IN THE CLASSROOM -- No pain, no grade

Danette Goulet

* IN THE CLASSROOM is a weekly feature in which Daily Pilot education

reporter Danette Goulet visits a campus within the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District and writes about her experience.

Children screeched in exaggerated pain as they sat on squares of carpet

laid out on the asphalt at Killybrooke Elementary School in Costa Mesa.

The source of their torture: stretching as far they could.

The length of their stretches were measured against a strange wooden box

-- gym teacher John Carpenter sat in his Hawaiian shirt and wide-brimmed

hat, taking notes on his clipboard.

At first glance, this was not the sort of gym class I remember. What

happened to gymnastics, kickball and soccer? I wondered if physical

education had just become a time to work out and not a time to play.

My mind was put at ease when I discovered the stretching exercise was

part of the state fitness testing program. The students had run the mile

the week before. That, I remember.

As the fifth-grade boys tested their flexibility, the girls played double

Dutch and giggled.

The occasional brave, little soul wandered over to check on the boys’

progress, saying she could do better and gasping at the groans of “it

hurts, it hurts.”

When it was the girls’ turn to stretch, they obligingly squealed in

supposed agony, although few of them had any difficulty reaching the

mark.

Next on the fitness test were push-ups. This time, the difficulty was

much more genuine.

There seems to be some sort of elasticity problem in children. No one

could keep their back straight. Either their stomachs were on the ground

and their shoulders up, or they were completely arched, an upside-down

“V” with their behinds in the air. Others appeared to be break dancing --

doing the “caterpillar” on the ground.

Each student had to do seven or eight push-ups, depending on their age.

If they didn’t make it, they could try again in two weeks.

The boys began with grunts, groans and lots of grumbling.

I guess push-ups are difficult when you have skinny, 10-year-old arms.

The theatrics were full-blown, however, when it was the girls’ turn and

the boys headed off to start a game of basketball.

With drama, the girls pleaded that they just couldn’t do it.

One precocious child screamed at the top of her lungs the entire time she

was doing her push-ups. That is, until Carpenter told her that he could

not count the push-ups if she was screaming.

I’m sure that when she stopped expending that extra energy, the push-ups

were much easier.

At least half of the girls opted not to even try the push-ups, apparently

planning to bulk up in the two weeks before the makeup test.

With the testing out of the way, the students were suddenly full of

energy and life and went back to playing basketball and double Dutch.

FYI

* WHO: Fifth-grade students

* WHERE: Killybrooke Elementary School

* WHAT: Gym class

* DAY’S EVENT: State physical fitness testing