Why I am glad I had to ski as a child

We’ve had an exceptional winter in Finland with a lot of snow even in the Southern part of the country. I have been doing more cross-country skiing than in years and it has been the highlight of the past two months, especially with the restricted life under COVID. Also, I’ve heard about the many ways that my friends have tried to trick their young children to ski. It doesn’t seem to be the favourite activity for many 4 or 5-year-olds.

There is a short loop of 1.4 km where we often start our skiing trips. We’re often joking that it is “the protest loop”. Almost every time, there are kids (typically 3-8 years old) who are protesting against skiing. Some of them are lying on the snow refusing to go any further and others just loudly object the activity.

I don’t think I would have gone skiing as a child, either, unless my parents took me there without asking my opinion. Nowadays I am happy they did, because I learned to ski, did well in PE lessons, and started to really enjoy it when I was a bit older.

I had a lovely conversation with Jim Harte last week, who is doing very innovative work in physical education focused on meaningful experiences (Twitter @Msccamp). We discussed the aspect of how doing things we don’t necessarily enjoy (as a young person) can be valuable, and it reminded me of a conversation I’ve had some years ago with a teacher in China. He told me that in China, children would be typically required to memorize proverbs that might not make a lot of sense to them at that time. But what they learned when they were young, they would remember when they would be older. And then, it would make sense to them.

In our schools, children have to learn a lot of things – maths, languages, history, biology, etc. – that they would probably not choose to do themselves. There doesn’t seem to be a similar emphasis on autonomy and fun in these subjects as in PE sometimes. I am not saying that math or history should not be taught in a way that is fun. Or, that it is a bad thing if PE is fun. I just think that even if children have PE and PA experiences that are not freely chosen and not always fun, they can be still be developmentally valuable.

I’m lucky I wasn’t given an option. I might have watched cartoons instead if it was my choice.

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What are your thoughts? Comment at Twitter (@Meaningfulsport).