DEAR ABBY: I am 10 years old and in fifth grade. All my life I have been chosen last. That's my problem.
Advertisement
P.E. is my least favorite class in school, not because I don't like sports -- I enjoy them. But it is so humiliating always being chosen last. I dread going to school on days when I know we will have P.E.
Why can't physical education teachers use a different system? P.E. teachers must have never had to experience what I have each day in P.E. I will go into the class again tomorrow to be chosen last.
Why don't they just hang a sign on me that says, "Reject. Last one to pick gets me."
I'm sure there are other kids who feel the same way. There is one in every P.E. class. It really hurts.
My mom says not to let it bother me. She says she was always chosen last, too. I think she says that just to make me feel better.
Please don't say, "Practice the sport and you'll be great at it and everyone will want you on their team." It doesn't work that way. I'm kind of quiet, and even if you're not bad at the sport, once you've been chosen last you will be last next week, the week after, and next year, too.
I really, really, really hope you print this. I can't bear to think I have to go to P.E. tomorrow. What can I do? -- ALWAYS CHOSEN LAST, SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ.
DEAR ALWAYS CHOSEN LAST: Perhaps there is nothing you can do, but there is plenty your P.E. teacher could do if he or she had the sensitivity and imagination.
If I had my way, I would outlaw that system of choosing up sides. It's cruel! It was used many years ago when I was a girl in Sioux City, Iowa. It was wrong then, and it's still wrong!