Like most middle school children, I took a physical education class. On Mondays, we brought gym clothes and a towel for the showers, and on Fridays, we brought the clothes and towel home to wash them. A requirement to pass the class was to verify that we showered before continuing to other classes. We all needed to shower and walk to our teacher’s office off the locker room, wet and wearing a towel, then he would check us off a list on his bulletin board.
I found the practice a bit goofy. We spent a class learning the rules of volleyball or softball, then spent a week playing those sports by the rules we had just learned. While I understand that we don’t want students walking into the classes that followed dripping with sweat from PE, the practice of walking into our teacher’s office, soaking from the shower and wearing a towel, only to be checked off in a cryptic list was silly. Still, I participated.