SMF - Our Gym Class

We had a modest school financially supported in full by our parish. In thinking back, I am amazed at how creative our school was re: many aspects of our education. Some I hope to discuss in the future, but for the moment I will review our gym class.

I chose to write about this topic based on an article I saw this morning on TV about ‘cocooning yoga’. This is an anti-gravitational yoga that suspends you in a sheet hanging from a ceiling…very ‘Cirque de Soleil’. I was fascinated. I’m a big fan of all kinds of yoga. The thought of all the wondrous types of self-awareness & fitness modes that are available to us today made me smile when thinking of our early childhood physical fitness regime. It was almost non-existent, but not so bad either.

Our school’s basement was an all-purpose activity center. As I mentally retrace my footsteps down the stairs to the basement, there’s a kitchen to my right, utility closet to the left and ahead was our hall. The hall had a small stage with curtains for our plays/performances. A small room to the left of the stage was transformed to a library. The floor was marble, pebble-y beige with brass dividers inset to outline each 3 foot square block.

This brings us to our gym class. We had a volunteer physical ed. teacher who was also mom to a classmate. We would have gym class once a week with Mrs. L. ‘Take a square’ is how remember it. Quietly we would stand in formation. Marching music played on a record player and off we went with swinging arms, standing straight, taking deep breaths and marching around the room as our form of aerobic exercise. Stretching and twisting was always good to get the kinks out. This was for bad weather. On a good day we would be moved out of doors. Sometimes there’d be dodge ball, a jumping jack or two and occasionally a walk around the block. It was nice to get off school grounds, a real novelty.

I know we would roll our eyes a bit at this primitive gym class…that is when the nuns weren’t looking! This really wasn’t too different from the Jack LaLanne show except without the chair for balance & his trusty sidekick ‘Sarge’, a German Shepard. Now as I look back, these basics are still in place. It is recommended that we go outside, get some fresh air, stretch, twist, stand tall for good spine alignment and relax to music. Come to think of it, it’s not that different from basic yoga. Go figure!

Cathy