Self Defense

At first I was a little worried about taking a Self Defense class with a male teacher but OH MY GOD George Padilla is the greatest man alive. This class was awesome, everything we learned was useful and fun and the entire class was enjoyable and productive, he really is one of the best teachers at Barnard regardless of department. He is so understanding and nice, I just can't say enough to recommend this guy and his class. He is amazing!

Wonderful class!! I took this class to get my mom off my case about my living in New York, and was super surprised to discover that it was AWESOME! George is amazingly nice and really approachable. You cam miss up to four classes (not as many as Columbia PE), but if you need to miss more George will work with you to find a way to make up the classes you missed. I really enjoyed the stick fighting part of the class. It's so much fun, and you get so much aggression and built up energy out! Just make sure you get a partner who understands what is going on. Dress code is also very relaxed. Most people go wearing jeans, just make sure you have sneakers and you are fine. One day we watched an episode of Friends!
It's really the best option for a PE course, I recommend it to anyone.

Workload:

Come to class; wear gym shoes. That's it

Fun class. Though, the people he brought in to lecture weren't able to keep my attention, George did. He is very knowledgeable and is very approachable (he offers to write up a program for you so you can work out what you want (i.e. get in fit for spring break)). Some people may be put off by the statistics he presents, but that's life--full of violence. I especially liked the fighting with the sticks (if you take the class, i'm sure you will too.) if you take this class, get ready to be (gently) tossed, tripped, kicked (you hold the giant pad, your partner kicks it), etc.

Workload:

look up sex offenders in your area, that's about it.