Showering after middle/high school gym class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just talking about this the other day! It was totally a thing back in the late 80s - you were required to shower, and they had a checklist that they checked off every time as you came out of the shower. You got in trouble if you skipped the shower. And they gave you a towel that was the size of a hand towel to cover yourself up. Ugh it was awful, and in retrospect, wtf??

It absolutley was awful. I was an early bloomer in middle school and the other girls all called me beaver. I'll let you figure out why.

I'm glad it's not a thing anymore, especially since my son is uncircumcised. I remember hearing about all the teasing that happened because of that.

Yes, middle school was the worst! Newly developing bodies and everyone's awkward, some girls are getting their cycles for the first time, and typical middle school teasing. Ugh.

And in answer to PP - washing hair was optional. But the water had to make contact with the body to get credit for the shower. All nonsensical.

[Anonymous]

I graduated in 1994 and no one showered. There was no time

[Anonymous]

I graduated 20 years ago in the Midwest. I'd say about 80% of the guys showered after gym class in middle/high school. Anecdotally I heard it was less common for the girls, but certainly more than none. Time was a constraint, and you'd often end up a little late to your next class, but most teachers were accomodating.

I went to fairly small school. In the spectrum of teenage boys, I think we were relatively well-behaved and teasing was relatively minimal. I'm not going to say zero, but I don't remember it being a problem. I know some didn't shower because they were worried about that, and perhaps they were right to worry.

My high school had a different dynamic than is at least portrayed in movies. The popular girls were all very sporty and I believe most of them did shower after gym, provided we were actually doing something physically active.

[Anonymous]

I graduated in 1990. No girls showered after class; no way was there time! We got super sweaty and just changed clothes. Some of the boys probably showered, but they tend to be stinkier overall and shower faster.

[Anonymous]

I graduated in 2001 and no one showered. Luckily both yearsn had pe at the end of the day. I'm sure our end of day teachers were dying.

[Anonymous]

It was sort of a thing in the mid-90s when I graduated high school. For girls that did gym, we were not forced to shower. The girls who took dance were forced to shower, and forced to walk through the locker room naked. A locker room attendant would hand them a towel and their way back from the showers.

Parents would NEVER allow that today. It was clearly a "thing" for the dance teacher, but...yikes.

There were a few girls who would shower quickly after gym.

[Anonymous]

Graduated HS in 1998 in the Midwest. 3 minute passing periods. We had locker rooms for PE and sports but no one ever took a shower except for the football players after gym. We showered at the natatorium after swim practice (down the road from school) but left out suits on with just the shoulder straps pulled down.

My kids are way more chill about nudity than we were so hopefully showers will come back. People smelled awful after gym and sports.

[Anonymous]

PP, meant to say football players showered after games, not gym!

[Anonymous]

They should just have gym at the end of the day.

[Anonymous]

2003 HS grad—no one showered. Not even sure the showers worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just talking about this the other day! It was totally a thing back in the late 80s - you were required to shower, and they had a checklist that they checked off every time as you came out of the shower. You got in trouble if you skipped the shower. And they gave you a towel that was the size of a hand towel to cover yourself up. Ugh it was awful, and in retrospect, wtf??

It absolutley was awful. I was an early bloomer in middle school and the other girls all called me beaver. I'll let you figure out why.

I'm glad it's not a thing anymore, especially since my son is uncircumcised. I remember hearing about all the teasing that happened because of that.

Yes, middle school was the worst! Newly developing bodies and everyone's awkward, some girls are getting their cycles for the first time, and typical middle school teasing. Ugh.

And in answer to PP - washing hair was optional. But the water had to make contact with the body to get credit for the shower. All nonsensical.

Was there someone checking to make sure this happened?r

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should just have gym at the end of the day.

And how would that work with every gym class being held at the exact same time?

[Anonymous]

2002 HS grad in the Midwest, no one showered. The building was newer and there were showers in the locker rooms, but they were locked off from the rest of the locker room and used only by sports teams/practices. And they had curtains for privacy. Or at least the girls ones did.

[Anonymous]

I graduated in 1994 and not only did I barely ever sweat at gym, but I definitely never showered. Nobody showered.

Even in high school when we had swim - about 25 girls sat out and maybe 3 or 4 unfortunate girls swam. They just rinsed off in the showers in their swimsuits - they were not naked.

[Anonymous]

Graduated 1992, not in the US, and yes, we showered -- but in a private shower stall, nobody would have seen us naked! There was a great deal of finesse involved in changing in such a way that you didn't expose any skin, but I'm quite sure if needed I could still manage to change between a summer pinafore and a netball outfit without showing any skin!