A question on bodily knowledge

         My question as a dancer is just this: Why is there such a lack of time spent on studying the human body throughout the school system? As a dancer and fitness trainer, I’ve begun to inquire more and more as to how my body works so I can better understand how it moves in order to better myself at my craft. As I delve into all the ins and outs of the body, I realize how little I really know, not only as a dancer/fitness trainer, but also simply as a person with a body. As I look into how my body works to work on dance technique, I not only find things in my body I’m doing wrong when dancing, but things that I do wrong in everyday life that cause me pain in the end.

         I found myself looking and asking why? Why do we not know more about this? In grade school, the only really remotely extensive information received on the body is in gym class, which, depending on the institution, tends to be the least legit class offered. Students are usually either forced to partake in sports or activities that they usually have little or no interest in, or worse, they are allowed to sit there and do nothing at all; all while learning little or nothing about the body itself. Progress was attempted with changing the name from “gym class” to “physical education”, but students still don’t seem to be getting physically educated, at least not when I was in high school. Health class is something that almost everyone has to go through, but most of the time is spent focusing on all the negative aspects of the body. Classes range from sexuality, to disease, to smoking, and all the negative things that can happen to the body, but almost no time is spent just learning how the body works and moves. Students also often have to go through some sort of Biology class where they’ll spend a few weeks memorizing a few muscle and bone names and then they’ll forget if forever. Looking at how little time is usually spent between Health and Biology, which are usually the only to classes really looking at the body, that means we’re supposed to be getting the majority of our information on the body from Physical Education.

         I feel like this really needs to be reevaluated. In our years of mandatory education, knowing our own body seems to be a very low priority. The body is the one thing a person has from when they come out of the womb to when their heart finally stops beating. So why don’t we know more about it? Having a basic knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the body can help people live a better life. Every day, people are doing things to their body to injure themselves that they have no idea they’re even doing. Kids are always being told to stop slouching and to sit up straight and use good posture, but they’re rarely told why, and even more rarely told anything about what muscles they should use to accomplish this. Good posture, when using the right muscles, makes it easier to move, takes pressure of the joints, makes you more stable, and can protect you from injury when dealing with an outside force such as slipping on a surface or tripping over something.

         What are your thoughts? How much knowledge on the body do you have? Were you educated on it openly in school, or did you have to do the research yourself? Everyone talks about good posture, but do you really know what that is? Do you know when you’re in proper alignment and using the proper muscles? Please share!