There’s a very common trope in American culture regarding health and gym teachers. They’re all wildly out of shape and exhibit terribly unhealthy habits. It’s so common it’s as if they only hire unhealthy people for these positions. And we find this hilarious.
“You’re a health teacher, shouldn’t you be healthy”, we all stupidly think
Why? Why should health teachers be healthy? Why should gym teachers be in shape? They’re there to teach you how to do those things but no part of their job requires them to follow their own advice. If they know every piece of knowledge about healthy living and they dispense that knowledge onto you then it doesn’t matter that every shirt they own has a ketchup stain from their daily McDonalds hamburger.
“But they need to set a good example”, you desperately chime in
If you think that you can’t run a mile because your gym teacher can’t run a mile then life is going to be a marathon for you. Find a better role model than the guy who used to be a good athlete at this very school but neglected his studies and got fatter over the years.
All I ask is that we hold health and gym teachers to the same standards as other teachers. No one ever required the geography teacher to travel the world before getting hired. They don’t need to visit different countries to be able to point them out on a map. No one ever required the science teacher to shrink down to the size of a cell and travel into the human body Ms. Fizzle style. They just need to know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell! No one ever required the English teachers to actually know how to read. They just need to assign Shakespeare and make you question your own ability to read.
So let’s give health teachers a break already. They could use a smoke.
