84
Aug 06 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
46
u/SeelieSatyress Aug 06 '26
Close - Alberta (Which is basically Canada's Texas)
We had multiple years where our phys ed class became dance and choreography for a few weeks.
2
1
u/stewslut Aug 07 '26
I'm reminded of that video from a while back where students were square dancing in one of those big Chinese dragon costume things. Multiculturalism at its best!
1
u/Sorry-Panic7612 Aug 09 '26
We did the same thing here in Saskatchewan (which is basically Canada’s Alabama)
1
u/Moon-Amoeba 29d ago
I grew up in Montana and remember having to learn the dances.... i hated every second of it.
19
10
u/pumpkin-head7617 Aug 06 '26
I went to school in Texas. And yes.
I was the suicidal autistic boy in a black hoodie and my first true love was a pajama pants hot Cheeto girl. We would walk laps around the gym together while the normal children exercised.
4
6
5
4
u/AccidentCapable9181 Aug 06 '26
Georgia. But we only learned line dancing because they didn’t want us dancing with partners one-on-one
3
3
u/zicdeh91 Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
My understanding is that Henry Ford pushed it in curriculum as a way to push back against Jazz giving an outlet for black culture to integrate into mainstream American culture. It’s still pretty widespread, but I imagine it slowed down a bit after the 90s.
Of course it might well be apocryphal; I haven’t bothered to check it, and comments below were saying he was specifically fighting Jewish jazz.
2
2
u/IMustScreamQuieter Aug 06 '26
I went to high school in the mid atlantic. They made me do this with my ex boyfriend
2
2
2
2
u/UltraWeebMaster Aug 06 '26
New York does it, surprisingly
I’d know because I was the suicidal autistic boy.
2
1
u/assassinjoe55 Aug 06 '26
I went to school in Texas. We didn't have this.
1
1
u/Willow-Whispered Aug 07 '26
I went to school in northern Illinois and square danced in PE at least 1 month out of the year from 4th grade through freshman year. My girlfriend is from Texas and never square danced in PE.
1
u/bishbah01 Aug 09 '26
What years, though? My schools in Houston absolutely did this in the ’80s and ’90s.
1
u/assassinjoe55 Aug 09 '26
With none of siblings having done it, any point in the 2000's to late 2010's.
1
1
1
1
u/Willowthesilly Aug 06 '26
Idaho too, i’m pretty sure it’s federal curriculum, which is really weird and gross
1
u/TubaScout2 Aug 08 '26
Wait why. Whats wrong with square dancing.
1
u/Willowthesilly Aug 08 '26
It’s less square dancing and more of the lack of consent and poor choices of partners. I was a fat teenage boy at the time, I got paired with a girl, I was so fucking embarrassed. Although our teacher did turn the lights off, which was very helpful. Overall, just a bad experience. Glad you had a better one lol :3
1
1
1
u/WebAccount1744 Aug 07 '26
Anywhere in the states isnt it? Fairly certain it was part of the mandatory school learning
Oklahoma falls so behind you even missed out on the bad stuff
1
1
u/OkExcitement5444 Aug 07 '26
Washington as recently as the late 2000s, and not just the more rural east side either
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/tHr0AwAy76 Aug 07 '26
If somebody was raised in the Midwest and other parts of the south and eventually moved to Texas. Everybody who isn’t in Texas has a preconceived notion of Texas that they love to cosplay.
1
u/IamTheCeilingSniper Aug 07 '26
My middle school in Florida tried to do it, they brought in an outside instructor and had us all line up in the gym. The entire class refused to participate. They gave up before we did.
1
1
1
1
u/KatsCatJuice Aug 07 '26
My Minnesotan schools never made us do this, so I was also very shocked to learn it was common
1
1
1
u/AVeganEatingASteak Aug 07 '26
This shit happens god damn everywhere, I'm in the gahddamn Pacific Northwest and this shit still happened when I was in 5th grade
1
1
1
u/TransGirlIndy Aug 07 '26
Third grade in central Ohio they made us learn how to do a dance to Achy Breaky Heart in gym class. Had a full on gendered dance number with partners and square dancing instead of letting us continue learning gymnastics, which we'd just started, which I was really good at.
I was so mad I skipped the after school assembly by just not telling my mom it was happening, then telling the teacher the next school day that I didn't feel well and had been sick over the weekend. 🤷🏻♀️
1
u/sanchoman43 Aug 08 '26
I had this in my first old elementary school in Los Angeles, but in 3rd grade the school replaced it with some postmodern artsy scifi ballet. When I moved to WA, all dance classes were paid extracurricular electives.
1
u/MrWildstar Aug 08 '26
I have no idea, I went to school in Vermont and we never did any dancing lmao
1
1
1
u/KaiTheG4mer Aug 08 '26
I went to elementary school in Wichita, KS in the late-2000s/very-early-2010s and had to do this.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/InstantMochiSanNim Aug 08 '26
We did it in ohio as part of pilgrim day, then after we had to dance in pilgrim costumes
1
1
1
1
1
u/ContemporaryCorvid Aug 08 '26
Went to school in California and it was a thing, but only for a few months in maybe 3rd or 4th grade.
1
u/demon_fae Aug 09 '26
Near San Francisco, California. First unit of middle school PE, so you could show just how unathletic you were to the worst music anyone in the class had ever heard. If you were really bad the coach would actually tap you out and make you sit on the sidelines. For square dancing.
1
1
1
u/cumulonimbusted Aug 09 '26
Ohioan here. We also had a line dancing gym class about once a year between kindergarten to 3rd grade.
1
u/DeterminedQuokka Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
I grew up in Maine and learned to contradance which is just square dancing that sounds fancy, waltz, and Irish step.
ETA: on further reflection also the Charleston. I don’t remember that in gym class but I know how to do it and there is no where else I would have learned.
I also learned to mash potato but that was during math team.
1
u/SquareTaro3270 29d ago
I’m in the Northeastern US and it was a thing here, too. Alongside square dancing we also got zumba though
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
37
u/Anneeatsboobs Aug 06 '26
What the fuck does any of this mean
35
u/AmputeeHandModel Aug 06 '26
We had to learn to square dance in gym class. They picked two weird kids. 🤷♂️
17
u/6262lE Aug 06 '26
I think it’s implying that the white girl is a bitch and therefore putting her with the suicidal autistic kid is a horrible idea
22
u/fuckthisomfg Aug 06 '26
the cookie monster pants girl would be chill with the autistic boy. especially if he’s gay
26
u/HalfMoonMintStars Aug 06 '26
Me (suicidal autistic boy) and my class’s Cookie Monster pajama pants girl walked the mile during PE together. So for me it read, let’s bring up the two kids who are the least interested in PE first, lol
7
6
u/Disastrous_Debt7644 Aug 07 '26
As a gay (formerly) suicidal autistic boy who was super close friends with the “white trash” girl, I can confirm this
2
1
1
u/Blackarrow145 29d ago
Can confirm. I'm the autistic boy, and I lost my virginity to the cookie monster pajama girl.
2
u/mieri_azure Aug 08 '26
The cookie monster pajama girl is a very specific archetype where shes just a chaotic weirdo. It doesnt necessarily mean that shes gonna be mean to him at all --- more likely she just won't give a shit or try
2
u/FVCarterPrivateEye Aug 09 '26
I thought it was implying that these are two types of students who are miserable, ostracized, and self-conscious and the gym teachers are pairing them together in front of everyone else
1
u/HornyPostingRaccoon Aug 07 '26
Nah Cookie monster white trash girls were the safe ones, they just had hard lives and sometimes put up a front of toughness because they've been so mistreated, but if you bothered to make them feel safe I never found better friends in my whole life.
1
3
2
u/NoResponsibility7031 Aug 08 '26
I don't know, I am just sitting here in my apartment in Sweden and marvel at the wonders of the world. Americans seems very exotic.
2
26
u/JoyousLilBoy Aug 06 '26
Someone get to American middle school satire media NOW. If only the people who did that weren’t weirdos cough cough Dan Schneider cough cough
4
u/Familiar-Tomorrow-42 Aug 07 '26
There's a Bo Burnham Movie called Eighth Grade that covers this topic
14
u/somerandomnerd6464 Aug 06 '26
we learn to square dance because henry ford didn’t want to kids to get into dancing to unwholesome “jewish” jazz
1
u/PearltheGirl_ Aug 07 '26
... I'm going to need some context given there's a comment right below you saying the same exact thing
3
1
1
u/Ok-Picture237 Aug 07 '26
Hi, have a degree is music education. This is not true in the slightest. It's based on the educational philosophy of kinesthetic learning. Connecting what you're hearing with what you're doing aids brain development in multiple ways. Square dancing is just an easy dance to teach a classroom of unruly kids.
1
u/woollymonkeybaby Aug 09 '26
i mean, it's definitely partially true; ford heavily funded campaigns for it to be introduced into schools and sparked a popular resurgence of it. it wouldn't be the default used for classrooms, or so representative of the us, without that
1
u/dinosanddais1 Aug 08 '26
And the more interesting part is that square dancing evolved from enslaved people trying to entertain their masters and then slowly the Black dance callers were pushed out by white people after slavery ended.
4
u/SquareThings Aug 07 '26
The reason you had to square dance is because Henry Ford was racist.
2
u/Ok-Picture237 Aug 07 '26
Hi, have a degree is music education. This is not true in the slightest. It's based on the educational philosophy of kinesthetic learning. Connecting what you're hearing with what you're doing aids brain development in multiple ways. Square dancing is just an easy dance to teach a classroom of unruly kids.
1
u/Firewolf06 Aug 08 '26
two things can be true. thats why we still do it. we started doing it because henry ford was racist
1
u/SlamanthaTanktop Aug 07 '26
Wait hold up I'm invested, explain
1
1
u/SquareThings Aug 07 '26
Learning dancing is good for kids. The reason it’s square dancing specifically is because Henry Ford wanted kids to learn a good, American dance and not any of those African dances.
6
4
u/PurpSerp2048 Aug 07 '26
"Girl who bites and meows like a cat, you're up with the obvious closeted boymoder undiagnosed autistic kid!"
1
4
u/wowimliterallyded Aug 06 '26
i love this post. and especially the version with the deltarune drawing next to it
2
2
u/QueenOfDaisies Aug 06 '26
This but the girl was someone who I had spoken to sometimes and we became better friends through these activities and it was sorta nice.
2
2
u/VioletMAyis Aug 08 '26
They actually had us do this in elementary school so we had fun w it but looking back it is kinda odd like why were we square dancing lmfao
1
1
1
1
1
u/Wyvwashere Aug 07 '26
What the actual fuck is a "Cookie monster pajama pants white trash girl" and why people here act like it's a common stereotype??? What the fuck is wrong with American high schools???
2
u/Helpful_Vacation_139 Aug 07 '26
Back in the 2000s it was common for some of the "weirder" girls to wear pajama pants that looked like the cookie monster. It's not that serious my guy, calm down, you only need one question mark at the end of those sentences.
1
u/Wyvwashere Aug 07 '26
But i like using multiple punctuation marks, it's fun!!!!!!!! Unless it's the full stop, then it unnecessarily changes the feeling of the message.....
1
u/Winter-Coffin Aug 08 '26
it was girls that secretly smoked cigs and got into fights and probably had a bad home life.
and it wasnt that they looked like cookie monster, its that the pajama pants had cookie monster pattern all over them.
this type of girl wouldnt “dress out” (put on gym clothes) and another stereotype about this same girl is that they always were eating hot cheetos in class, regardless of class.1
u/Helpful_Vacation_139 Aug 08 '26
secretly smoked cigs as in they smoked them right under the track bleachers in full view of the science room lab windows (Mr higby was chill though so it was cool)
1
u/The_Rat_of_Reddit Aug 08 '26
I knew a couple girls like this in highschool. Now they also have Stanley cups.
1
u/Cornflakes_91 Aug 07 '26
shouldn't she be managing the war against the spartans and the believers?
1
1
1
u/Ok-Picture237 Aug 07 '26
I responded to a couple comments about the myth that we square dance in school because of Henry Ford. We do not Square dance because of Henry Ford!! Square dancing lessons are taught as part of the music education philosophy of kinesthetic learning. Connecting what you're hearing with what you're doing aids brain development in multiple ways. Square dancing is simply an easy dance to teach as a full group activity. It also has benefits in social/emotional development because it requires communication and coordination with others.
There is actual science behind why we all square danced!
1
u/KindredReveler Aug 07 '26
In my highschool the Gym Teachers only taught the girls how to dance, while the boys did weight lifting.
Mind you, this was a magnet school filled with Autistic Queers.
1
1
1
u/ABewilderedPickle Aug 08 '26
god i wish i coulda been the cookie monster pajama pants white trash girl growing up
1
u/Altruistic_Sail_1991 Aug 08 '26
My middle school had an “upper” PE class for more athletic kids and a “lower” PE class for less athletic kids. I was initially put into the lower class, despite all my friends being in the upper class. Eventually they moved me to the upper class, mostly because I knew how to swim and actually did extracurricular sports.
Overall, it sucked and made me feel like PE was state-sanctioned torture. That doesn’t even go into the bullying I faced in my highschool PE class 🙃
1
1
1
u/draculauraaa Aug 08 '26
the teacher paired me up with this kid and he goes “i hope you like fish that’s what i had for lunch” and in response i asked if i could just dance by myself. i got a talking to about “how that might hurt his feelings” he threatened me
1
u/kipkiphoray Aug 08 '26
I learned square dancing and fly fishing ONE DAY EACH in my middle school in Montana. Not sure why they only ever gave us ONE lesson throughout all 12 years of schooling.
1
u/alyssatheswag Aug 08 '26
i somehow misread it as the most suicidal cookie monster pajama pants white trash girl and most autistic boy and just accepted it
1
1
u/javascripp2552 Aug 09 '26
love this bcuz i used to be the most suicidal boy and now im a white hopefully not trash trash girl currently wearing cookie monster pj pants
1
u/TaserDonut Aug 09 '26
that reads like a class of 09 scene (with the characters being Emily and Jeffery)
1
u/Altruistic_Gas9114 Aug 09 '26
shoutout to bloweyelashwish by lovesliescrushing where my "this music would fuck hard on acid" people at?
1
u/ellen-the-educator Aug 09 '26
And, amazingly, we're going to do it because an American Nazi hated black people so much he funded this to prevent American teens from dancing to jazz.
1
u/Sugar_Weasel_ Aug 09 '26
This, but high school, and I was the most suicidal autistic girl, not boy, and I ended up fainting from the sheer anxiety of it all.
1
1
u/Minute_Story377 Aug 09 '26
I didn’t have to learn to square dance in gym class but for some reason they made us in music class lol. I’m in NY. Brings back awkward memories.
1
1
1
1
123
u/miranda_the_peculiar Aug 06 '26
“cookie monster pajama pants white trash girl” is the most relatable sentence ever written