'Do I have to?'

After a recent discussion on twitter with a delightful trainee PE teacher. It came to my attention that asking learners to take off their socks and shoes is a sensitive topic, particularly as learners transition from primary to secondary school.

As a dance teacher being barefoot is all I've ever know and it has been drilled into me since I started training in college. It was my normal and will continue to be my normal and for any learner that enters my classes, it will become their normal. I've heard too many times the phrase 'do I have too?' and my answer will always be yes you have too and these are the repercussions if you don't. Through this discussion, we discussed at length how I would reinforce my rules and de-sensitize feet and the most important message for me to give was model best practice and set your standard at the beginning of the lesson.

So what is the issue around learners taking off their socks and shoes? Is it lets see how far we can push the new teacher's boundaries or is it something more? Personally I think it's a bit of both, unlike other parts of the body we do not expose our feet as much as we might as others. After a long discussion and thought about this topic I decided to get some of my social media audience to take part in an online survey note: all answers are anonymous. The response was 2 out of the three respondents were not bothered about having barefoot in PE however the remaining one was, you may ask well why that one person felt that way.

One respondent just preferred to wear socks and the other was conscious that they would step in something, I am curious as to the why as a society do we prefer socks as I know many people feel this way. It was also found that between the ages of 11-16 this when became most conscious of our appearance and had thoughts around showing our feet. Now you might consider what this has to do with my practice as a dance/PE teacher.

Well, I can tell you this not wearing socks in a session where bare feet are needed is a safety hazard in itself, and modeling best practice is essential to get them to follow a rule they may be self-conscious around or have an issue with. As time goes on in teachers' careers I have found once rules are established not all teachers model best practice and adhere to their own guidelines (disclaimer I have done this too and I think we all do).

So how do we tackle 'Do I have to?'

Leave your comments and suggestions below it would be much appreciated...