and were quite heavy.

idk if this was just my school, but sometimes during pe the coaches would bring out the CUPS. we had these sets of cups made for professional cup stacking and they would time us and see how fast we could stack and unstack cups. i also remember when adults weren’t looking me and my friends would put the cups on our feet and like walk around with them but that might just have been because we were weird playground roleplay kids. anyway those were the bomb and professional cup stacking is my favorite sport.

My P.E. experience was probably different than most because I took P.E. online. We would basically have some simple health lessons, guess how many calories were in different fast foods, watch sports movies, take online bmi tests, talk about mental health, watch yoga videos we were supposed to follow along with, and copy exercises. Our cameras were all off so no one could tell if we were doing the exercises or even listening.

Also I think my school made a fun game with the parachute. One student puts a ball on the chute, everyone collectively launches the ball, one student catches the ball. In the end the ball loader and ball catcher dive under the chute and whoever crawls out the other side first becomes the new ball loader. Rinse, repeat. It was like duck duck goose but with a catapult lol.

A lot of the elementary school PE activities are meant to stimulate, and encourage a healthy growth of your fine motor skills, problem solving, and general mental growth. It’s also pretty good at keeping kids engaged when they’re rowdy in the morning, after lunch, or before school lets out.

I remember half this stuff from the 90s loved the parachute and the jump rope but we had dodge ball yo yo tricks and basket ball tricks

I'm thinking that the parachute games were more about teaching teamwork and working together rather than exercise

At my elementary school we used to do "Mission Impossible" obstacle courses. They'd set up balancing beams, tiny hurdles, ladder things you'd climb over a spooky decal of a shark, the whole ten yards, and dim the lights while playing the Mission Impossible theme. It was definitely a highlight of elementary gym class for me, made me feel like a super cool spy.

idk if this was just something my school did, but whenever jump rope for heart came around, they would set up a huge obstacle course in the gym that was supposed to represent a heart. we literally just spent all 40 minutes of class running, crawling, and scooting through the obstacle course with the latest kidz bop in the background. AND IT WAS GLORIOUS. still wish they washed the jerseys once in a while though.

born in '86. I vividly remember the scooters and hazard cones

I’m grateful that I was able to experience these P.E. activities growing up 😊 I do miss the good ol’ days

moonshoes at school? that's wild lol. we definitely didn't have that, but I got them for christmas in like 2004/5 and my disappointment was all the same

when i was in elementary school they thought it was a brilliant idea to put the gym outside on the pavement... in the scorching florida sun. doing the pacer test in 100 degrees fahrenheit with limited water breaks is a different kind of stress. if it was raining outside when we had to go out for pe, we would all huddle into the storage room and watch these green screen video things where the host would yell to run in place to escape the jungle or whatever location for like 20 minutes and that was all we did. unsurprisingly, everyone loved it because it was so easy and we would just shuffle in place for a while

One of my favorite games in gym class was something we called “torpedo”. In this game, you were given a bowling pin and some hand sized bean bags. You set up your bowling pin behind you and then slide the bean bags across the gym floor to try and knock down other kids’ bowling pins. You could try to block the bean bags too, and then you would end up with more bean bags to slide at other bowling pins. Did anyone else have this game? Or just my school?

WHO KEPT TAKING A BITE OUT OF THE FOAM FOOTBALL

Dream Jelly - I’m from the UK and we had the exact same thing as your ‘Pacer’ test but in secondary school. It was just named the ‘beep test’ and we all HATED it! The distance was from one end of the school hall to the other…. who thinks of such crazy stuff! 😅 Thanks for the brilliant videos - Ian ❤xx

Oh dear God, I saw the parachute and terrible jump ropes in the thumbnail and was TRIGGERED. Here’s something to blow your mind-I’m 36, so I went to school in the 90s. We played the exact. Same. Crap. 😂

Here’s some fun games my elementary school played! -PIN BALL…. Pinball was a game where you had two teams with pins (plastic bowling balls) then you would get foam balls and through them to them other team trying to knock the other teams pins down. Fun little cute game! Right? Well no, my school took the game WAY TO FAR! and many kids got badly hurt lmfao. -line tag. In my school we had lines in out gym room and in line tag you would stay on those lines and there is two taggers. The taggers goal was to tag the other players (the other peers) and tag them! Then if you got tagged you would sit down ON the lines so when other runners would run to you they couldn’t jump over you or anything like that. Very fun game that my school took to far also! -Snow White tag Finally Snow White tag! In this game their was two taggers and you would be split into teams. Then you would run to the other side to reach the other side of the gym! If the taggers tagged you, you would go to this mat called the “dungeon” and might I add that on another mat that was called the “king” or “queen” and they run to the other mat to release the other kids who are tagged and the king or queen try’s not to get tagged by the taggers. My class specifically took this game a bit to far. No one will probably care about these but I want to share just because! -lots of love random person on the internet!

The giant parachute was such a huge thing for my class, that they let us, as seniors, get to use it for one last time during senior sendoff

I went to a private catholic elementary school and a public middle school. One had scooter boards, parachutes, field day, and weigh ins where the results were announced. While the other was usually basic pushups/other exercises and dodgeball. Both had the Pacer Test.

Shoutout to /r/DreamJelly. Not much activity now but wanted to plug for the community

When I was in first grade I lived on military base and one day my gym teacher had some soldiers come to our class and show us the work outs they what they did in P.T then we got to try it one the only good school memories I have

We had most of this in the 90s. We were all hyped when the parachute came out…

I remember my elementary school had Jump Rope for Heart day where if you paid like 10 dollars, you got to leave class, bring snacks and drinks from home, and go jump rope outside for 3 hours. Granted, not many people actually jump roped and we just hung out with each other. Also, my school never had Field Day, rather we had Fall Fest and Spring Fling where the school would rent a bunch of inflatables and sometimes carnival rides and have games too.

JUMP ROPE FOR HEART. oh my goodness memories have been unlocked

Can’t tell you how much I appreciate the little sims clicky noises

I actually did the pacer test like 3 years ago, AFTER I found out all the memes about it (i'm just finishing my junior year of hs). Safe to say after I did it, I literally couldn't do anything remotely athletic after, and I totally understand why people memed it into oblivion

the way i remember the p.e. coach telling us that we had to put our hands inside the scooter board instead of the part because they’d get smushed.. and the PACER TEST.. aside from me being a chubby kid in my elementary days who always got winded from it so easily, i remember falling one time and not even getting a score (pretty much a zero i think?)… good times. sadly i didn’t get to use the parachute that much, but it was definitely a fun experience! as for field day, i think we had a kickball game by the end of the other games, but it was so so hot the ground literally felt like it was burning my bum.

The pacer test (and by extension, the mile run) were my least favorite things about P.E., to the point where I just finally stopped doing P.E. in high school. Why was it so bad for me? Turns out, I have kneecaps that are too high, so any running is bad for them and makes me hurt extra (with the added bonus of them coming out of their sockets randomly!)

I was born in 2008 and we still had those. Schools didn't just out everything when the 2000's ended

I'm the oldest sibling, my brother is three years younger than me and my sister is NINE years younger than me. All three of us went to the same elementary school which means my family has been with that school for at minimum 15 years. I went to my sister's last Field Day and I'm happy to know it hasn't changed at all. And the pacer test was a huge blow to my self esteem. I was always one of the first few to call it quits and watched as the try hard athletes made it into the 80s and 90s, even though our teacher would warn us to not run until we literally passed out. But it turns out I have a heart condition which is why my stamina is ass and in a couple weeks I'm getting my service dog prospect for it 💀 I was literally the kids I was jumping for during jumprope for heart

My friends and I used to pull each other around on the scooter boards with jump ropes and then launch each other across the gym at top speed lol. It actually was a pretty good workout

oh yeah anonymously I'll say in middle school when we did the sit-up/crunch thing I lost control and continually farted throughout like half of it while the whole class laughed. it was formative.

The clip with the kid getting sucked into the parachute at 8:18 had me absolutely dying

Okay so when i was in kindergarten, I busted my lip, got a black eye and bloody nose, while also blacking out for a second all at once, because me and this other much bigger kid, that had no right to be in the same grade, were on those scooters, on our stomachs, and pushing off the walls of either side of the gym, unknowingly to each other at the time, directly across from each other. Naturally, we collided and his FOREHEAD, did all that to my face...and he was fine! Lol aww memories..

OMG thanks for mentioning my video! truly nobody talks about boomerang but it was such a unique viewing experience compared to other channels at the time?? i love your content btw! i've been watching since the claire's video :D

omg i forgot about those scooter boards, unlocked a few memories right there

Bowling in Florida schools with outside gym classes meant the bowling "lanes" were spaces in the parking lot

My elementary school years were from '96 to '02 and we had an annual week of dancing. We did line and square dancing, the chicken dance, the hokey pokey... way funner than sport ball. Badminton, volley ball and dodge ball were also top tier fun days. Our field day we competed against the other elementary schools in the district and plastic medals were awarded. I won the 500 meter dash one year and felt like a top athlete for a day. My kids don't even know what dodge ball is, but they still do the parachute and the scooters.

Damn American schools of the 2000s sound like so much more fun! In Germany, we also had a "field day" however we had to do more traditional sports like track running, jumping and throwing a discus. We also had something akin to the pacer test, however we had to run for 30 mins straight. That was it, literally just running, sprinting even, and I hated every second of it lol

4:20 In other words: even the manufacturers themselves had no idea what it was for. Just like when Phineas and Ferb made the new hit toy "Perry Inaction Figure", which had no functions of its own and its usage was left for the buyer's imagination.😉

I am from Switzerland and we had scooter boards but we used them not so often. We also had like only 5 and during free activity, the fastest kids took them right away.

Aussie here, and I defs had the scooter boards at my school, but they were mostly relegated to after-school care rather than PE. I assume they came about from the wheel dolly’s used to help move heavy stuff. Someone saw those and thought “if I make that colourful and cheap to produce, kids will eat it up” and they were right.

We did Cup Stacking in my Elementary School. I also had to do the dreaded Presidential Fitness Test throughout Elementary School.

The FitnessGram Pacer test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The 20 meter Pacer test will begin in 30 seconds. Line up at the start. The running speed starts slowly, but gets faster each minute after you hear this signal *boop*. A single lap should be completed each time you hear this sound *ding*. Remember to run in a straight line, and run as long as possible. The second time you fail to complete a lap before the sound, your test is over. The test will begin on the word start. On your mark, get ready, start.

the pacer test, i had a teacher tell me to stop because there wasnt enough time to get to the end ahhhh the good old days, my stamina has went down so much that i probably wouldnt last to level 9

Forgot your kit? Here's some dirty, soiled undies to do P.E in!

At my elementary school's field day, we had to sign up for the events/races (I'd always sign up for the 100yd Dash every year even though I always got last...). If you were in the top 5, you'd get a little colored paper of what you placed. On the day of, we'd all sit in a rectangle area and watch through each race. It was a great time for all day talking with your friends as you waited for the races to cheer your friends on. And we'd end the event with a water balloon fight and popsicles! It truly was a time.

And the “tonight’s going to be a good night” song playing when running laps

all these years despite living in america my whole life and grow up in the 2000s i never knew what the fitnessgram pacer test was other than the meme. my school just didn't do it and i think maybe my life is better for it

In my elementary school, we had bowling pins but we never actually did any bowling. Instead, each kid got a bowling pin and had to keep it from falling over while trying to knock down everyone else's with kick balls. Thinking back on it now, itt wasn't very athletic at all since we mostly were just sitting on the floor in front of a bowling pin. Still fun, though. I also remember having pogo sticks at one point, and one year we had roller skates. We also would occasionally have basically nap time? We'd put mats down and we had to lie there for a while meditating, usually after doing a different activity. I'm sure they justified it by saying it was to teach us mindfulness, but I think it was to just get us to calm down before we went back to class

Did anyone’s school do fun little games and themes during gym class? I remember doing snow ball fights with those soft balls and there was a Halloween gym day we had.

This video makes me remember my childhood I remember things in gym class one is jump rope for heart ❤️

My school was always so against bringing out the scooters, but we were all SO obsessed with them. The gym would erupt into cheers every time they were sitting out as we walked into class