What was the ruling for you guys at school / high school, bare feet optional, preferred or compulsory? Some classes we had to undertake in pumps.
In my grammar school, if you forgot your tennis shoes you had to run around in your bare feet. I do recall in middle school we did some gymnastic exercises with our shoes off but we kept our socks on.
Very true. In the interest of performance arts, such as gymnastics or dancing, a perfectly pointed toe can define careers.
When I was in High School in the late 90s, bare feet were compulsory for all indoor sports as well as dance classes and occasionally for drama as well (although I can't for the life of me remember why.) Outdoor PE was always done in trainers. We had some of our assemblies in the gym and were required to remove shoes before entering, which was kind of weird because the teachers leading the assembly always kept their shoes on.
In year 7 (So 11 to 12 years old) I had to do dance everyday TWICE. And the lessons were set up as dance, lunch, dance. So we always had to do dance in a white t shirt, black shorts and plimpsoles or our barefeet. Every boy chose their bare feet as plimpsoles are gay. We always used to spend the 3 hours barefooted. By the end I'd look at my soles and my feet were BLACK. From heels to toes absolutely black. Took days to clean off. So my feet were pretty much always black. Except the end of the holidays. Then only the tips of my toes were still black..
Indeed. Alongside gym and indoor exercise, drama class always was always performed in either socked or bare feet in my comprehensive school too. Much like yourself, during my school years, I never quite understood the reasons behind the insistence that all had to be shoeless when taking drama class, either, but since drama is deemed to be a performing art (and most performance arts are undertaken barefoot), I guess it goes some way towards explaining why.
Yeah, as an adult, I can kind of understand it more. And also wish that I had appreciated the freedom at the time!
Something suggests that since reaching adulthood, you've more than made up for the lack of appreciation shown during your youth, continuing to take full advantage of going barefoot as often as possible.
Me too! I had some great opportunities to barefoot in gym class. Unfortunately as a teen I was way too shy to do that.
Hi there. I enjoyed going barefoot a lot in inside PE at school in the 1970's and 1980s. I noticed my friend doing the same and he seemed to be having more fun than myself wearing plimsolls. When I took them off and first felt my feet on the floor, I loved it and didn't switch back.
Hi there, has anyone got any recent memories of doing PE activities in bare feet? It would be great to think that it's still popular.
Unfortunately the 1990's is about the most recent I have to offer, but I don't see why practices would've changed since then. I wasn't a barefooter yet back then, owing this to my shyness. But the school phys. ed. classes were, surprisingly, one of the few times where I was able to bare them without worry and be comfortable, because every kid in my class always did the indoors sports classes in barefeet, so mine didn't stand out in the crowd. This was a requirement, because the gym that we used had, at the time, recently re-coated their lacquer floor and supposedly it had been a very expensive operation, so the property owners were very strict about the no shoes-policy. Only very specific types of shoes, like those you use to play squash, were allowed to the floor, and most students couldn't be bothered to pay for 'em just for the sports classes, when a completely free alternative was available to them simply by pulling their shoes and socks off. I do remember this one girl whinging about how she didn't like it, and how she felt it was "disgusting" to be barefoot. I don't recall if she, or her parents ever got her a proper pair of gym shoes, but she did tough it out and completed the gym classes she attended despite the mandated lack of footwear. Now outdoor sports, that was always a shoes time with my crew, and winters being what they were pre-climate change, it was no wonder. Sometimes we went skiing when it was near -30 centigrade (-18 to -22 Fah). Definitely no place for bare feet, or bare anything for that matter there.